Douglas Hodge is to reprise his Laurence Olivier Award-winning performance in the London production of La Cage Aux Folles this Christmas, prior to the show’s planned Broadway transfer.
Hodge will replace John Barrowman as Albin/Zaza for a five week season from 30 November, when he will be joined in the cast by Denis Lawson, with whom he starred when the hit musical first opened at the Playhouse theatre last autumn.
La Cage Aux Folles, which won Best Musical Revival at the 2009 Laurence Olivier Awards, follows club owner Georges and his lover and leading drag performer Albin, whose way of life it threatened when Georges’s son announces an imminent visit from the future in-laws, who just happen to be a high profile right wing politician and his wife.
The West End production started life at the Menier Chocolate Factory in 2007, where Hodge donned Zaza’s fabulous frocks for the first time. Following a rapturous reception at the small London Bridge venue, it transferred to the Playhouse theatre in October 2008, where Hodge was joined by Lawson.
Hodge is one of London theatre’s most versatile actors, having recently appeared in hit musical Guys And Dolls, Shakespeare’s Globe’s bloody production of Titus Andronicus and Kneehigh theatre’s production of A Matter Of Life And Death at the National Theatre.
La Cage Aux Folles’s leading roles are currently being played by Torchwood star, I’d Do Anything judge and musical theatre leading man Barrowman opposite Australian actor Simon Burke, who has previously appeared in London productions of The Sound Of Music and When The Rain Stops Falling, as Georges. Though already performing in the show, the pair face the press on 5 October.
MA