{"id":2473711,"date":"2026-06-24T15:19:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T15:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2473711"},"modified":"2026-06-24T15:19:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T15:19:43","slug":"wayne-brady-says-la-cage-aux-folles-role-reflects-his-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wayne-brady-says-la-cage-aux-folles-role-reflects-his-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"Wayne Brady Says \u2018La Cage Aux Folles\u2019 Role Reflects His \u2018Joy\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Wayne Brady<\/a> is happy to tout his latest role as one in which he and his character are perfectly aligned \u201cin terms of joy.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The five-time Emmy winner and \u201cLet\u2019s Make a Deal<\/a>\u201d host returns to the theatrical stage this month in the New York City Center Encores! production of \u201cLa Cage aux Folles<\/a>,\u201d portraying a gay man who sweetly reconciles with his adult child after a betrayal. As a father of two who came out as pansexual<\/a> in 2023, the actor and singer found it easy to establish a connection with his character. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that I\u2019m bringing anything that you can see that I wouldn\u2019t have brought before,\u201d he told celebrity.land. \u201cWhat I think is that I can feel it differently than I did five years ago, if that makes sense.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cLa Cage aux Folles\u201d is a musical adaptation of a 1973 French play, featuring music by Jerry Herman<\/a> and a book by Harvey Fierstein<\/a>. It tells the story of a gay man, Georges (played by Brady), who owns and operates a drag club in Saint-Tropez. <\/span>His longtime romantic partner, Albin (Billy Porter<\/a>), is the club\u2019s star attraction and performs under the drag name \u201cZaZa.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"Billy<\/picture><\/div>\n
Billy Porter and Wayne Brady star in \u201cLa Cage aux Folles,\u201d playing at New York’s City Center through June 28.<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

When Georges\u2019 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<\/a>), he asks his dad to present himself as heterosexual and for Albin, who raised him since childhood, to disappear from the family. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

When it premiered on Broadway in 1983, \u201cLa Cage aux Folles\u201d won six Tony Awards<\/a> and broke fresh ground as a forward-thinking portrayal of a family led by same-sex parents. As those familiar with the musical \u2015 as well as the 1996 Robin Williams film \u201cThe Birdcage<\/a>,\u201d which was adapted from the same source material \u2015 can attest, the show has always been a comedic celebration of queer life. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The Encores! production of \u201cLa Cage aux Folles,\u201d however, marks the first time the musical has featured an all-Black cast. Director Robert O\u2019Hara and Fierstein have brought the story<\/a> into the present day, as apparent in the Act 1 opening \u201cWe Are What We Are,\u201d which features drag homages to Beyonc\u00e9 and Rihanna, among other contemporary pop divas. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"\u201cWhen<\/picture><\/div>\n
\u201cWhen you add the layer of representation, and the Black queer context on top of it, it takes it to another place,\u201d Brady (on right, with Porter) said.<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

Brady was introduced to \u201cLa Cage aux Folles\u201d 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<\/a> of \u201cUnbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cHarvey 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,\u201d he explained, noting the story feels even more urgent in 2026. \u201cWe 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.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

He continued, \u201cIt\u2019s 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\u2019m in the wrong place, or if I\u2019m loving on the wrong person. As long as those things are still possible, we need pieces of art like this to fight the fight.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"Brady<\/picture><\/div>\n
Brady (center, with co-stars Rachel Webb and Alaman Diadhiou) says he’d commit to a future iteration of \u201cLa Cage aux Folles\u201d in \u201ca heartbeat.\u201d <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

\u201cLa Cage aux Folles\u201d ends its run on June 28, the same day as New York\u2019s LGBTQ+ Pride March. Though no plans for the show have been announced, other recent City Center productions, such as \u201cRagtime<\/a>\u201d and \u201cInto the Woods,<\/a>\u201d have transferred to Broadway.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

For his part, Brady says he\u2019d commit to a future iteration of the show in \u201ca heartbeat.\u201d This fall, he\u2019ll star in the off-Broadway play \u201cMs. Blakk for President<\/a>,\u201d portraying the real-life activist Terence Alan Smith<\/a>, who rose to national prominence in 1992 when he ran for president as Joan Jett Black<\/a>, his drag persona. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Brady is quick to differentiate the scope of the play from \u201cLa Cage aux Folles,\u201d noting, \u201cIt\u2019s drag in defiance, at a time when the AIDS epidemic was tearing through the gay community.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

He added, \u201cThis 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.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"\u201cWe<\/picture><\/div>\n
\u201cWe 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,\u201d Brady said. <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n