JerryHerman.com

The Rave Reviews Are In!

Associated Press:

A Riotous 'La Cage Aux Folles' Returns to B'way

NEW YORK (AP) -- Is there a more appealing, entertaining argument for motherhood than ''La Cage aux Folles''? Especially when mother is a quixotic, neurotic but undeniably goodhearted drag queen played by Douglas Hodge, who, by the way, is giving the most exuberant musical-comedy performance of the season.
Hodge is the primary reason this riotously funny and, yes, emotionally affecting revival of the Jerry Herman-Harvey Fierstein musical has returned to Broadway only five years after its last New York appearance. Yet there is more to the show than Hodge's star-making performance.
''La Cage,'' which opened Sunday at Broadway's Longacre Theatre, has been imaginatively reconceived by director Terry Johnson, who first directed it at London's tiny Menier Chocolate Factory. The Longacre is bigger but still is one of Broadway's smaller houses, so this is an intimate, vest-pocket ''La Cage.''
The orchestra is perched high in little boxes on either side of the stage and a row of tables sits in front of the stage to give the musical the feeling of actually taking place in that notorious Saint-Tropez night spot known as La Cage aux Folles.
This den of sparkle dust, bugle beads, ankle straps, maribou, ostrich plumes and Shalimar (to quote from Herman's stylish, easy-on-the ear lyrics) is presided over by Georges (Kelsey Grammer of ''Frasier'' fame) and Albin (Hodge), two longtime lovers who own and perform in the club.
Grammer has a surprisingly sturdy singing voice and an ingratiating stage manner, just right for the calm -- well, relatively calm -- voice of reason in the chorus of quirky, high-spirited characters who populate Fierstein's plot of filial devotion.
For those who came in late, the story concerns a dustup over Georges' son, Jean-Michel, conceived long ago during an indiscreet one-night stand. Now the young man (A.J. Shively) wants to bring home his fiancee and her parents, but his prospective father-in-law is head of the Tradition, Family and Morality Party. Jean-Michel wants the flamboyant Albin kept under wraps, so to speak, during the visit, even though the man raised him as his own.
Flamboyant may be too mild an adjective. One of the delights of Hodge's performance is his joyous, music-hall rowdy portrayal of Albin's on-stage drag persona, Zaza. In one of Zaza's most delicious impersonations, Hodge resembles a slightly gone-to-seed Marilyn Monroe during her ''Seven-Year Itch'' period. The actor has embroidered the role vocally, too, at one point channeling not only Edith Piaf but Marlene Dietrich as well.
Herman's score is his most atmospheric and that's saying something since the man also wrote ''Hello, Dolly!'' and ''Mame.'' The songs for ''La Cage'' ooze Gallic charm, unabashed romance and melodies that are impossible to get out of your head. Try not singing ''The Best of Times'' in the shower. Impossible.
The club setting is more appropriately downscale than in the musical's two previous Broadway incarnations. And so are Les Cagelles, the chorus of female impersonators who entertain with Zaza. These guys are equal parts naughty and tawdry, particularly Nicholas Cunningham who portrays the whip-cracking Hanna from Hamburg. They perform Lynne Page's ambitiously athletic choreography with abandon.
The supporting cast offers delirious comic support -- from Robin De Jesus as a Googie Gomez-inspired domestic who attends Albins' every whim to Fred Applegate and Veanne Cox as the girl's bewildered parents.
When ''La Cage aux Folles'' originally opened on Broadway in 1983, gay marriage was not on the horizon. At the time, Fierstein's book was considered groundbreaking for depicting a long-term gay relationship in all its domestic normalcy. In the nearly three decades since then, the idea of gay marriage is a reality, at least in some places.
These days, Georges and Albin could be considered just another old married couple, yet their story as told in ''La Cage'' could not be more timely and enjoyable.

New York Times:

Squint, and the World Is Beautiful

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Douglas Hodge, here with the Cagelles, plays the star of a transvestite revue in the Broadway revival of “La Cage aux Folles.”

