re: La cage has only two
Posted by: AlanScott 03:43 pm EST 11/17/24
In reply to: re: La cage has only two - Chromolume 03:02 pm EST 11/17/24

At least in the original production and those based on that production, there is also Mme. Renaud, the wife of the cafĂȘ owner. I think she has a couple of lines. I'm feeling too lazy (and I guess I'm not interested enough) to find if that's correct. Anyway, she is perhaps there partly to understudy at least one of the two older women, which then means there's gotta be at least one ensemble member to cover her if it's a production that's running long enough to need understudies. In the original production, there were three additional female ensemble members, one of whom understudied Mme. Dindon, while Mme. Renaud understudied Jacqueline. And I think all three of the female ensemble members in the original production were sopranos (they all have soprano credits), to provide those high notes for the ensemble of which Jerry Herman and Don Pippin were so fond (sometimes a bit notoriously so as those ensemble numbers could be killers for the sopranos to have to sing eight times a week).

Also, of course, two of the Cagelles in the original cast were women. I think this was partly for the harmonies and partly because (or so they said) they wanted to make the audience wonder which Cagelles were women (and not be able to figure it out).
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