Overview
- New York City Center Encores! opened Robert O’Hara’s reimagined La Cage aux Folles on June 17 with Billy Porter as Albin and Wayne Brady as Georges in a run through June 28.
- Reviewers praise Porter and Brady’s chemistry and central performances, and audiences have responded enthusiastically to Porter’s return after a life‑threatening sepsis episode.
- O’Hara reconceived the show as a broadly queer, all‑Black nightclub with individualized, gender‑diverse Cagelles and modern choreography and costuming that update the production’s visual identity.
- Critics repeatedly noted visible executional flaws on opening nights—vocal fatigue, uneven choreography, pacing problems—and attributed many of those issues to Encores!’s compressed rehearsal model.
- The production features a 28‑piece orchestra using Jerry Herman’s original 1983 orchestrations, a choice that reviewers say bolsters the score even as the book and farcical plot feel dated to some viewers.