North Carolina Theatre in Raleigh, which for 12 years has offered the state's capital city lavish productions of Broadway musicals featuring Equity actors, surprised both the theatrical and political communities last week when its board voted to drop "La Cage aux Folles" from next season's schedule to avoid controversy.
The 1983 Jerry Herman-Harvey Fierstein musical centers around a gay couple who own a nightclub featuring men dressed as women. It will be replaced in the June 1997 slot by "Annie," a show NCT previously staged in 1990.
NCT found "La Cage" controversial not so much because many of the characters are gay, but because they appear in drag. Under a Raleigh ordinance, any business offering entertainment featuring "female impersonators" is classed as an "adult establishment" and must operate under certain restrictions. One month ago, a club named Legends filed suit to have that ordinance overturned. Part of the club's legal argument was that the city had allowed male actors to appear in female clothing in plays at a number of theatres--including NCT--without classifying those places as "adult establishments."
In dropping "La Cage," NCT apparently hoped to avoid giving ammunition to forces in city politics that want to cut public funding for the arts. The city of Raleigh contributes $133,000 a year directly to NCT and also provides space and utilities worth $229,000 a year in city-owned Memorial Auditorium, where the company performs. The 1995 election created a conservative majority on the Raleigh City Council and since then there have been several public controversies over taxpayer-supported arts projects.
Ironically, NCT seems more worried about the politicians than the pols are about the play. City Attorney Thomas McCormick told the News & Observer he didn't think "La Cage" would place NCT afoul of the law, and conservative Mayor Tom Fetzer said his "gut feeling" was that there is "a substantial difference between what was going on at Legends and what would be shown on the stage of Memorial Auditorium." The show has been staged twice in the past decade by local dinner theatres without any detectable opposition.
Nevertheless, NCT opted for caution--and ticket sales. "Why get caught up in it?" NCT executive director De Ann Jones told the News & Observer. "My next comment is going to sound crass, but 'Annie' will make a lot more money."
Former board chairman K.D. Kennedy denied that the play was dropped because it contained gay characters, an assertion that was challenged by News & Observer writers David Perkins and Bill Morrison.
"The root of the issue, of course, is not really cross-dressing at all," the two wrote on Sun., Aug. 4. "Otherwise, the furor would be about N.C. Theatre's production of 'Peter Pan' or the recent revival of 'Charley's Aunt' by PlayMakers Repertory Company in Chapel Hill. Let's face it: the problem is that a gay man in feathers is more unsettling that a straight man in f