La Cage on Video
The members of the creative team recall how terrified they were at the first tryout preview in Boston, with Herman repeating the oft-told story of the moment they realized their show would be universal: During "Song on the Sand," a love song sung by one man to another, a middle-aged, typically Bostonian husband and wife began to hold hands. Brown recalls that librettist Harvey Fierstein sobbed so much during that first preview that he had to be subdued so as not to disturb those around him.
After noting that he said yes to the show because he thought it would never happen, director Laurents states that he was determined not to have any camp or stereotypes in his production. He believes it to be a "very political piece," but says that it's so entertaining that people don't realize it's that political. Laurents neatly sums up the show's themes by saying it's about love and about a twenty-year marriage threatened by a thoughtless child.
Herman believes that the show "asks everyone not to be afraid of whatever they happen to be." Producer Holt says the show is the largest that's ever been on the road. Curtis discusses the difficulties of performing the number "A Little More Mascara." And Brown notes that it was Laurents's idea to put two women in the line of men in drag known as Les Cagelles.
The November 15, 1984 one-hour episode of TV's "The Merv Griffin Show" was a salute to La Cage, honoring the Los Angeles production then playing at the Pantages Theatre. Gene Barry repeated his Broadway role of Georges in L.A., and he opens the program with the opening lines of the show, introducing Les Cagelles for the opening number, "We Are What We Are." For the "Merv" show, things have been abridged, and the number of Cagelles reduced to six. Still, there are two costume changes during the number. Of the six Cagelles, two are women, and one of those women turns out to be Cady Huffman.
After stating in an interview that the show teaches us caring for fellow human beings, Barry sings his big solo, "Song on the Sand." That's followed by the arrival of Allan Carr, who was also the producer of the hugely successful film version of Grease. Carr recalls seeing the non-musical play La Cage in Paris, requesting the rights to make an American film version with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, and learning that David Merrick held those rights. He also describes George Hearn's audition for the show, with the actor winning everyone over by singing "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" in drag.
Walter Charles, who understudied Hearn on Broadway, got the part of Albin in L.A. and later on Broadway, and Charles appears next to sing a dragless but intense "I Am What I Am." In his interview, Charles recalls getting the chance to go on in New York for a star who rarely missed performances.
The final guest is Jerry Herman, who says that La Cage was his easiest show because he, Fierstein, and Laurents thought as one. Herman sings the title song, then everyone joins in for "The Best of Times."
Walter Charles got a better showcase on the 1984 Grammy Awards telecast, which had him in full drag performing the first act finale. The number was set up with the scene that precedes it, with Jamie Ross taking the role of Georges. Ross was Barry's standby and later took over the role on Broadway. Charles gets to do a bit of "We Are What We Are" with the Cagelles, then break downs, ordering them off stage. After an impassioned delivery of "I Am What I Am" in the red wig and blue dress, he rips the wig off, storming off the stage and up the aisle.
Of course, there's the 1984 Tony Awards show, which saw La Cage triumph over its chief competition, Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park With George. The La Cage musical excerpt --"We Are What We Are"/"I Am What I Am," with Les Cagelles and a drag-free Hearn-- is available on the recently released Broadway's Lost Treasures II DVD and VHS.
But that Tony show is probably best remembered for the speech delivered by Herman upon winning for his La Cage score. Herman remarked, "This award forever shatters a myth about the musical theatre. There's been a rumor around for a couple of years that the simple, hummable show tune was no longer welcome on Broadway. Well, it's alive and well at the Palace."
That comment was interpreted by many as a direct slap at Sondheim, in particular at the intricate, complex compositional style evident in Sunday. But I think it's helpful to recall that Herman had experienced three big flops ---Dear World, Mack and Mabel, and The Grand Tour--- before his comeback with La Cage. So I would suggest that Herman's comments were more a product of his being overjoyed to be back in the blockbuster business.
Fierstein had won two Tonys for Torch Song Trilogy in 1983, and he wins again in '84 for his La Cage book. He thanks Laurents and Herman for showing him how to write a musical, and his lover Scott, for typing everything up late at night. When director Laurents wins his award for direction, he calls La Cage "the most joyous and affectionate experience I've ever had in the theatre," and gives particular thanks to producer Fritz Holt, who was also the show's production stage manager.
Accepting his award, Hearn gets a good laugh by opening his remarks with, "What some people won't do...." He thanks costumer Theoni V. Aldredge who also won a Tony that night but was not present to accept it for demonstrating that "the clothes make the man." And he admits that Scott Salmon "joins the long and illustrous list of choreographers I have brought to tears." La Cage choreographer Scott Salmon was robbed of a Tony. Interestingly, Hearn fails to single out for mention his co-star, Gene Barry.
The evening ends with Michael Bennett presenting the Best Musical Award to La Cage, and producer Alan Carr thanking Jean Poiret, the playwright who created the characters, and noting how perseverance paid off.
As Broadway's new smash, all of the entertainment-related TV programs wanted La Cage, and I must have taped at least a dozen short features, all with footage from the show. "2 on the Town" covered the pre-opening period. Here, Gene Barry notes that he and Hearn had certain problems taking on gay characters; Barry says he was able to deal with it simply as "a wonderful role."
Speaking to Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show," however, Barry says he had no problem taking the role. He says he got his children's approval, with his daughter maintaining that he could even have played the more feminine of the two leading characters. Carson notes that a play about homosexuals and transvestites probably could not have been done twenty years earlier. Barry prefaces a rendition of "Song on the Sand" by saying it's the first time a love song has been sung on Broadway from one man to another.
Barbara Walters and "20/20" focused on Herman's career, and provided "for the first time on national television" an extended clip of Hearn, on stage at the Palace, in the first-act finale.
"Entertainment Tonight" covered the Boston tryout then later promoted the opening of the first tour, at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco, where the show got a partly restaged finale. The co-stars are Walter Charles and Keith Michell; when the tour moved on to its second stop, in L.A., Barry stepped in to replace Michell and reprise his Georges.
"PM Magazine" focused on Fierstein as the first openly gay star and author of a Broadway play. Fierstein says his goal in writing is to allow the audience to leave the theatre feeling less alone. "PM Magazine" returned to La Cage with a backstage feature on the San Francisco company.
Sue Simmons on "Live at 5" interviewed Herman, who said that "A Little More Mascara" is, for him, the most satisfying number in the show. He returns to the notion that Broadway in the previous ten years hadn't been hearing extractable show tunes, and that his greatest satisfaction is listening to the audience singing on the way out of La Cage.
Although the London production of La Cage, which co-starred Hearn and Denis Quilley, went unrecorded, its cast got to perform several sequences on English television. On the 1986 Olivier Awards, Quilley appears to deliver the opening lines of the show, bringing on Les Cagelles for an abridged version of the opening number.
More valuable are the excerpts from the London production on a "Christmas Night of 100 Stars" TV program. Here, with full sets and costumes, Hearn and Les Cagelles perform the title number, including the can-can sequence, then "The Best of Times," with Hearn, Quilley, and all the other principals present.
Easily the longest televised La Cage excerpt comes from Australia, where the complete scene and number "Masculinity" was aired, right off the stage of Her Majesty's Theatre in Sydney.
But my favorite European La Cage video excerpt comes from the 1986 Theater des Westens, Berlin production, with artistic director and star Helmut Baumann in a thrilling "Ich Bin, Was Ich Bin."