Their plumage is wilting, their wigs are askew, and their bustiers keep slipping south to reveal unmistakably masculine chests. Yet the ladies of the chorus from “La Cage aux Folles” have never looked more appealing than they do in the warm, winning production that opened Sunday night at the Longacre Theater.
Terry Johnson’s inspired revival of Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein’s musical, starring a happily mismatched Kelsey Grammer and Douglas Hodge (in a bravura Broadway debut), delivers the unexpected lesson that in theater, shabby can be not just chic but redemptive. This deliberately disheveled show, incubated at the tiny hit-spawning Menier Chocolate Factory in London, is a far cry from the high-gloss original production of 1983 or the glamorous, soulless revival that opened less than six years ago.
The Riviera nightclub of the title — run by Georges (Mr. Grammer) and the setting for a popular racy transvestite revue starring his partner, Albin (Mr. Hodge) — looks as if it could do with a coat of paint and perhaps a delousing. Georges, whose dapper evening jacket is definitely not bespoke, has a worn-down, worn-out appearance. And no matter how much rouge and mascara Albin applies, the dumpy, jowly chanteuse he becomes onstage will never resemble the screen siren of his mind’s eye.
As for the Cagelles, the revue’s scrappy six-member corps de ballet (pared down by half from their last Broadway incarnation), let’s just say that even the most myopic club patron isn’t going to mistake them for real live girls. “We are what we are, and what we are is an illusion,” they sing in gravelly chorus in their opening number. But the deception being peddled so adroitly here isn’t one of mistaken sexual identity.
What makes this version work — transforming a less-than-great musical into greatly affecting entertainment — is its insistence on the saving graces of the characters’ illusions about themselves and, by extension, the illusions of the production in which they appear. As presented here “La Cage” is (you should pardon the expression) a fairy tale, a sweet, corny story that asks us to take people (the good-hearted ones, anyway) at their own valuation.
Try to see it their way, the show suggests; squint hard, and life at this dump will appear, for a second, beautiful. The old-fashioned, feel-good musical (which “La Cage” defiantly is, for better or worse) has always demanded such leaps of faith from its audience. Mr. Johnson’s interpretation coaxes a parallel between the willful make-believe happening onstage and our willingness to subscribe to it. The show’s very plot, we come to realize, is the triumph of musical-theater logic over reality.
That plot, described baldly, is still hard to swallow without gagging, as are some of Mr. Herman’s saccharine-crusted numbers. Adapted from Jean Poiret’s play, the basis for the popular 1978 French film (which Mike Nichols successfully remade in English as “The Birdcage” in 1996), “La Cage” could easily be titled “Jean-Michel Has Two Daddies.”
The sitcom setup is that the rather priggish Jean-Michel (A. J. Shively), sired by Georges (via a one-night stand with a chorus girl) and brought up by Georges and Albin, does not want to bring his fiancée home to mother. Anne (Elena Shaddow), his betrothed, is the daughter of M. Dindon (Fred Applegate), an ultra-right-wing politician who espouses, above all, traditional family values. The anxious Jean-Michel demands that Albin disappear on the night that the Dindons (rounded out by Veanne Cox as the repressed mother) come to dinner.
The ensuing turmoil and resolution can be summed up in the declaration: “Family values? I’ll show you family values!” (You’ve heard that before, right? You certainly have if you’ve been to the new “Addams Family” musical, which lamentably recycles the same idea.) The sentiments are laudable, but the expression of them (despite the French setting) is as apple-pie-sticky as those of an Andy Hardy movie.
I can’t say that Mr. Fierstein’s by-the-numbers book goes out of its way to make this medicinal sugar go down more easily. As written, the characters are either adorably cute or abrasively cartoonish, and often both. The show still takes at least 10 minutes too many to arrive at its predetermined conclusion. Yet I don’t think you’ll become restless at this production.
That’s partly because of the stylish yin and yang of its stars. Mr. Grammer (yes, the one from “Cheers” and “Frasier”) and Mr. Hodge (a multifaceted veteran of the London stage), play it straight and bent, respectively, in equally disarming ways. Albin has always been a natural-born showstopper. But Mr. Hodge, who originated the part in the London revival, brings a fluttery hyperintensity to the role that recharges it.
His Albin has absorbed a host of influences, including Edith Piaf, Marilyn Monroe and, especially, the female impersonators of the British music hall. And he has combined these disparate elements into a jittery defense system that is on (and I mean on) at all times.
You don’t realize how much pain and anger have gone into this self-construction until you hear him do “I Am What I Am,” the show’s signature anthem, at the end of the first act. Mr. Hodge breathes fire here, his hitherto scratchy, campy voice growing into a white-hot blaze. It is — and who’d a thunk it? — the most electric interpretation of a song on Broadway right now.
Mr. Grammer provides the ideal counterpoint to this hysterical creature, in a cool, modest performance that has its own sneaky charm. That his singing voice is correspondingly quiet, with no muscle-flexing baritone bravado, makes Georges’s over-ripe sentimental ballads (“Look Over There,” “Song on the Sand”) palatable and even touching in their unaffected sincerity.
The rapport between him and Mr. Hodge, grounded in the peppery give and take of a vaudeville team, reminds us that there’s a necessary dash of showbiz to marriage. Like many couples, Georges and Albin have created their own private mise-en-scène and extended it to embrace a theatrical family that includes an over-the-top butler cum maid (Robin de Jesús, from “In the Heights”) and the vain restaurateur next door (Christine Andreas).
The design team — Tim Shortall (sets), Matthew Wright (costumes), Nick Richings (lighting), Jonathan Deans (sound) and Richard Mawbey (wigs and makeup) — have brought this insular world to physical life with wonderful seediness And the athletic production numbers, choreographed to embrace manly clunkiness by Lynne Page, are a tacky delight, especially that slipshod beach-ball number.
In another context these down-at-heel people who live on their illusions might be pathetic. But don’t worry. This is not “La Cage” as “The Iceman Cometh.” Even tripping over themselves, the Cagelles exude the raw pleasure of people being exactly who they want to be. That’s showbiz, folks. And when Albin leads the company in a beaming version of “The Best of Times,” a song that usually gives me hives, you’re likely to feel that a cramped, decrepit nightclub has become the coziest sanctuary in the world.

