{"id":469,"date":"2024-03-22T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigrecipes.net\/?p=469"},"modified":"2024-05-31T17:39:14","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T17:39:14","slug":"la-cage-aux-folles-cagelles-40-years-later-something-about-sharing-something-about-always","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/2024\/03\/22\/la-cage-aux-folles-cagelles-40-years-later-something-about-sharing-something-about-always\/","title":{"rendered":"La Cage aux Folles\u2019 Cagelles, 40 Years Later: Something About Sharing, Something About Always"},"content":{"rendered":"

The groundbreaking musical La Cage aux Folles <\/em>opened on Broadway 40 years ago last August. As part of the anniversary celebrations, members of the original Cagelles\u2014the dancers who formed the drag ensemble at the heart of the show\u2014organized a series of events in conjunction with Broadway Cares\/Equity Fights AIDS.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fitting that the group marked the occasion by raising money to fight HIV\/AIDS. La Cage<\/em> took Broadway by storm just as the AIDS pandemic reached the public\u2019s consciousness. And as the \u201cgay plague\u201d swept Broadway companies, including their own, the Cagelles organized numerous benefits, some of which continue to this day.<\/p>\n

Some of the 10 gay men and two women first cast as Les Cagelles were little more than teenagers when they joined the show. These are a few of their stories.<\/p>\n

A Little More Mascara<\/h2>\n

Dennis Callahan (Monique):<\/strong> I think there were between 800 and 1,000 at the original open call. Scott Salmon, who was the choreographer, was not a New York person. So it was really like a clean slate as far as what he was seeing at these auditions.<\/p>\n

David Engel (Hanna):<\/strong> I was only being seen for Jean-Michel [one of the leads]. Then they said, \u201cWe need to see you dance and in drag.\u201d I didn\u2019t know why. I came to the final dance call. Everybody else had learned all this choreography. I learned it on the spot.<\/p>\n

Dan O\u2019Grady (Odette): <\/strong>It got down to maybe 25 of us at the end. I had never done any drag, but I decided to show up in drag [for the final audition]. It was really, really funny. When I got into the cab, the cab driver got out, opened the door for me, called me ma\u2019am. Then I went into the theater, and they didn\u2019t know who I was. No one else arrived in drag.<\/p>\n

DC:<\/strong> From 10 in the morning to 4 or 5 in the afternoon, we did all of the dancing in drag. And at the end of this long day, we were 12 and 12 across the stage.<\/p>\n

DE: <\/strong>Basically, it was like the end of A Chorus Line<\/em>. We were all lined up across the stage. And then they\u2019re like, \u201cRehearsals start on this date\u2014congratulations.\u201d Everybody\u2019s jumping up and down screaming, and I\u2019m like, \u201cWhat\u2019s happening? What\u2019s going on?\u201d<\/p>\n

DC:<\/strong> After the others left, they had the 12 of us gather around the piano and sing \u201cThere\u2019s No Business Like Show Business\u201d in real short-clipped piano voices. [Composer] Jerry Herman said, \u201cThis is the style of La Cage<\/em>\u2019s opening song, \u2018We are What We Are.\u2019 \u201d It was such a cool moment to be around the piano with Jerry and [music director] Don Pippin, all of us in drag.<\/p>\n

Not a Place We Have to Hide<\/h2>\n

DE:<\/strong> The very first day of rehearsal, [director] Arthur Laurents said, \u201cWe are not doing this apologetically. We are proudly playing these roles.\u201d<\/p>\n

DO: <\/strong>He gave us all storylines. Some were more developed than others, but we all had a bit of one. He really instilled in us that we were important to the story.<\/p>\n

DC:<\/strong> Though I don\u2019t think any of us had any experience doing drag, I don\u2019t think any Cagelle would say it was hard. The atmosphere in the room was so supportive and nurturing that none of us felt any fear of being judged.<\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong> I remember Arthur working on \u201cI Am What I Am\u201d with George Hearn [who played Albin], a straight man. The amount of pride and dignity that Arthur conveyed not just to George but all of us was very powerful. It moves me even just to think of it now.<\/p>\n

DC:<\/strong> The Cagelles were given the last bow. When does that ever happen? We each just took a humble bow as ourselves. The sound of the audience was unbelievable.<\/p>\n

Sometimes Sweet and Sometimes Bitter<\/h2>\n
\n
\n
\"A
The Cagelles in the November 1983 issue of Dance Magazine<\/i>. Courtesy DM<\/i> Archives.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n

DE:<\/strong> We had a whole warm-up area in the basement, and at intermission, we\u2019d dress up, we\u2019d be ridiculous. We just kept creating and playing.<\/p>\n

It was the best of times. And it was the worst of times.<\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong> I first started hearing about the \u201cgay cancer\u201d when we were in Boston. Nobody knew what it was.<\/p>\n

