Great audience last night - I could tell from the first moments based on their responses. They got most of the jokes and were laughing and singing along. A standing O. I would say this is the most loved show
 |
| Photos by Rob Mintzes |
Memo from The RTC: The Air Beneath a Soaring La Cage
By Norm Scott
Last Sunday night when I left the post matinee cast party
thrown by the incredibly gracious Susanne Riggs and her husband John many
members of the cast of La Cage Aux Folles were still frolicking in the pool. It
was almost 9:30 and the non-locals, of whom there are many, still had a long
trip home, some up to 2 hours. Many of them had arrived up to 2-3 hours before
the 2PM show began to get their extensive make-up and hair done and do all the
other essentials in the hours before the show goes on, thus spending 10 hours
or more in each others’ company. Oy! You might say, but not to this crew.
So here are a group of performers and support people who
make the show work from behind the scenes, many of whom had not met before the
show began rehearsals almost 3 months ago seeming to not get enough of each
other. Apparently bonding that makes super glue look weak has taken place. The
cast and crew of La Cage Aux Folles, which is heading into its final sold-out
weekend, are having a magnificent time. Some of the newcomers to the Rockaway
Theatre Company say this has been the best experience of their performing
careers – the support of the production team and their fellow performers has
been taken to new heights. The evening shows end around 11PM and people are
still mulling around an hour later, with whole batches going out to a diner
after the show. I believe it is not only the opportunities to perform that
attract so much high end talent to the far away reaches of the RTC at Fort
Tilden but also the support and a bonding where life long friends are made and
even some romances – if I tell you about those I have to kill you.
At every show members of the growing RTC alumni show up to
see their colleagues perform and they are the very best of audience members,
hooting and hollering and cheering everyone on. As an ensemble member I get to
sit on the stage at 3 different points in the play and get to surreptitiously
observe audience reactions. Even these RTC vets were blown away by Chazmond
Peacock’s performance as Albin and raved about the antics of Matt Smilardi as
Jacob.
The other night the front two rows were filled with
teenagers who have been part of the RTC but are not in this show and they were
so excited at what they were seeing, especially when the Cagelles, of mixed men
and woman, all dressed up as women, were dancing. They were also there to cheer
their friends from the Young People’s RTC Workshops: Their amazing choreographer
and dancer, Gabrielle Mangano, one of the Cagelles and herself a former teen
RTCer, and a Kacie Reilly, recent grad of the young people’s workshop and one
of the most elegant young dancers I’ve seen on stage. And of course the
delightful Dante Rei (you’ll recognize him as his injuries in the show mount)
who has aged out of his teen years into manhood so quickly but has not lost
that sense of play he always brings to any show he is in.
Then there is quadruple threat (musician, singer, dancer,
actress) Leigh Dillon (Anne), a soon to be senior in high school, who graduates
to the main stage big time in this romantic grown-up role. Her fiancé,
Jean-Michel, is played by the Dorian Gray-like Frank Caiati (now 30), who apparently
has a portrait of himself hanging somewhere that is aging. Frank has been a
driving force at the RTC since his teen years. When Anne and Jean-Michel in the
show smooched it up, the giggling from the front rows couldn’t be contained. Seeing
these wonderful kids, the future main stagers at the RTC who will be the
Manganos and Caiatis of the future, being so into the theater is as exciting as
anything the RTC has managed to accomplish.
I’ll have more to say about the other performers and the
backstage crew in my final column on the show next week – at last you must be
thinking- which I will write on the day after the show closes as I join Tony
Homsey and crew in the sad task of taking apart the set (and beginning to build
the next set for the Susan Corning directed “Wait Until Dark,” opening Sept 16
and running for only 2 weekends - so get your tickets early.)
Norm blogs at ednotesonline.org when he is not staggering
out of cast parties.
No comments:
Post a Comment