Variety

La Cage aux Folles
By STEVEN SUSKIN

Kelsey Grammer essays the role of the host in 'La Cage aux Folles.
Image credit: Joan Marcus

Why bring back "La Cage aux Folles" -- a major hit musical of the 1983-84 Broadway season, but certainly not a classic like "Gypsy" or "Fiddler on the Roof" -- only five years after its first Broadway revival? Especially when that 2004-05 stint proved a tired and unnecessary affair, suggesting that the original production (with its six Tony Awards) was stronger than the material. The producers of this new edition, which premiered at London's Menier Chocolate Factory in 2007, have a convincing answer: It's funny, heartwarming and terrific.
"La Cage" is the Jerry Herman-Harvey Fierstein musical in which one of the stars memorably confesses that when the going gets tough he simply puts on a little more mascara. Director Terry Johnson succeeds so well here by putting on both more and less mascara simultaneously. More mascara by letting Douglas Hodge, in the guise of the flamboyant drag-queen Albin (aka Zaza), play the role like, well, more of a flamboyant drag-queen than in prior major productions. Less mascara in that this is a stripped-down, mid-budget production; all those sequins and all that glitz that characterized Broadway's prior visits to St. Tropez have been toned down, allowing the audience to concentrate more on the tender and relatively simple story at the heart of the piece. (But not simplistic; "La Cage" is a masterpiece of dramaturgy compared to the similarly plotted musical they made out of "The Addams Family.")
The heart of the piece: that's what we get in this "La Cage," and that's what makes Johnson's production so tenderly affecting. The original -- acknowledging the socio-political temper of the times -- seemed to go to great lengths to present its leading men as not actually a (sexual) couple. The first revival, for offstage reasons, seemed to feature leading men who actively hated each other. Here, finally, we have a realistic and believable pair who have been devotedly living with each other for a quarter century. And that makes "La Cage" more emotionally effective than before.
The producers are fortunate to have imported Hodge, who won an Olivier for this role. He comes on looking and acting like Colleen Dewhurst playing farce, and proceeds to offer a performance at once grandly over-the-top (in the first act) and emotionally grabbing (in the second). The surprise of the evening comes from Kelsey Grammer as Georges. He plays the comedy and acts the host perfectly well, but in "Song on the Sand" and "Look Over There" he gets to the heart: Here is a man earnestly and enduringly in love.
Supporting cast is almost uniformly excellent, led by fine comedians Fred Applegate (as the right-wing zealot of a prospective in-law) and Veanne Cox (as his not-so-straightlaced wife). A.J. Shively plays the son Jean-Michel with more spirit and less plasticity than usual, as does Elena Shaddow (Fanny to Applegate's Panisse in the recent Encores production of that other French Mediterranean musical, "Fanny"). The big-voiced Christine Andreas is all but invisible in the role of restaurateur Jacqueline, while Robin De Jesus -- who was a prime asset in "In the Heights" -- seems to have wandered into the wrong musical as the maid-butler Jacob. Les Cagelles of the affair make a prime sextuplet; each and every one of them enhances the evening's entertainment value.
Choreographer Lynne Page keeps those Cagelles amusingly busy, whipping the title song to a delightful frenzy, while the U.K. design team's compact but effective production perfectly suits the directorial concept. Musical director Todd Ellison capably leads his eight-piece band from a pair of balconies flanking the set. Jason Carr did the reorchestration, which is considerably more successful than his reduction of "A Little Night Music" across the street.
So chalk up this almost-too-soon revival as a victory for its producers. Director Johnson, last here in 2002 with Kathleen Turner and that ill-begotten "The Graduate," is warmly welcomed back to Broadway. But mostly one should raise a glass of champagne -- not the watered-down stuff -- to Herman and Fierstein. Their big, glitzy musical comedy hit of 1983 turns out to have a tender heart.