DE:<\/strong> I remember thinking to myself, if I went to a gay bar, I would hold my breath. You just didn\u2019t know. It was everywhere, and if you tested positive, it was a death sentence, definitely. And you could go quick.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

DO:<\/strong> I think David Cahn [Chantelle] was the first of us Cagelles who got sick and left, then John Dolf [Nicole].<\/p>\n

DC:<\/strong> I don\u2019t remember any conversation between the rest of us about the boys being sick. I think it was sort of a feeling of: If they wanted to talk about it they would, and they\u2019re not, so neither should we. And maybe there was also a fear.<\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong> We felt the loss from the inside, and I think that\u2019s what sort of led us to start thinking about the Easter Bonnet competition. Howard Crabtree and the other costume folks did these silly Easter bonnets, and we had folks donate. In the beginning it was just the cast, the crew, and the orchestra.<\/p>\n

DE:<\/strong> We did the Easter Bonnet pageant in the basement and a Queen of Hearts pageant for Valentine\u2019s Day, both just among ourselves, and raised money for Gay Men\u2019s Health Crisis. The next year we decided to bring the Easter Bonnet pageant onto the stage and invited other casts to come\u2014A Chorus Line<\/em>, Cats<\/em>, there were a few companies. I remember when they flipped over the cards at the end, we had raised $17,000. I was sobbing, sobbing.<\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong> I think we needed a sense of agency. Because there was no hope. There really wasn\u2019t. Our friends were dying, and we couldn\u2019t do anything about it. But we could dress up and act silly and ask people for money.<\/p>\n

DC:<\/strong> Teddy Azar was instrumental in the whole look of the show makeup- and wig-wise. He was one of the first in the company to come down with AIDS. He was at St. Vincent\u2019s, and David [Scala, who played Phaedra], Sam [Singhaus, Clo-Clo], and I got some nurse drag with these giant hypodermic needles and resuscitation devices, just ridiculous stuff, and we went down there. People who worked there came up to us and said, \u201cCould you please come bring some of this joy into some of the other rooms?\u201d And we went in and out of these rooms, these three big old drag queens in nurse drag, and it was joyous. The whole thing was joyous.<\/p>\n

DE:<\/strong> I had plenty of hard losses, but the hardest was [executive producer] Fritz Holt. At the show that night, we silently got in place, and one by one we turned around in the opening number and we all started singing \u201cWe Are What We Are.\u201d But then one by one voices were dropping out. We just couldn\u2019t sing. We were all crying. The cast members in the wings on both sides were singing for us, trying to keep it going.<\/p>\n

We Are What We Are<\/h2>\n

DC:<\/strong> When we would turn around one by one in the opening number, you could feel, physically, this sort of crossed-arm, furrowed-brow feeling from the audience. They were probably wondering if maybe we\u2019re too close, we\u2019re going to get [AIDS].<\/p>\n

By the end of the show those same faces were leaning into the stage, wide-eyed. I left every night thinking, Wow, I think I was part of something that changed what people think about homosexuals.<\/p>\n

DE: <\/strong>I came out to my mom when I was 18, and she really struggled with it. She couldn\u2019t understand what she had done wrong. And it was La Cage<\/em> that turned her around. It let her know that you can have love and family being gay. She became a mother to all of my gay friends that had parents that disowned them. They adored her, and she loved all of them.<\/p>\n

DC:<\/strong> From the beginning my parents saw something in me. They would take me to the Muny Opera, to the Starlight in Kansas City, and nurtured that in me. But at the same time I didn\u2019t ever feel like I needed to tell them I was gay. I thought the words and the situation would hurt them. And they knew.<\/p>\n

When they saw the show, that was my way of being able to tell them and show them that I was going to be okay.<\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong> La Cage<\/em> changed my life. I got to work with Harvey Fierstein and Jerry Herman and Arthur Laurents and Fritz Holt and Barry Brown and Don Pippin, and George Hearn and Gene Barry [Georges] and Merle Louise [Mme. Didon]. I also learned so much from Linda Haberman [Bitelle] and Jennifer Smith [Colette]. The work ethic, the creativity, and the artistry was like nothing I had ever been exposed to.
DC:<\/strong> At the 40-year reunion, we sang \u201cThe Best of Times.\u201d There were two older gentlemen sitting next to each other in the audience, and they were bawling. And I thought, god, this show affected more people than we will ever know. It\u2019s so special to have been a part of something like that.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The post <i>La Cage aux Folles<\/i>\u2019 Cagelles, 40 Years Later: Something About Sharing, Something About Always<\/a> appeared first on Dance Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The groundbreaking musical La Cage aux Folles opened on Broadway 40 years ago last August. As part of the anniversary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":472,"href":"https:\/\/bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions\/472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigrecipes.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}