Review: LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

Well what a show for Artistic Director Tim Sheader to bow out on. Since 2007, Sheader has made Regent's Park Open Air Theatre a real theatrical destination and his revival of musical La Cage Aux Folles is gloriously frothy, deeply funny and completely fabulous.

Based on Jean Poiret’s 1973 play, the show tells the story of couple; Georges, owner of the Saint-Tropez nightclub, and drag queen Albin, the club’s star performer. When Georges’ son, Jean-Michel, announces his engagement to Anne, the daughter of a hard-right politician, fallout is inevitable.

Billy Carter's Georges is the perfect compère; slightly jaded but always on form. Gentle, with a sharper edge, he brings realism to the role. Carl Mullaney would take the roof off, if there was one, as drag queen Albin. His rendition of the queer anthem "I Am What I Am" is brimming with emotion and shows the deep hurt and vulnerability he feels at the situation more than any of his spoken words. Their duet "With You on My Arm" is touching and convincing.

Many of the smaller parts do some heavy lifting; Jak Allen-Anderson is wonderful as whip-cracking Cagelle Hanna, Shakeel Kimotho has a ball as bitchy butler Jacob and Hemi Yeroham is both sweet and very funny as exasperated stage manager Francis.

The ensemble carry much of the show, performing Stephen Mear's witty and challenging choreography with boundless energy. The can-can performance at the end of Act One is one of the best routines I have seen in recent years.

Ryan Dawson Laight's costumes and Guy Common's make up are totally spectacular, with a particular highlight of Albin tottering about with a lit chandelier as a hat. Colin Richmond's thoughtful set design shows all the glitz and glamour of the stage, but looking more carefully, you see the peeling wallpaper and damp patches in the corners. This sense of fatigue is carried on by the thoughtful additions of wigless drag queens and wardrobe mistresses smoking and drinking on the sidelines.

Quick and clever changes bring us into Albin and George's maximalism home and Jacqueline's restaurant and Howard Hudson puts on a spectacular light show under the stars.

In outdoor venues, sound can often be an issue, but Nick Lidster's sound design compliments Ben Van Tienen's on stage musical direction perfectly, so the music soars. 

It is not perfect; the female roles are woefully underwritten, Anne and her family are rather flimsy parodies and the energy of the second half dips after the raucous action of the first section. However, all these concerns seem to melt away in the sheer spectacle of the show.

Forty years ago, when Harvey Fierstein and Jerry Herman launched La Cage Aux Folles on Broadway, the world was a much more difficult place if you were deemed to be in any way "different". Although we still have a very long way to go, LGBTQ+ rights and positive attitudes towards any kind of difference are now, thankfully, becoming part of the mainstream. While this production no longer may shock, it certainly thrills.

La Cage Aux Folles is at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre until 23 September

Photo credit: Johan Persson

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