Broadway veteran Cheyenne Jackson was ready to take another break from musical theater like he has done before. That is until he got an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“Oh, Mary!” Director Sam Pinkleton wanted him to star in a revival of the Tony Award-winning musical “La Cage aux Folles” at the Pasadena Playhouse.
“I made the decision — about a week before I got the call from Sam — that I was going to take an extended vacation from musical theater again,” says Jackson, who is also known to TV fans for his work on “Doctor Odyssey.” “Call Me Kat,” “American Horror Story,” and “30 Rock.” “I took a 10-year break before, and I was like, ‘Okay, I’ve scratched this itch pretty much.’ I just did ‘Once Upon a Mattress’ and ‘Into the Woods’ and I’m done. I want to focus on writing. I want to focus On a lot of other things, Sam called me, and of course I know something about, “Oh, Mary!” He was very convincing and he told me about his vision and I got on the plane.
Jackson plays Georges, the owner of a drag club in the south of France, whose son Jean-Michel (Ryan J. Haddad) asks him to pretend to be straight for one night to meet his fiancée’s (Shannon Purser) parents (Michael McDonald and Nicole Parker) because his future father-in-law is a conservative politician who… suppresses the gay community and calls for the closure of drag clubs. Hilarity ensues when Albin (Kevin Cahoon), George’s longtime partner and a drag queen at the club, shows up at the family gathering as Jan-Michael’s aunt.
Cheyenne Jackson and Kevin Cahoon in “La Cage aux Folles” at the Pasadena Playhouse.
Rounding out the mainly LGBTQ cast is Jorge Salazar as maid Albin Jacob, along with a group of drag queens and gender-bending performers like Les Cagelles in the club.
“It’s all very strange,” Jackson says. “It’s like a big shiny gay bomb that I get to be a part of every night. It’s the perfect therapy for me.”
“La Cage aux Folles” is based on the classic 1978 French comedy and play of the same name. Director Mike Nichols and writer Elaine May adapted the American film “The Birdcage”, starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane.
Cheyenne Jackson and Ryan J. Haddad in “La Cage aux Folles” at the Pasadena Playhouse.
“I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve never seen the French film or any production of La Cage,” Jackson says. “I was always in the show when ‘La Cage’ was on Broadway so I never got to see it. I only saw ‘Birdcage.’
The recovery began less than two weeks after Donald Trump’s re-election. “We’re talking here about this politician who’s trying to shut down all the prostitution clubs and trying to impose his morals on people,” Jackson says. “The offer couldn’t be more timely.”
“La Cage aux Folles” runs through December 15 at the Pasadena Playhouse. For tickets, go to pasadenaplayhouse.org.
