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La Cage Aux Folles Sheet Music
(Vocal Score). Complete vocal score to the Broadway sensation with 11 songs: The Best of Times * I Am What I Am * A Little More Mascara * Look over There * Song on the Sand (La Da Da Da) * With You on My Arm * and more.
252 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1983
About the author
Jerry Herman
65 books1 followerGerald Sheldon Herman (July 10, 1931 – December 26, 2019) was an American composer and lyricist, known for his work in Broadway musical theater. He composed the scores for the hit Broadway musicals Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and La Cage aux Folles.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 14, 2025
These birds of another feather are a hoot! Vive la difference!
November 11, 2022
There are few shows that can touch La Cage aux Folles when it comes to good old-fashioned musical comedy values--hummable tunes (by Jerry Herman), a giddy and witty book (by Harvey Fierstein), and exciting and breathless dance numbers (performed by a dozen male dancers in drag). Good old-fashioned family values, too, I add, inevitably: La Cage, about a gay couple preparing for the wedding of their straight son, provides perhaps one of the most traditional and loving defenses of marriage and monogamy anywhere in the annals of musical theater.
The story has been told many times by now, originally in Jean Poiret's farce of the same name and more recently in the Mike Nichols's film The Birdcage. Georges and Albin are a happily "married" couple living and working together in St. Tropez. Georges, the more grounded of the pair, is the owner and master of ceremonies of a notoriously popular drag cabaret theatre called La Cage aux Folles, where the flightier, wackier Albin is the reigning queen of the stage as his alter ego Zaza. They have a butler, Jacob, who claims to be a maid and whose only goal seems to be to land a part in the show at the nightclub. They also have a son, Jean-Michel, a handsome 20-year-old who was the result of a youthful caprice of Georges's; the boy's mother, Sybil, has remained an absentee parent and Albin has stood in as de facto mama.
The plot hinges on Jean-Michel's sudden announcement that he is about to get married--to a woman. As if that's not cataclysmic enough news for Georges and Albin, it turns out that this young lady, Anne, is the daughter of a rabidly conservative, anti-gay politician, Edouard Dindon. And guess what: the entire Dindon clan--pere, mere, et fille--are coming to dinner tomorrow.
Jean-Michel wants to hide Albin in, well, the closet; he can't risk having his future in-laws learn that he was raised by a famous drag queen. He convinces an initially reluctant Georges to invite Sybil and pretend they're still married; he does a quick overhaul of his parents' flamboyantly decorated house, transforming it into something along the lines of a monk's quarters. Albin, unsteady in a man's suit and wingtips, is "Uncle Al." All's proceeding on a steady if rocky course when word comes that Sybil can't make it. "Uncle Al" disappears, only to return, a few minutes later, as Jean-Michel's loving mom. And then the fun really begins.
It's outlandishly silly, of course--not to be taken seriously at all, except for the morals about tolerance and appreciation of those who love us. (Herman makes sure we don't lose sight of this later idea, ending the play proper with "Look Over There," a paean to parental devotion.) And of course, there is a lot here about being proud of who you are, even if it's not what the world thinks you are supposed to be. It makes for delicious farce, and with the proper cast and director (as I have seen several times in my life), it works splendiferously.
Albin gets the score's most famous song, in which he asserts an unexpected pride in, as he puts it, loving "each feather and each spangle":
The story has been told many times by now, originally in Jean Poiret's farce of the same name and more recently in the Mike Nichols's film The Birdcage. Georges and Albin are a happily "married" couple living and working together in St. Tropez. Georges, the more grounded of the pair, is the owner and master of ceremonies of a notoriously popular drag cabaret theatre called La Cage aux Folles, where the flightier, wackier Albin is the reigning queen of the stage as his alter ego Zaza. They have a butler, Jacob, who claims to be a maid and whose only goal seems to be to land a part in the show at the nightclub. They also have a son, Jean-Michel, a handsome 20-year-old who was the result of a youthful caprice of Georges's; the boy's mother, Sybil, has remained an absentee parent and Albin has stood in as de facto mama.
