Hodge Reprises La Cage Role on Broadway???

La Cage aux Folles looks set to follow in Billy Elliot‘s ballet pump-clad footsteps by decamping to Broadway. At a press conference following last week’s Tony Awards, where Billy Elliot picked up ten gongs (See News, 8 Jun 2009), producer Sonia Friedman excitedly told journalists she’s currently on the lookout for a suitable venue to host La Cage from next spring, with a company led by its Olivier award-winning Albin Douglas Hodge.

At our recent Whatsonstage.com Outing to the show at the Playhouse (where it has been resident since 20 October 2008), current cast members, including new Albin Roger Allam and returnee Georges Philip Quast, confirmed they had heard about the transfer and shared some of the production’s secrets, including the fact that it nearly didn’t go ahead at all due to reasons including “influenza” and “rat infestations”!

But thankfully it did, as Terry Johnson‘s revival of the Jerry Herman/Harvey Fierstein musical, which premiered at the Menier Chocolate Factory last January, has gone on to become a resounding popular and critical success, picking up a host of awards including Best Musical Revival at the Oliviers.

The original 1983 Broadway production of La Cage aux Folles won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book for Harvey Fierstein and Best Score for Jerry Herman (who received a special 2009 Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement at this year’s ceremony). A Broadway revival in 2004 didn’t fare so well, receiving mixed reviews and lasting less than nine months.