Billy Porter and the Ensemble (Photo: Joan Marcus)
La Cage aux Folles at Encores!
By Julia Polinsky on June 27, 2026
Directed by Robert O’Hara, this all-Black revival of La Cage is an Encores! production, so you know the drill: a little under-rehearsed (and who can cavil at that with less than 2 weeks to put it all together). Maybe a script in hand; a little cramped, with the orchestra right there on the stage (scenic design from David Zinn). Actors a little extra-willing to play with the audience (and who can cavil at that). But the life, the songs, the performances, and the delicious liveliness of this La Cage had the audience on their feet and roaring with love.
Because love is what it’s all about. With Jerry Herman’s music and lyrics and Harvey Fierstein’s book, the multiple Tony-winning La Cage aux Folles celebrates love in spades.
The basic story: Georges (Wayne Brady) and Albin (Porter), a longtime gay couple, own La Cage aux Folles, a drag club in St. Tropez, where the temperamental, flamboyant, talented Albin is ZaZa, the starring act, surrounded by the wonderful Les Cagelles, the drag-queen chorus line. When Georges’s son, Jean-Michel (Alaman Diadhiou) becomes engaged to Anne — a girl – (Rachel Webb) he invites her parents to meet his over dinner at home – but a phony straight version, not the reality. He never told Anne his parents are gay, and her father, Edouard Dindon (Peter Francis James) is a famously pro-family-values, anti-LGBTQ politician who wants to close all drag clubs. Jean Michel asks Albin not to come to the dinner and Georges to pretend to be a retired diplomat.
Billy Porter, Wayne Brady (Photo: Joan Marcus)
Yeah, that happens. Albin’s horribly hurt feelings, Georges’s craven caving, Jean-Michel’s need to grow up, and the Dindon parents’ hideous bigotry are writ large. But good triumphs, evil is, if not vanquished, at least mocked and de-fanged, and all ends well.
La Cage aux Folles is a variation of the classic French farce, so it features lots of mistaken identity, quick entrances and exits, costume changes (costumes from Clint Ramos and Michelle Ridley), wigs (hair design by Robert Pickens) and a comeuppance for the super-square parents, all spliced beautifully with some of Herman’s best songs: “Song on the Sand,” “With You on My Arm,” and of course, the showstopping Act 1 closer, the magnificent “I Am What I Am,” given a breathtaking performance by Billy Porter at his best. Not to mention the show closing, warm-fuzzy “The Best of Times Is Now.” Are you humming, yet?
Rachel Webb, Wayne Brady, Alaman Diadhiou (Photo: Joan Marcus)
It’s so satisfying to laugh, to maybe leak a tear, to admire the splendid dancing (choreography by Edgar Godineaux, tap choreo from Dormeshia) and bask in the warm glow of a happy ending. Many thanks to Encores! at New York City Center, for bringing the groundbreaking La Cage aux Folles back to the limelight, where it belongs, in all its brash glory. Its time has come. And oh, all hail Billy Porter as Albin, the role he has been meant to play since, well, forever. Welcome to your destiny, dear heart. You killed it.
La Cage aux Folles at Encores!
At New York City Center
131 W. 55th St.
Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes, one intermission
Through June 28, 2026
