Promo for German-language La Cage aux Folles (2022), ft. Drew Sarich as Albin/Zaza, and Victor Gernot as Georges
English translation below the cut!
[approximate English Translation of German Transcript]:
Georges: Open your eyes! You are in the cage of fools — in La Cage aux Folles!
Victor Gernot (Actor, Georges): My name is Georges— I'm the director of this variety show. I am the boss of the Cagelles, and I'm not just the employer, but also the best friend, lover, husband, and admirer of the star of the show: Zaza on stage, and my Albin in real life.
Zaza, singing Mascara (translation of German lyrics): 🎶 I only feel zest for life, sensual, fabulous, / Because through putting on make up, Albin has vanished, and Zaza is here 🎶
Drew Sarich (Actor, Albin/Zaza): We have a wonderful home, and we have a son, Jean-Michel. And Jean-Michel comes home and tells Georges that he's getting married.
Gernot: Excellent choice. He has chosen the daughter of the party chairman for family, tradition, and morals, and wants to present an idealised/sanitised world for these in-laws—a world that, of course, doesn't actually exist in our household.
Jean-Michel: For the next 24 hours, there will be people here who have a different lifestyle than you do. For the next 24 hours, I am asking that you give up everything that you personally enjoy and everything that you are personally proud of. My future depends on it.
Melissa King (Director and Choreographer): This play is over 40 years old, and even if LGBTPQ rights have made advances, the community still isn't truly integrated. Which is to say, there is a certain level of, let's say, tolerance, but not 100% acceptance.
Georges, singing Look over There (translation of German lyrics): 🎶 Why do you believe that from now on there is just one love? / Think of the affection you have experienced so far 🎶
Lorenz C. Aichner (Conductor): My favourite numbers are actually the quieter ones. The show numbers are done wonderfully—beautifully crafted, dramaturgically well constructed with their high points, and they are superbly scored—but the most honest numbers are the quiet numbers, where there are truly honest interactions, truly honest emotions, and things are happening at a truly interpersonal level.
Georges and Albin, singing the Song on the Sand reprise (translation of German lyrics): 🎶 As the time has passed / I think often of that song there, in the sand 🎶
Aichner: Yeah, I think Georges is a difficult character—difficult for himself. For us, he's not a difficult character, but for himself? I think he sometimes makes his own life more difficult because he wants to be diplomatic toward everyone. I think that's a fine quality to have, but it must be terribly stressful for him.
Gernot: At first, the plan is that you won't be there at all. And then we decide that it would be good if you were there, as a man, as Uncle Albert. And finally, you take initiative—
Sarich: —and save the day!
Gernot: You save the show, you save the day, you save the marriage, the upcoming marriage, you save our marriage, and are the mother.
Zaza and ensemble, singing The Best of Times is Now (translation of German lyrics): 🎶 The most beautiful time is now / what’s left of summer, just an Edelweiss 🎶
King: And I find, that's when you see the perfect blend of Albin and Zaza. Albin, who's perhaps less self-assured, who's jealous, and then you have Zaza, who has power, self-assuredness, will fight for everyone, right? And when he has to play the mother, it's the perfect blend of the two. I think every person has yin and yang, masculine-feminine, and when those are perfectly combined, then the person is...
Aichner: Complete.
King: Complete. Thank you. Thank you. (laughs)
Zaza, singing I Am What I Am (translation of German lyrics): 🎶 I am what I am / and what I am is not a secret 🎶
Sarich: It's phenomenal that we can deliver a message like this without it getting preachy. Where we don't have to point and say "Please please please please please." Um, there's an expression in English, "You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar," and we are smearing honey over everything.
Gernot: Yes.
Sarich: Ha!
Gernot: At the end of, at the end of the night, we smell a bit like vinegar, but— (laughs)
Sarich: (laughs) But we taste like honey.
Gernot: We taste like honey (laughs).
Zaza, singing I Am What I Am (translation of German lyrics): 🎶 Hey world! I am what I am 🎶
