None of the 2000 performances of
La Cage aux folles
with Jean Poiret and Michel Serrault have been filmed in their entirety.
What would today be considered professional misconduct was common in the 1970s. The means of filming in video were in its infancy and no one imagined that one could watch films on DVD or on the Internet one day at home.
Part of the play was shot under circumstances that remain mysterious.
These images, now proposed by Madelen, show the unparalleled genius of a duo in a comedy whose success was not immediate.
Read also: Michel Serrault or communicative joviality
The idea was born in 1968. One evening, Jean Poiret attends, at the Comédie des Champs-Élysées, a performance of
L'escalier
. Refugees in a sordid hairdressing salon, nostalgic for the past, Paul Meurisse and Daniel Ivernel argue violently. He associates this scene with a sketch
Les deux Hortenses
, which he wrote and performed with Michel Serrault, when they debuted in cabarets. From the couple of antique dealers that he imagined for a ten-minute dialogue, Poiret will create the characters of Alban and Zaza Napoli. He decides to make them evolve behind the scenes of a cabaret of transformists, like
Chez Michou
and
La Grande Eugène
which are then sold out every evening.
To read also:
Douce-Amère
, Jean Poiret in the footsteps of Sacha Guitry
Jean-Michel Rouzière, the director of the Palais-Royal theater, reads the play and agrees to create it after much hesitation.
He fears that the theme of homosexuality, then taboo, will trigger more controversy than laughter.
On February 14, 1973, the day after the premiere, the critics were indeed not tender.
Some applaud the burlesque genius of the actors, but a majority scream scandal.
The public follows the movement and is rare.
A shutdown after one month is then considered.
Three weeks later, the trend is reversed.
One morning, Rouzière noticed a sharp increase in the number of calls to the rental service.
Word of mouth is at the origin of a movement that will not stop growing.
Moments of scenic delirium
We are starting to no longer count the spectators who come back several times to applaud a show, which changes every evening, depending on the mood of Poiret and Serrault. It is frequent that these born improvisers, launch out, for the pleasure, in moments of delirium. The play sometimes lasts half an hour longer, and no one complains, starting with the audience. One evening, at the end of an argument, Serrault decides not to return to Poiret, as the situation foresees. He settles in a corner of the plateau and says that this time, it is too much, he is leaving. His friend, who has a hard time holding back his giggles, will do everything to bring him to his senses, and especially at home.
The adventure continues for nearly 2000 evenings.
The Cage aux folles
will then be adapted to the screen, but also to Broadway in the form of a musical.
Poiret will give the green light but refuse to take charge of the adaptation.
No doubt because this multi-talented author-actor never wanted to be locked in a cage, or even in a box.
A period report on
La Cage aux folles
by Jean Poiret, with Jean Poiret and Michel Serrault