Bugle-bead and big wig alert!
"La Cage aux Folles" is back on Broadway in a heartfelt and fun revival starring "Frasier" alum Kelsey Grammer.
Yes, the Jerry Herman-Harvey Fierstein musical was just here five years ago, urging, like the 1983 original, to see things "from a different angle."
Director Terry Johnson follows that advice. And his interpretation, which began at the Menier Chocolate Factory theater in London, casts the glow of a new set of sequins because of it.
The human-scale production focuses on the laughs and deeper emotions instead of trying to wow you with extravagance.
The toe-tappy score by Herman sounds new, too, thanks to a small band and an emphasis on pathos rather than outsize presentation."The Best of Times" is a particularly sugary anthem, but it's more personal and powerful than in previous outings.
As in the French play the musical is based on, the action is set in a Saint-Tropez drag club (a few tables near the stage help create the feel). That's where a gay couple, Georges (Grammer) and Albin (Douglas Hodge), a drag headliner, reluctantly pretend to be straight one night to avert a family crisis.
Though his performance could use a few more surprises, Grammer, trim and tan, brings warmth, wit and a respectable singing voice.
Hodge, reprising his role from London, is simply sensational as Georges' better-spangled half. He steals your heart with his quirky and touching star turn.
Also noteworthy: Robin De Jesus, who plays Albin's "maid" like a streetwise Latina. The choice doesn't quite match the period, but he serves up Fierstein's zingers with gusto.
And there's plenty of wow whenever the burly drag-queen Cagelles are onstage. They've got terrific production numbers - one with beach balls (duck!), another on roller skates. "We are what we are," they sing. What they are is the fiercest bunch of wigged wonders in town.

New York Daily News

'La Cage aux Folles'

Kelsey Grammer brings warmth, wit and respectable singing to fun 'La Cage aux Folles' revival
JOE DZIEMIANOWICZ

Monday, April 19th 2010, 4:00 AM

Image credit: Uli Weber
Douglas Hodge and Kelsey Grammer star in the rollicking Broadway revival of 'La Cage aux Folles.'

Bugle-bead and big wig alert!
"La Cage aux Folles" is back on Broadway in a heartfelt and fun revival starring "Frasier" alum Kelsey Grammer.
Yes, the Jerry Herman-Harvey Fierstein musical was just here five years ago, urging, like the 1983 original, to see things "from a different angle."
Director Terry Johnson follows that advice. And his interpretation, which began at the Menier Chocolate Factory theater in London, casts the glow of a new set of sequins because of it.
The human-scale production focuses on the laughs and deeper emotions instead of trying to wow you with extravagance.
The toe-tappy score by Herman sounds new, too, thanks to a small band and an emphasis on pathos rather than outsize presentation."The Best of Times" is a particularly sugary anthem, but it's more personal and powerful than in previous outings.
As in the French play the musical is based on, the action is set in a Saint-Tropez drag club (a few tables near the stage help create the feel). That's where a gay couple, Georges (Grammer) and Albin (Douglas Hodge), a drag headliner, reluctantly pretend to be straight one night to avert a family crisis.
Though his performance could use a few more surprises, Grammer, trim and tan, brings warmth, wit and a respectable singing voice.
Hodge, reprising his role from London, is simply sensational as Georges' better-spangled half. He steals your heart with his quirky and touching star turn.
Also noteworthy: Robin De Jesus, who plays Albin's "maid" like a streetwise Latina. The choice doesn't quite match the period, but he serves up Fierstein's zingers with gusto.
And there's plenty of wow whenever the burly drag-queen Cagelles are onstage. They've got terrific production numbers - one with beach balls (duck!), another on roller skates. "We are what we are," they sing. What they are is the fiercest bunch of wigged wonders in town.

