Cages or Wings, Presented by the Original Cast
This past weekend, I attended a performance of Cages or Wings, a musical by the Broadway Revue Troupe, the Original Cast. I was blown away by the show! I’ve always enjoyed theatre, but considering I didn’t even know what a “revue troupe” was until Friday, the perfomance definitely exceeded my expectations.The story started with selections from tick, tick…BOOM! and followed Johnny, a character based on Jonathan Larson (the writer of one of my all-time favorite shows, Rent), as he struggled to write the next big musical. Woven into Johnny’s story were three musicals that contributed or related to his life: Guys and Dolls, Sunday in the Park with George, and Rent. Members of the Original Cast had different roles in all four musicals, and one of my friends got to be Mark in Rent! I kept forgetting Original Cast is a completely student-run organization, because the performance seemed so professional. The show wrapped up with a song about “cages or wings, which do you prefer? Ask the birds,” from tick, tick…BOOM. Overall, the musicals were tied together flawlessly and I enjoyed the performance so much that I moved the movie version of Rent up on my Netflix queue.
