Robert Goulet looks to be having a helluva good time now that he's replaced the departed (under a cloud of stage gossip) Daniel Davis in La Cage aux Folles. This, of course, is the same Robert Goulet who made his first Broadway bow in Camelot (1960) singing "C'est Moi" with cocky splendor. Forty-five years later, the fellow is still creating frissons.

Indeed, as Georges -- the homosexual proprietor of a Riviera drag palace and the lover of Albin, the boite's feather-plumed star -- Goulet is playing the role and also, to some extent, playing himself playing the role. This may sound like a highfalutin Brechtian approach, but it ain't. It's just Goulet, who's always had a sense of humor abou[...]

The hardliners of the La Cage aux Folles revival have successfully held their ground on the kiss issue. I'm referring to the reported pre-opening debate between the members of the creative team who felt that audiences have matured enough to witness two men in a lip-lock and those who weren't sure. As it turned out, the musical's gay lovers, Georges (Daniel Davis) and Albin (Gary Beach), do indeed suck face.

However, they indulge only as the final curtain begins to fall and they are walking upstage into the St. Tropez sunset -- a shadowy sunset that lighting designer Donald Holder creates. In other words, Davis and Beach execute this potentially shocking maneuver at a point when anyone disg[...]