‘La Cage’ is a wonderful night at the theatre as you’d expect from one of the best shows ever made in one of the best venues in London.
Pray for no rain as ‘La Cage’ is playing at Regents Park Open Air Theatre. We were invited to press night on a drizzly evening but unfortunately the show was stopped halfway through due to the rain becoming heavy, so were invited back to what was luckily a beautiful night.
‘La Cage’ goes back to 1978 with the original French film version and was then turned into a successful Tony winning Broadway show in 1984, written by and starring Harvey Fierstein. The 1996 film, starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane, cemented the cult status of the story. And now back n London in 15 years is this show that you definitely don’t want to miss.
Billy Carter is just simply divine and superb as Georges, nightclub impresario of nightclub La Cage. He is also husband to Albin – a/k/a Zaza (Carl Mullaney), star and diva of said nightclub. Their son Jeam Michel (Ben Culleton) has returned home to let ‘his parents’ know he’s getting married – to a woman – gasp! While Georges and Albines’ world of showbiz is always full of drama, the marriage drama is just too much to take, especially when Jean Michel mentions that his bride to be is the daughter of the very conservative Edward Dindon (John Owens-Jones).
But when Georges tells Albin he has to disappear when the Dindons visit so as not to give their ‘secret’ away – more drama then your mama suddenly comes up and it’s almost too much to take for Albin, all this amongst the sequins, songs and glamour right at your feet.
Carter owns the show as Georges – he’s a natural and looks oh so comfortable in his role, and sings beautifully. The rest of the cast are good but we were hoping they’d be better than good (a couple are cartoon-like cut-outs). The dancing girls are fabulous as is the set and costumes, and right down to the very last kick of a keg you’ll thoroughly enjoy yourself – just pray for no rain on the night you’re seeing it.