Todd McKenney (Albin) and Simon Burke (Georges) Image: The Production Company
Apart from offering a thoroughly good time to audiences who enjoy top-tapping musicals, The Production Company’s remit to revive the past hits of musical theatre gives interesting insight into what survives the test of time.
One might think that the story of a man avoiding both the law and commitment to a woman (Guys and Dolls) is as relevant as it ever was while the tale of a same sex couple dealing with prejudice by pretending to be what they are not (La Cage Aux Folles) would seem dated given the strides we have made in our attitudes to sexual preference in the past 40 years.
In fact the reverse is true. While The Production Company’s last show Guys and Dolls was tired, La Cage Aux Folles is still funny and tender and absolutely worth a night at that theatre.
Perhaps all this is merely proof that when it comes to musicals the story doesn’t really matter – it comes down to the quality of the book, the tunefulness of the songs and most of all, the ability of the performers to carry us along.
In the case of La Cage much depends on the performances of the lead couple – drag queen Albin (Todd McKenney) and his devoted life partner Georges (Simon Burke). Georges is the impressario of the eponymous nightclub while Albin is his star act, drag queen Zsa Zsa. The couple who live above the nightclub are also the parents of Jean-Michel (Robert Tripolino), Georges’ biologically through a brief encounter with the ever-afterward-absent mother and Albin’s by virtue of having raised the boy. The set piece for the comedy is that Jean-Michel has become engaged to Anne (Emily Milledge), daughter of deeply conservative politician Edouard Dindon (Gary Sweet) and his wife Marie (Marg Downey). The furiously anti-homosexual couple are coming to dinner in the flat above the club and Jean-Michel is desperate to present an image of his family that will meet with their approval.
Albin is the plum role. He must play both the deliciously over-the-top Zsa Zsa for comedy and allow us to see the depth of love and hurt of the real man. McKenney is fabulous. He is clearly enjoying himself magnificently and his audience cannot fail to do the same. But while most of the cast plays pretty much completely for comedy he gives us just enough tender underbelly to remind us of the human heart beyond the laughs. We never stop smiling but nor are we fooled into thinking these are mere types whose lives do not matter.
As his straight man – sorry – Simon Burke took a little time to get into his stride on opening night but once he did the trademark charisma cut in and he proved a fine foil for McKenney and a charming companion for the audience as he carried us through the narrative. We even felt a little sorry for him as he tried to balance the incompatible demands of the son he loves and the man to whom he is devoted.
All of this takes place within a context that is thoroughly frothy and enormously fun. Having cut the sugar with a little lemon in his superb stars, director Dean Bryant is free to let everybody else go to town on the comedy. Grabbing this opportunity with both hands is Albin’s maid Jacob, played in the highest camp possible by Aljin Abella. He is definitely a comic talent to watch.
The gorgeous Cagelles, the drag queens of the club, are also young talent to watch – if you can take your eyes of their extraordinary legs. They are all talented singers and dancers, extremely well choreographed and trained by choreographer Andrew Hallsworth and musical director Matthew Frank. Gary Sweet is a suitably hateable conservative politician and Marg Downey in the bit part of Marie Dindon must get a special mention for the way she channels Janette Howard.
The Production Company always operates on a shoestring. Artistic Director Ken Mackenzie-Forbes said at opening night that Chairman Jeanne Pratt had been asking for years when the Company would take on La Cage and he had answered, ‘When we can afford the costumes, the wigs and the shoes’. The costumes and wigs are great – a cut above what the Company usually manages and necessarily so. They lift this production to a level of polish that really adds to the experience.
They are matched by a clever and witty set that works well in the space. The Production Company, which usually performs in the large State Theatre, has been forced into the Playhouse because Opera Australia has dibs on the larger venue. This turns out to be a great advantage, with a stage much better suited to the size of the company. It allows the show to really fill the theatre. No doubt economics will determine whether it happens again as The Company is doing more performances to meet demand in a smaller theatre. But it is certainly something that should be considered again.
La Cage Aux Folles is a great show and this is a very good rendition indeed, possibly the best The Production Company has done. Given the modest price of their tickets, it must rank as the best value night at the theatre to be had.
La Cage Aux Folles
The Production Company
Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne
Starring Todd McKenney and Simon Burke
21 November – 7 December
Tickets