The plot hinges on Jean-Michel's sudden announcement that he is about to get married--to a woman. As if that's not cataclysmic enough news for Georges and Albin, it turns out that this young lady, Anne, is the daughter of a rabidly conservative, anti-gay politician, Edouard Dindon. And guess what: the entire Dindon clan--pere, mere, et fille--are coming to dinner tomorrow.
Jean-Michel wants to hide Albin in, well, the closet; he can't risk having his future in-laws learn that he was raised by a famous drag queen. He convinces an initially reluctant Georges to invite Sybil and pretend they're still married; he does a quick overhaul of his parents' flamboyantly decorated house, transforming it into something along the lines of a monk's quarters. Albin, unsteady in a man's suit and wingtips, is "Uncle Al." All's proceeding on a steady if rocky course when word comes that Sybil can't make it. "Uncle Al" disappears, only to return, a few minutes later, as Jean-Michel's loving mom. And then the fun really begins.
It's outlandishly silly, of course--not to be taken seriously at all, except for the morals about tolerance and appreciation of those who love us. (Herman makes sure we don't lose sight of this later idea, ending the play proper with "Look Over There," a paean to parental devotion.) And of course, there is a lot here about being proud of who you are, even if it's not what the world thinks you are supposed to be. It makes for delicious farce, and with the proper cast and director (as I have seen several times in my life), it works splendiferously.
Albin gets the score's most famous song, in which he asserts an unexpected pride in, as he puts it, loving "each feather and each spangle":
I am my own special creation....Brave words in 1983, when this was written; and perhaps still today.
I bang my own drum
Some think it's noise
I think it's pretty.
December 19, 2023
Fellow author and reviewer Mr. Denton has already said it all: His is the most exquisite review I've ever read describing this wonderful play, film series, and book. I saw The Birdcage when it first came out, and I fell instantly in love with it. Writing as a pansexual Cis female, I could relate to so many of Albin's views. It is very difficult when the world does not accept you for who you are, and doubly hard when those who have always loved and supported you wish for you to change. I found myself touched by Georges' devotion to him. It is a LOVE story, which is so important in a world where the LGBTQ+ community is largely viewed as promiscuous and immoral. I love the family values in their rather untraditional family that is so important throughout and the loving dialogue between Georges and Albin as Georges supports his longtime partner. This play is inspiring, in that it encourages a person to be brave and to be themselves in all circumstances. A bit of clever humor softens the sharp edges and draws the reader in as they encounter various characters who are not so friendly. However, there is a lesson to be heeded here in the importance of being our wondrous and beautiful selves, rather than a carbon copy of someone else. I am reminded of a quote by Isaac Asimov: "Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right."
May 21, 2024
Okay. It doesn't matter if you've read the original Jean Poiret script of the play, or even seen the 1978 movie adaptation, you will know this story. Because you have mostly likely seen the Robin Williams and Nathan Lane movie The Birdcage.
It's a hilarious romp through the lives of a much-loved female impersonator, his husband, their son, and the future in-laws. And, even if you did see The Birdcage, you will still enjoy this play.
Much kudos to Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein.
It's a hilarious romp through the lives of a much-loved female impersonator, his husband, their son, and the future in-laws. And, even if you did see The Birdcage, you will still enjoy this play.
Much kudos to Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein.
December 19, 2018
The way the original play was turned from a near farce into a soul touching musical such as this is a work of genius. I cannot wait to see this one day. I want to be in it one day! Fierstein and Herman rock my world.
January 4, 2021
Stylish melodies and witty lyrics. Hats off to Jerry Herman!
February 3, 2023
So sweet and hilarious!!! Im literally shook at how much better than the movie JUST READING THE SCRIPT is
July 21, 2015
Clever, biting, fabulous, and sweet. This one at first glance is easy to fall in love with. I'm so looking forward to journey I have with the show.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews