Since Kate and I had an early flight returning from Chicago on Tuesday, we decided it would be best if we drove back from Dubuque and stayed the night near the city. With that in mind, I thought this would be a perfect time to take in a show at one of the theaters in Chicago. After looking at what would be playing, we decided on La Cage Aux Folles and it did not disappoint!
My knowledge of this show mostly comes from The Birdcage with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. I enjoyed this movie quite a bit and figured that adding in musical numbers would only make the story more fabulous. Fabulous certainly hits the nail right on the head when talking about La Cage Aux Folles but it wasn’t done as brightly as it could have been.
La Cage Aux Folles tells the story about a middle aged gay couple, their night club, cabaret show and their son’s pending wedding to the daughter of homophobic parents. It’s funny without being mean spirited and the musical numbers fit in perfectly with the rest of the production. The actors did a wonderful job with every aspect of the show. Well, all but one.
The top billing actor who played George was George Hamilton who has had quite an acting career including The Godfather III and many others. I’m not saying that he was a terrible in his portrayal of a middle aged gay man but he just wasn’t a good match for the flamboyant work of his partner Albin who was played by Christopher Sieber. Sieber and Hamilton just didn’t have the kind of chemistry that would have made this show nearly perfect. Sieber was over the top and fabulous while Hamilton came off a bit wooden in comparison. There is also the mighty age gap between the two with Hamilton being thirty years Sieber’s senior.
While I had some difficulties with my suspense of disbelief, I still felt that the show was wonderful. The supporting cast along with Christopher Sieber more than made up for any issues I might have had. I’m quite glad that we went to the show and I think Kate and I are going to try and see more whenever we’re in the Chicago area.
