stage
Well-known theater “Cage full of fools” celebrates anniversaries
Peter Renz (l) as Georges and Stefan Kurt (Albin/Zaza) did their best on stage at the Komische Oper. photo
© Jens Kalaene/dpa
Shrill comedy with drag queens, but also a serious love and family story: “La Cage aux Folles” – the cage full of fools – is legendary. In 2023 there will be some anniversaries around the play.
In Saint-Tropez on the French Riviera, the male couple George and Albin, who run a travesty club, have raised a son who, of all people, wants to marry the daughter of a reactionary politician.
How is George’s son from a small hetero liaison supposed to tell the anti-gay father-in-law, who also despises nightlife, that he grew up with two men, one of whom is drag queen Zaza, the star of the club “La Cage aux Folles”? The meeting of the future in-laws can only be a disaster. Or?
success for 50 years
This is the stuff that Jean Poiret’s play “La Cage aux Folles” is made of, which caused a sensation in the early 1970s because it focused on what was otherwise taboo: a gay couple. The comedy turned 50 this year. The musical of the same name by Jerry Herman (book: Harvey Fierstein), from which the world hit “I Am What I Am” comes, premiered 40 years ago.
And 45 years ago a film adaptation starring Michel Serrault and Ugo Tognazzi was released. The US version “The Birdcage – A Paradise for Shrill Birds” was released in 1996 with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane.
The French title “La Cage aux Folles” literally means something like “The cage of the madmen”; “folle” can also mean “queen”, so it would probably mean “the queen’s cage”.
Music with meaningful lyrics
Gloria Gaynor, Shirley Bassey – many have interpreted the catchy tune “I Am What I Am” (I am what I am) by composer Herman (“Hello, Dolly!”), who died in 2019. The song enjoys cult status among many homosexuals, drag queens and travesty artists.
It is remarkable that women also sing the title, because the lyrics actually sing about a self-confident gay coming-out. But the song can also be read in general as a kind of self-empowerment song for those who are discriminated against – for everyone who wants a life beyond petty conventions. It is a plea for trusting your own feelings, not pretending, and thus making the world a better place to live in.
“It’s not an aria, it’s a monologue with music. ‘I am what I am’ comes from a scenic content – and that makes it strong and great,” says opera director Barrie Kosky in the trailer for his flamboyant staging of the musical at the Komische Oper Berlin. In it, Peter Renz and Stefan Kurt shine as a male couple.
“Of course you can say: This is a narcissistic attitude: “I am what I am – and you have to accept me,” says Kosky. “But that’s not actually the topic. The topic is: ‘I’m respectful to you – please be respectful to me.’ And I think that’s a wonderful message for a musical.”
Much praise for the piece
Helmut Baumann also attests to Poiret’s play in the background of the musical a euphoric message. It is as simple as it is true, said the 84-year-old recently on RBB radio. Baumann brought the musical to Germany in 1985, to the Berlin Theater des Westens.
At the time, the German Press Agency praised the German-language premiere “in the obviously difficult subject of the American-specific light muse, which is obviously difficult in this country”: “The premiere in New York couldn’t have been better either.” And: “It was a triumphant success, especially for director Helmut Baumann, who, at the same time artistic director of the musical stage at the zoo, had taken on the role of the transvestite Albin-Zaza himself.”
Baumann, who is now 84 in Kosky’s production playing the small but fine supporting role of the restaurant owner Jacqueline, calls Poiret’s play “a really classic comedy in the French style”. The staff in this play can also be found in authors such as Molière or Georges Feydeau. “And the problems come from the commedia dell’arte: a young couple and parents-in-law and parents who don’t fit together. And they don’t want it to work out anyway.” And that’s why the two young people had to fight.
“It’s an age-old topic,” emphasizes Baumann. “And whatever way it’s presented, it works and touches because it can happen in any family.” And for him that is the real reason why this substance always has an effect.