Love, served with heaping helpings of song, dance and hilarity, conquers all as the Palace Theater presents “La Cage Aux Folles.”
The curtain rises today at the downtown Hilo venue with 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday performances through Oct. 18 and 2:30 p.m. Sunday matinees Oct. 12 and 19. Tickets are $15 in advance, available 10 a.m.-3 p.m. weekdays at the Palace box office. Admission is $20 the day of the show. Call 934-7010 for credit card orders.
Douglas Scheer directs the show, based on a French farce with book by Harvey Fierstein, and music by Jerry Herman, which won multiple Tony awards on Broadway in its original production and revivals and inspired the hit non-musical comedy film “The Birdcage.”
“I played Renaud in ‘La Cage’ at Diamond Head Theatre, so all of the wonderful memories are coming back,” Scheer said, and added his biggest challenges in staging the production are “budget, budget and budget.”
The show’s choreographer is Michael Misina, who boasts numerous Broadway and Hollywood credits, with Cheryl “Quack” Moore, the former Saturday Night Live music director, at the musical helm.
The two main characters and owners of the title Saint-Tropez nightclub are Georges and his life partner, Albin — who also is the club’s star attraction, Zaza. They’re played by Saul Rollason and Douglas Wayman, respectively.
Wayman, a veteran drag performer known for his glamorous alter ego, Janelle Neiman, called Albin/Zaza “the role of my dreams, really, of my whole life.”
“I think what makes the role so great is it shows what a homosexual relationship is like and the similarity between homosexual and heterosexual relationships, including child rearing,” he said. “It was one of the first times two men were shown raising a child on a stage. And to me, that’s the value in it. No matter what we look like, it’s the love that’s involved in the family.”
The British-born Rollason, a local stage veteran who starred as Capt. Georg von Trapp in the Palace’s production of “The Sound of Music,” described his character as “very sweet and funny and sensitive.”
“I like him. He kind of reminds me of some of the gay uncles and friends of the family I had when I was growing up in London,” he said.
The club features the dance troupe “Les Cagelles,” played by Billy Shackley, Norman Arancon, Tanya Aynessazian, Cole Stremski-Borero, Carmen Richardson and Amber Lopez.
“To take to the choreography the way they have, it’s pretty amazing,” Scheer said.
The plot thickens when Georges’ son, Jean-Michel (Kevin Landucci) brings home his fiancée Anne (Dana Besmanoff) and her ultra-conservative parents (Michael Stevens and Erin Smith) to meet them.
Adding to the hilarity is Georges’ and Albin’s housekeeper Jacob (Alston Albarado) and the attempted macho coaching of Albin by Monsieur and Madame Renaud (Randal McEndree and Stephanie Becher).
Albin refuses to dress as macho Uncle Al, but decides to impersonate Georges’ former wife Sybil when she can’t come to dinner. Jacob then burns the meal, so the party moves to restaurant Chez Jacqueline, with Justine A. Thompson playing the restaurateur.
The cast is rounded out by Phill Russell, Gene Gold, Jherrie Rubeyiat, Bria Callaway, Katherine Wilson, Stephanie Hull, Mary Chapman and Jessica Dempsey.
Rollason called the musical “a love story about the two main characters and how my character momentarily disrespects the love of his life” and how the couple then deals with it.
“It’s pertinent, given the gay marriage debate which has been raging around the country, and indeed, the Western world, for the past few years,” he said. “I think it’s good to be reminded that love comes in many forms. It may not be the form that we, ourselves, aspire to, but it doesn’t make it any less real. And it’s hard to be prejudicial against those who are really in love. If they’re in love, they’re in love. It’s an immutable fact and whether they’re the same sex or not is completely irrelevant.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
