Wayne Brady is happy to tout his latest role as one in which he and his character are perfectly aligned “in terms of joy.”
The five-time Emmy winner and “Let’s Make a Deal” host returns to the theatrical stage this month in the New York City Center Encores! production of “La Cage aux Folles,” portraying a gay man who sweetly reconciles with his adult child after a betrayal. As a father of two who came out as pansexual in 2023, the actor and singer found it easy to establish a connection with his character.
“It’s not that I’m bringing anything that you can see that I wouldn’t have brought before,” he told celebrity.land. “What I think is that I can feel it differently than I did five years ago, if that makes sense.”
“La Cage aux Folles” is a musical adaptation of a 1973 French play, featuring music by Jerry Herman and a book by Harvey Fierstein. It tells the story of a gay man, Georges (played by Brady), who owns and operates a drag club in Saint-Tropez. His longtime romantic partner, Albin (Billy Porter), is the club’s star attraction and performs under the drag name “ZaZa.”
When Georges’ 24-year-old son, Jean-Michel (Alaman Diadhiou), returns home to announce his engagement to Anne (Rachel Webb), the daughter of an ultra-conservative, anti-LGBTQ+ politician (Peter Francis James), he asks his dad to present himself as heterosexual and for Albin, who raised him since childhood, to disappear from the family.
When it premiered on Broadway in 1983, “La Cage aux Folles” won six Tony Awards and broke fresh ground as a forward-thinking portrayal of a family led by same-sex parents. As those familiar with the musical ― as well as the 1996 Robin Williams film “The Birdcage,” which was adapted from the same source material ― can attest, the show has always been a comedic celebration of queer life.
The Encores! production of “La Cage aux Folles,” however, marks the first time the musical has featured an all-Black cast. Director Robert O’Hara and Fierstein have brought the story into the present day, as apparent in the Act 1 opening “We Are What We Are,” which features drag homages to Beyoncé and Rihanna, among other contemporary pop divas.
Brady was introduced to “La Cage aux Folles” after catching a regional theater production in Florida in the early 1990s. Interestingly, he said he casually approached Fierstein with the idea of mounting the show with an all-Black company about five years ago, with him starring opposite Tituss Burgess of “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.”
“Harvey wrote an amazing book and the music is amazing, so all of that stands on its own. But when you add the layer of representation, and the Black queer context on top of it, it takes it to another place,” he explained, noting the story feels even more urgent in 2026. “We live in a time when people seem to judge you even harsher on who you love, what you have between your legs, where you want to use the bathroom and on the color of your skin, even when some people thought we were all past that.”
He continued, “It’s beautiful that someone who looks like me can be on-stage and on TV and enjoy certain rights. But someone who looks like me can still be condemned for the color of my skin, if I’m in the wrong place, or if I’m loving on the wrong person. As long as those things are still possible, we need pieces of art like this to fight the fight.”
“La Cage aux Folles” ends its run on June 28, the same day as New York’s LGBTQ+ Pride March. Though no plans for the show have been announced, other recent City Center productions, such as “Ragtime” and “Into the Woods,” have transferred to Broadway.
For his part, Brady says he’d commit to a future iteration of the show in “a heartbeat.” This fall, he’ll star in the off-Broadway play “Ms. Blakk for President,” portraying the real-life activist Terence Alan Smith, who rose to national prominence in 1992 when he ran for president as Joan Jett Black, his drag persona.
Brady is quick to differentiate the scope of the play from “La Cage aux Folles,” noting, “It’s drag in defiance, at a time when the AIDS epidemic was tearing through the gay community.”
He added, “This is about Black activism and queer activism, and someone trying to make a difference because of what they look like and who they love. I feel a deep responsibility to have his story told right now.”
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