The Fall of La Cage

There is nothing better in the world than a good drag show; La Cage Aux Folles showing at the prestigious Toby's Baltimore Dinner Theatre is definitely not one of them. I have seen better drag shows walking around Mt. Vernon. I love good theatre, I also love good controversial theatre; however, if you are going to do a show like "La Cage"  there are a few things that are essential to pull it off. The most important of these and what is actually basic in any musical theatre production is good music and good acting; both of which were missing from this production of "La Cage". The opening number, "We are what we are" should be a stunning display of crisp unity in voice and visual presence. This song encapsulates the theme of the entire production honoring the message of acceptance and passion that is La Cage Aux Folles. In this production the Les Cagelles fail to deliver this message. The exceptionally poor performance of this number was the best round of "We are what we are" that I have ever heard. The voices were fighting against each other and the audience lost.

The second most important factor in a show of this caliber is sexy men, which this show did not produce. The football players that happened to be cast in this show were brute and husky; definitely not what you would find at a French drag club. The main cast of characters was equally revolting. Larry Munsey's portrayal of Zsa Zsa/Albin was clearly a Nathan Lane meets Harvey Fierstein meets Divine with schizophrenia. Munsey's vocal styling made the Spinach Phunk sound good.  The relationship between Zsa Zsa and her seemingly homophobic husband, Georges, was completely unbelievable. The recited lines and lack of connectedness by the actors in this show was obvious. Choreography was taken directly out of the 59th Tony's Performance in 2005; a complete lack of creativity.

A show that contains such eccentric characters must only be performed by true actors who can bring authenticity to these roles.  Director Eric J. Potter's directorial debut at Toby's is hopefully his last. What BroadwayWorld.com calls a "don't want to miss impressive production" is surely an overstatement which will lead to an inevitably depressing solo by Potter of "Where did we go wrong?"