What Cheyenne Jackson Hopes You’ll Think When He Sings “Song on the Sand” in La Cage

Having been one of Broadway’s hottest leading men with notable turns in All Shook Up, Xanadu, and Finian’s Rainbow, Cheyenne Jackson spent a decade or so focusing on television and recordings before returning for the Broadway production of Into the Woods and New York City Center’s Encores! production of Once Upon a Mattress.

Now, the Pasadena Playhouse has lured him back to the land of musicals by giving him the opportunity to play gay nightclub owner Georges in their revival of the legendary Harvey Fierstein-Jerry Herman musical La Cage aux Folles.

TheaterMania spoke with Jackson about what this experience means to him as a gay man and father, whether he’s ever thought about playing Georges’s husband, the drag queen Albin, how he feels about doing musical theater again, and what he sees as the next chapter of his life.

What were your previous experiences with La Cage?

I am a bit embarrassed to say that I have never seen a production of the show. During the last couple of revivals, I think I was in a show at the same time, so I couldn’t make it happen. I’m going into this experience very pure. I’m using the text that Harvey wrote and I’m simply diving in with my whole heart. Still, the history and the legacy of this piece is not lost on me, both as a theater lover and as a proud gay man.

How do you think your life as a married gay man and father makes you well-suited to play Georges, a role often played by straight men?

I was speaking with our director Sam Pinkleton — who I would follow to the ends of the earth — about this the other day. My husband, Jason, and I have been together almost 13 years, and our kids are 8. So, I know what it looks like to be in a long-term couple. I know what it feels like and the ease that you begin to have with each other. It helps that Kevin Cahoon, who is my Albin, is a walking beating heart. We adore each other and trust each one another completely. Also, this is the first time I’ve played a father onstage, and I am eating it up. I get to show all sides of myself in this role and that is very freeing.

 Have you ever considered playing Albin/Zaza?

I have never considered playing Albin, but I definitely would consider it, although I’m much more of a Georges. My friend Jason Butler Harner said Kevin and I should switch parts nightly. Oh my god, I think my brain would explode if we did that! But I’d give it a go anyway.

While it may be an actor’s dream to sing “I Am What I Am,” you get to sing “Song on the Sand,” which I think is one of Jerry Herman’s greatest ballads. How do you feel about it?

Oh, I love it! I love the simplicity and the clarity of that song. I love that it begins with a question. I love the melodic adventure, and most of all I love the feeling it invokes — that long-term safe feeling you get with your one true love. I hope when people watch that scene and hear me sing it, they look over to their significant other and share a look of “That’s us, honey!”

How important do you think it is, given the state of our country, to show the world a positive same-sex marriage onstage right now?

 I could write a book on this, but I’ll save that for my memoirs. But what I will say is this musical could not be more timely.

 You’ve been doing more musicals lately. Have you found a new joy in doing these kinds of shows?

 I suppose so, although I had made a kind of promise to myself that I was done with musicals for a while after Mattress at Encores. I loved the experience, but I’ve been focusing on my writing. I’ve written two pilots and a screenplay, and I definitely think that’s going to be my next chapter, pun intended. But then out of the blue, I get a call from Sam about doing La Cage. He was very persuasive. And here we are.

Is there someone else or something else persuasive enough to get you back on Broadway, even for a short time?

I’ll know it when I see it. I make decisions very instinctually. Hence, why my career reads like a stream-of-consciousness, choose-your-own adventure book. So, let’s just say we shall see.