I’m sure you’re wondering how I landed on these photos, and I can tell you that it’s because I spend a lot of time searching specific dates on Getty Images and trawling through years and years of entertainment pictures looking for interesting flashback content, and ones featuring Angela Lansbury always catch my eye.
I’ve never seen the musical La Cage Aux Folles, mostly because I think I’m the wrong age; I was definitely too young to see it when it premiered in 1983, and I was busy being a senior in high school during its next big revival tour. (Let me be honest: I am sure I was very occupied with my high school’s revival of The Music Man when it came through Los Angeles in 1993.) I do not know how I missed the 2011 tour, given that George Hamilton was in it, but I certainly lived through that particular Broadway revival’s impact, as it is the show Kelsey Grammer was starring in when he and Camille were breaking up during The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and she came out for the Tonys and he was so mean to her. (It is based on the same Italian movie that The Birdcage is based on, and of course I have seen that.) It is a hole in my musical theatre education! But I can tell you two things: Per the contemporaneous snaps on Getty, this show was a hot ticket, and also its Wikipedia is legitimately interesting. Please join me to see some Peak Cher Hair, some 80s day dresses that folks could wear now, and a TRULY WILD look on Lorna Luft.
