PASADENA, Calif. — Getting all zhuzhed up to play Zaza isn’t where Kevin Cahoon’s connection to "La Cage aux Folles" begins. That’s a love story that goes back 40 years.
“I saw the original Broadway company at the Palace Theatre,” Cahoon said. “I was 10, and I've never forgotten it. It had such an impact on me.”
It had a cultural impact as well. When it opened in 1983, it became the first hit Broadway musical to center on a long-term, same-sex relationship.
“It was before 'Will and Grace.' It was before 'RuPaul's Drag Race,'" Cahoon said, explaining how groundbreaking a moment it was. “There is an innocence to it… Its heart is in the right place to shift the consciousness in the most… tiptoe way, shall we say.”
It’s pretty hard to tiptoe in heels and this "La Cage" storms the stage in an explosion of color, wigs and sequins. This is director Sam Pinkleton’s third Pasadena Playhouse production, and he returns to the West Coast on the heels of directing the Broadway hit "Oh Mary!" Pinkleton calls his "La Cage" a joy machine, but that doesn’t mean it’s frivolous.
“I think that everybody is going to have their own experience of the show. But what I know for sure is that joy is not something to be taken for granted,” he said against a backdrop of some of the two dozen brightly colored wigs used in the production. "And joy has to be seized whenever we get the opportunity.”
It’s a statement echoed in one of the show’s anthems, “The Best of Times is Now.” What struck Pinkleton when he started to work on "La Cage" is that beyond the feathers and flamboyance, this is really a story about family.
“Both the families that raise us and the families that we find in the theater, in dressing rooms, backstage,” he said. “I think it has such a kind of wholesome message.”
Cheyenne Jackson agrees. He actually had never seen the musical before he was approached by Pinkleton, although he was familiar with the story from the film "The Birdcage." The Broadway and TV star has lived in Los Angeles for 13 years, but this is his first time gracing one of our regional stages. He was, in a way, waiting for the right project to come along — and this was the one, he says, pointing to a wedding photo of him with his husband Jason that hangs in his dressing room.
“We've been together 13 years, married 10. We have two beautiful kids,” he said. “Being in a show that just celebrates a long-term couple who unabashedly and wholeheartedly have each other's backs is groundbreaking then and groundbreaking now.”
And just as necessary, says actor George Salazar. Jerry Herman’s score includes “I Am What I Am,” a song that became and remains an anthem for the LGBTQ+ community. "La Cage" began previews shortly after the election, a time when crisis hotlines run by organizations like the Trevor Project were flooded with anxious calls from young queer and transgender individuals. Salazar, who is now in his fourth production at Pasadena Playhouse, said this musical comes at a time when its message is most needed.
“A message of acceptance, a message of pride in who you are and where you come from and a message of hope for the future,” he said. “I've never been more grateful to be working on something like this at a time like this.”
He admitted that the first time he saw Cahoon perform the song, he was “inconsolable."
“Kevin’s performance of this song is visceral,” Salazar said. “It's deep and meaningful and powerful, and is the strongest declaration of that song that I've seen performed... I think that song in particular is going to speak to a lot of the people in our, in our audience, whether they're queer or not, right? Like, there's going to be a connection between what's happening on that stage… and the human beings that will populate the Pasadena Playhouse watching it.”
"'I Am What I Am is definitely an anthem,'" Pinkleton agreed. “I think it means something different for everyone, and I think just being who you are unapologetically is both timeless and urgent.”
Cahoon applauds the overall inclusivity of the cast Pinkleton assembled, which includes Ryan J. Haddad, an actor who has cerebral palsy, playing the couple’s newly engaged son.
“I kind of think of this show as the most wonderful 'Noah's Ark' you could ever imagine,” Cahoon said. "Everybody climb on board, and we are just going to sail through the storm towards the truth."
And as far as he’s concerned, the truth at the center of "La Cage aux Folles" is self-evident.
“Love,” he said. “Love. Open your hearts. Open your minds. This is a great American musical for that very reason.”