LA CAGE - The Best Cast Yet?

[broadwaybroadway2]

Posted: 3/30/11 at 10:35am

I would say that Harvey Fierstein - who wrote the book (!) - is the best Zaza I've ever seen. Ben Brantley certainly was in favor. You should all catch Harvey in his limited run in the role he wrote! It's beautiful...

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 3/30/11 at 11:03am

I caught the first cast and this cast and I think they are pretty equal. I honestly couldn't say any one of them was weaker than another. They are all terrific in a beautifully realized production. Graham Norton was probably the weakest of the three Zazas I've seen, but the direction was strong enough to pull him through a solid performance. I will say Look Over There was best in London, though. It moved me to tears. I've seen this production three times now and previously, I was never a fan of the show.

[rorschach37]

Posted: 3/30/11 at 1:09pm

Harvey's run is only limited?

[Dollypop]

Posted: 3/30/11 at 7:06pm

>>>"I would say that Harvey Fierstein - who wrote the book (!) - is the best Zaza I've ever seen."<<<

Pray tell, how many Zaza's have you seen?

[Ryguy7]

Posted: 3/30/11 at 11:32pm

I just caught this show last night..

I really liked Harvey and Christopher. I thought Harvey was wonderful with the acting - incredible actually, but I liked Douglas Hodge musically better.

Wilson Jermaine however was horrible.

Chris Sieber is adorable.

I hope it continues to do well, though sadly the theatre was relatively empty..

RY

[Blockhead24]

Posted: 3/30/11 at 11:37pm

Ryguy, I was there tonight and couldn't agree more. Loved Christopher and Harvey but Wilson Jermaine Heredia is so bad it was painful.

[jv92]

Posted: 3/31/11 at 3:14pm

Okay, please forgive me, but I thought Douglas Hodge was campy and annoying as Albin. Harvey's not much of a singer, but he brought such pathos and humanity to the part, that I couldn't help but love him. I wouldn't call him the greatest Albin/Zaza of all time, but he was excellent.

[ruthiefan_felix]

Posted: 3/31/11 at 4:45pm

I never saw Douglas as Zaza on Broadway but I did see him in London 3 times and also John Barrowman. Harvey was good in his protrayal but I didn't think he had the details that Douglas brought to the role. Harvey was more warm and cosy with his audiences, but for me, Douglas or even John's Zaza is not about wanting the audiences to like them, but to show the problems Albin faces behind Zaza.
I liked Harvey, I truly did. I was surprised how well his voice was and you can see he had a lot of work done to train up his voice. But I was still unimpressed how much of the tunes are lost from his singing. My friend went along with me and he has never heard of the score and whenever Harvey sings, he losts all sense of lyric or tune and is tempted to fall asleep.
I saw Chris Noth as Georges and he was fantastic. Very charming, very loving and believable as Harvey's partner. As for the rest of the cast, they're all good and of course the Cagelles were brilliant too. I'm not sure if this was because it's on Broadway or I haven't seen the show for too long, even though the Cagelles are still quite manly compared to the OBC, they're relatively more feminine than any of the Cagelles I've seen in London.
I was kinda sad to see the show not selling as well as it should. Maybe there's no 'star' to drag people in. It's a heart-warming production and I love it very much, so I hope people can continue to go watch it.

[bryan2]

Posted: 3/31/11 at 7:10pm

Having seen the original way back when it previewed in Boston and this revival with Douglas Hodge and Kelsey Grammer I went yesterday and got a ticket to see Harvey and Chris....I was stunned..WHY THE HELL DID THEY NOT THINK OF HARVEY BEFORE.
I know he wrote it and his singing isnt great but he was off the chain good. Chris was his equal and when he sang it was beautiful ,,I still think that Douglas Hodge was the best ZAZA but Harvey was liking watching a comedy class he was just amazing and the chemistry between he and Chris was electric..LOVED LOVED LOVED IT!!!! I am still smiling today !!
I liked the original but never loved it ...I LOVE THIS REVIVAL
if I lived in NYC I would go every week LOL

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/17/11 at 9:54am

What an extraordinary experience that was last night. The intimacy of the production is matched by the intimacy of the Georges/Albin relationship created onstage by Harvey Fierstein and Christopher Sieber, who really do seem like a gay couple of 20 years.

The Cagelles are wonderful and the Jacob, one of the understudies named Christophe Caballero, was a scream.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 4/17/11 at 10:25am

I should re-visit this before it closes. I hated Douglas Hodge and found his performance very overrated, his facial expressions were amateur-ish and his projection was awful, and his accent was so thick I could barely understand him. I'm still in shock that he won any awards for his performance.
I'm sure that this cast is much better than the original because they are true Broadway professionals that can act, sing and project.

[dragonlp86]

Posted: 4/17/11 at 10:56am

See, I saw Douglas and Kelsey and thought they were wonderful. Not the OMG BEST THING EVER, but great. Douglas had just enough camp to add even more humour to what was already a funny show. I would LOVE, however, to see Sieber in the role of Georges. It's a shame I'm not getting into the city until a month later. I'd have snapped up a seat just like that.