June's bustin' out all over, and we're bustin' out one last classic episode before we get back to some new episodes coming later this month. And since June is Pride Month and the month of the Tony Awards, we're serving up a "two birds, one stone" situation by reairing an episode that falls squarely in both categories: La Cage aux Folles!

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In honor of pride month, this week is a special episode focused on the franchise that began life as a landmark French boulevard stage comedy, and was then adapted into acclaimed films and musical. And even though the love story at the center of the story was between two men, it has captured the hearts of audiences from all sexual orientations. It also answers the age old question: what happens when you put the composer of Hello Dolly!, the director of West Side Story, and Edna Turnlad in a room together? The answer: Broadway magic.

Rob teaches Ray about the history of Jean Poiret’s play La Cage Aux Folles and its many adaptations; how competing producers (including ThWAT favorite Allan Carr) fought to secure the chance to both film and musicalize La Cage; Jerry Herman’s hummable, Tony-winning score and the anthem it provided the gay rights movement; Nathan Lane’s breakout movie performance; and all the ways in which this property has been and continues to be celebrated by audiences across the world.

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Ray Hebel

Robert W. Schneider

Mark Schroeder

Billy Recce

Daniel Schwartzberg

Gabe Crawford

Natalie DeSavia

Mike Wallace The Homosexuals 1967 - YouTube

La Cage Aux Folles (1979) movie review - Sneak Previews with Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel - YouTube

Epiphany - George Hearn (1982) - YouTube

La Cage aux Folles 2 Trailer

La Cage aux Folles 3 Trailer

"Color and Light" from Sunday in the Park with George

Columbo Pilot Episode - “Prescription Murder” costarring Gene Barry - Clips - YouTube

I Am What I Am - YouTube

Song on the Sand (La Da Da Da) - YouTube