Entertainment Weekly

La Cage aux Folles
Reviewed by Thom Geier | Apr 19, 2010

LA CAGE AUX FOLLES Douglas Hodge as Albin and Kelsey Grammer as Georges
Much has changed since composer-lyricist Jerry Herman's musical La Cage aux Folles debuted on Broadway in 1983. The material, based on a 1973 French play (and subsequent French movie), has been mainstreamed thanks to a 1996 Hollywood remake called The Birdcage starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. The show's implicit gay-rights message has been mainstreamed too, to the point that Jean-Michel (A.J. Shively) appears to be even more of a heartless cad for wanting to hide away his father Georges' decidedly flamboyant spouse, Albin, when Jean-Michel's ultra-conservative future in-laws come to visit.

But the show, newly revived on Broadway under the thoughtful direction of Terry Johnson, proves to be surprisingly sturdy — despite the three-inch pumps donned by the cross-dressing Cagelles at the Saint-Tropez nightclub that Georges and Albin call home. Herman's score is studded with melodic winners, including the gay-rights anthem ''I Am What I Am,'' which closes the first act on a stirring and deeply moving note. Delivering that show-stopper is Douglas Hodge, a transplant from Johnson's 2008 London revival of La Cage. Hodge is practically perfect as the fey Albin, a tricky role in which an actor could easily slip into caricature or sentimentality. Hodge manages a careful balance, delivering a performance that is both hilarious and heartfelt; his character is admittedly over the top, but he always feels real. As his partner, the La Cage manager Georges, Kelsey Grammer proves to be an equal partner in carrying the show. Grammer has a surprisingly strong singing voice (better than his rendition of the ''Frasier'' theme song might suggest), and he never makes you doubt his commitment to Albin or his son; you feel the anguish as he seeks to reconcile the conflicting desires of his two loves.

Hodge and Grammer provide a solid grounding for the show, but the rest of the cast offers all the flourishes you'd expect from a show rooted in drag performance. The six Cagelles are an impressively lithe and acrobatic ensemble (the choreography is by Lynne Page), and Robin de Jesus (In the Heights) is uproarious as Albin's devoted butler/maid who aspires to be Cagelle himself. By the end of this well-paced production, it's hard not to concur with the refrain of Albin's second-act number: The best of times is now. A-

USA Today

So much revelry and grief break free from 'La Cage Aux Folles'

Image Credit: Joan Marcus
The best of times: Georges (Kelsey Grammer, left) owns the French nightclub where his partner, Albin (Douglas Hodge), performs.

·
By Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — A telling moment came early at a recent preview of the new Broadway revival of La Cage Aux Folles (* * * out of four).
Wrapping the production number We Are What We Are, the delightfully witty and athletic male performers cast as Les Cagelles — the chorus "girls" at an outré nightclub on the French Riviera— tossed a few beach balls into the audience. The crowd, after having some fun, dutifully tossed them back, only to have the dancers hurl them out again. The boisterous back-and-forth escalated until one ball wound up in the mezzanine.
Attending a performance of this La Cage, which opened Sunday at the Longacre Theatre, is a bit like spending an afternoon with an overactive but thoroughly charming child.
An import of London's Menier Chocolate Factory, the production retains one of its original stars: the British trouper Douglas Hodge, who won an Olivier Award for his portrayal of Albin, the club's reigning drag queen and the longtime partner of its owner, Georges.
A classically trained actor and frequent associate of the late Harold Pinter, Hodge is plainly determined to show us the suffering and alienation informing Albin's extroverted alter ego, Zaza. Even before we learn that Jean-Michel, Georges' son from a previous heterosexual experiment — a young man whom Albin has literally raised like a mother — is shunning Albin to woo a girl from a socially reactionary family, he reveals the character's emotional battle scars. We see the grief, and grit, behind the glitter.
But if Hodge has some beautifully nuanced moments, he can also milk Zaza's camp value, and that of the show, to distraction. And Kelsey Grammer's Georges can be a too-willing accomplice. Breathlessly hamming it up through some of the early scenes, Grammer almost seems to be vying to beat Zaza at her own game.
Fortunately, Grammer settles into a more natural, endearing interpretation, and he and Hodge, for all their winking gestures, capably illustrate the affection and devotion binding this couple.
They're abetted, under Terry Johnson's giddy direction, by a number of entertaining supporting performances. Robin De Jesus delivers the highest octane level as Georges and Albin's feisty "maid," Jacob, presented here with a hilarious (if not exactly appropriate) Nuyorican accent.
A.J. Shively brings more starch and a limpid tenor to the role of Jean-Michel, while Fred Applegate and Veanne Cox do deft double duty as the girlfriend's stuffy parents and a pair of folksy café proprietors. And '70s Broadway ingénue-turned-cabaret star Christine Andreas pops up, as gorgeous and glorious-voiced as ever, as the bawdy restaurant owner Jacqueline.
They all seem to be having a swell time, as will you — so long as you can keep up with them.

