Kelsey Grammer Will Spend Six Months as Georges, Before Playing Albin in Broadway's La Cage

By Andrew Gans
11 Mar 2010

Kelsey Grammer
Kelsey Grammer

Stage and screen star Kelsey Grammer will eventually play both leading roles in the upcoming Broadway revival of the Tony-winning La Cage aux Folles, which begins previews April 6 at Broadway's Longacre Theatre with an official opening April 18.

As previously reported, Grammer will open the show as Georges opposite the Albin of Olivier Award winner Douglas Hodge. Five-time Emmy winner Grammer told the New York Post that six months after the show opens, he will switch to the role of Albin.

Grammer told the New York daily, "So the way we're doing this is, when we open I'm doing the role of Georges. In six months, I switch over to playing Albin. It really means I must memorize the whole show."

La Cage Aux Folles features music and lyrics by Jerry Herman and book by Harvey Fierstein, based on the play by Jean Poiret. This "freshly reconceived production" is choreographed by Lynne Page and directed by Terry Johnson.

The cast also includes Fred Applegate as Dindon; A.J. Shively, a recent University of Michigan graduate, making his Broadway debut as Jean-Michel; Tony nominee Veanne Cox (Company, Caroline, or Change) as Mme. Dindon/Mme. Renaud; Tony nominee Robin de Jesús (In the Heights) as Jacob; two-time Tony nominee Christine Andreas (My Fair Lady, Oklahoma!, On Your Toes) as Jacqueline; Elena Shaddow (Fiddler on the Roof, Fanny at Encores!) as Anne; Chris Hoch (Beauty and the Beast, Spamalot, Shrek the Musical) as Francis; Heather Lindell (Hairspray) as Colette; Bill Nolte (The Producers, 1776) as Tabarro and David Nathan Perlow (White Noise) as Etienne.

Also starring as "the notorious and dangerous Cagelles" will be Nick Adams (A Chorus Line, Guys and Dolls, Chicago), Nicholas Cunningham (La Cage Aux Folles in the West End), Sean Patrick Doyle (Fiddler on the Roof national tour, Wig Out!), Yurel Echezarreta (West Side Story), Terry Lavell (Hairspray in Las Vegas, Smokey Joe's Café national tour) and Logan Keslar (West Side Story in the West End). The production also features Christophe Caballero, Todd Lattimore, Dale Hensley and Cheryl Stern.

In the Tony-winning 1983 show, "Georges (Kelsey Grammer) is the suave owner of a glitzy drag club on the French Riviera," according to production notes. "Partnered romantically with his high-strung star performer, Albin (Douglas Hodge), the pair live a charmed life — until Georges' son announces his engagement to the daughter of a conservative right-wing politician who's coming to dinner."

The new production played from Nov. 23, 2007 to March 8, 2008, at the Menier Chocolate Factory, earning raves and moving to the West End's Playhouse Theatre on Oct. 30, 2008, where it was nominated for seven 2009 Olivier Awards, winning for Best Musical Revival and Best Actor in a Musical for Douglas Hodge. It won the 2009 Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Musical.

The production is now on sale through Telecharge.com at (212) 239-6200 or at www.telecharge.com/lacage. Also visit www.lacage.com for a special video introduction from Kelsey Grammer and the Cagelles.