La Cage aux Folles – Beck Center for the Arts 2003

Caption on picture in PD: Kevin Joseph Kelly, as Albin, and Greg Violand, as Georges, kicked off a top-notch version of “La Cage aux Folles” at Beck Center on Friday.

The buzz surrounding “La Cage Aux Folles” has always centered on its drag-show setting and the antics of the middle-aged gay couple who are its king and temperamental queen.

Overlooked in the buzz is that the real strength of this 1983 musical resides in Jerry Herman’s gentle, warmly evocative score. It’s good news, therefore, that Beck Center’s current revival matches this strength by the totally engaging skill with which its principal performers deliver these songs.

Drag show devotees, however, need not worry that the trashy glitz and campy capers are neglected. Costume designers Alison Hernan and Jeffrey Smart have provided literally hundreds of outrageously gaudy outfits, mostly for a mixed chorus of 10 boy-girls and girl-girls called the Cagelles.

Nor have director Fred Sternfeld and choreographer Martin Cespedes been shy in helping these demi-divas do their clever flounce-it, flaunt-it numbers.

The proud anthem, “We Are What We Are,” for instance, introduces us through a dazzling blizzard of quick-changing costumes to such androgynous charmers as the whiplashing dominatrix Hanna, the mysterious but only occasionally inscrutable Phaedra and soprano Monique, who hits high notes only a dog should hear.

Set in a St. Tropez drag-show nightclub, “Cage’s” bare-bones plot puts gay couple Georges, the club’s owner, and Albin, its star attraction, through the farcical complications of getting Georges’ straight son wedded to the daughter of an ultra-conservative politician.

Though the evening is largely devoted to the comedy of gender-bent parents and drag-show performers, it does quietly imply a serious message – that committed gay couples are as family-oriented and family-wracked as their heterosexual counterparts.

These earnest feelings are embedded in Georges and Albin’s affecting songs and are the main reason that the occasion falls or – as here – rises with the lead performances.

As the practical, undemonstrative Georges, Greg Violand once again demonstrates that he’s the consummate musical comedian. His commanding ease provides the needed calm eye in the hurricane surroundings, and his direct, forceful baritone anchors the beauties of “With You On My Arm” and the lovely, forgotten “Song on the Sand” with a compelling tenderness.

The Junoesque Kevin Joseph Kelly has a natural sweetness that softens Albin’s recurrent prima donna hysteria and tempers the character with an innate dignity. But, most notably, he’s gifted with a remarkably musical voice. Its ear-pleasing timbre and lucid diction make occasions of the affecting “A Little More Mascara,” the challenging “I Am What I Am” and especially the several elegiac duets with Violand.

In a large, entirely winning cast, there are praiseworthy contributions by Brian Etchell as the son and the sparkling Tiffany Gates as his intended, a comically bombastic G.A. Taggett as the politician and the gorgeous Molly McGinnis as his wife.

“masterful”

“stunning”

“handsome production”

“the production may raise some eyebrows and heartbeats”

“inventive and stylish”

“good theater”

Art Thomas, West Life, 2003

Greg Violand as “Georges” and Brian Etchell as “Jean-Michel”