Backstage

NY Review: 'La Cage aux Folles'
The Menier Chocolate Factory at the Longacre Theatre
By David Sheward
April 18, 2010

Why mount another Broadway production of “La Cage aux Folles” when we just had one in 2004? The answer is that Terry Johnson’s London staging and its Olivier Award–winning star, Douglas Hodge, inject this 1983 Jerry Herman–Harvey Fierstein musical version of the 1978 French film with ingenious razzmatazz and a heartbreaking humanity that its immediate predecessor lacked.
Despite scaled-down production values and a smaller cast and orchestra—a trademark of the tiny Menier Chocolate Factory, where this edition started—Johnson creates a credible and entertaining drag show presented by Georges, the owner of the titular Riviera establishment, and headlined by his lover, Albin. (Set designer Tim Shortall even extends the showroom atmosphere into the audience by replacing the first few rows of seats with cabaret tables and chairs.) You could take the onstage numbers out, plunk them down in any gay-themed nightclub, and rake in the cash. There are only six Cagelles this time out, but each is a gorgeous vision and expert dancer, performing Lynne Page’s campy choreography with abandon and pizzazz. Kudos to Matthew Wright’s dazzling costumes and Richard Mawbey’s wig and makeup design.
Every transvestite cabaret revue needs a diva, and Hodge more than fulfills that requirement as Zaza, Albin’s onstage alter ego. George Hearn, the original Albin, and Gary Beach, the 2004 star, did not throw themselves into the Zaza aspect of the part the way Hodge does. He doesn’t have much of a voice, delivering his songs and dialogue in a nasal Cockney, but Hodge is a master comic and devilish mimic. He shifts from Marilyn Monroe to Marlene Dietrich to Zaza, his “own special creation,” with amazing ease. Not only is Hodge at home in the glittering make-believe world of “La Cage,” he makes Albin a loving partner for Georges and caring parent to Georges’ son, Jean-Michel. For the first time, I actually believed Georges and Albin as a devoted long-time couple, and the silly plot involving hiding their gayness from Jean-Michel’s conservative prospective in-laws had an added resonance. When the onstage and backstage worlds collide in “I Am What I Am,” Albin’s anthem of self-expression, Hodge shows us both a consummate performer and a betrayed husband defiantly holding on to his identity.
Kelsey Grammer may be the TV name drawing in audiences, but he is largely consigned to playing—you’ll pardon the expression—the straight man to Hodge. Yet Grammer gracefully cedes center stage. He subtly conveys Georges’ quiet devotion to Albin and displays a rakish charm commensurate with a St. Tropez emcee. As Jacob, the flighty butler, Robin De Jesús seems to have washed up on the shores of the Riviera after swimming from the Bronx River. But his gritty Nu Yawk manner spices up the domestic scenes immeasurably. The reliable Fred Applegate and Veanne Cox double up, adding depth to both the stuffy in-laws and a friendly married pair of café proprietors. Christine Andreas makes the plot-device role of Jacqueline, a scheming restaurateur, stylish and saucy. A.J. Shively and Elena Shaddow are attractive and full-voiced as Jean-Michel and his girlfriend Anne, but they tend to fade into the background.
That’s not the fault of these two performers. With a Tony-worthy performance from Hodge, few could steal the spotlight.

Website ©MMX by MROZINSKI internet