La Cage aux Folles (French pronunciation: [lə kaʒ o fɔl]) is a musical with a book by Harvey Fierstein and lyrics and music by Jerry Herman. Based on the 1973 French play of the same name by Jean Poiret, it focuses on a gay couple: Georges, the manager of a Saint-Tropez nightclub featuring drag entertainment, and Albin, his romantic partner and star attraction, and the farcical adventures that ensue when Georges's son, Jean-Michel, brings home his fiancée's ultra-conservative parents to meet them.

The original 1983 Broadway production received nine nominations for Tony Awards and won six, including Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book. The success of the musical spawned a West End production and several international runs. The 2004 Broadway revival won the Tony Award for Best Revival, the 2008 London revival garnered the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival. The 2010 Broadway revival was nominated for eleven Tony Awards, winning the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. La Cage aux Folles is the only musical which has won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical twice and the only show that has won a Best Production Tony Award (Best Musical or Best Revival of a Musical) for each of its Broadway productions. A National Tour, based on the 2010 revival, began in October 2011 with George Hamilton as Georges and Christopher Sieber as Albin.

Matthew James Morrison (born October 30, 1978) is an American actor, dancer, musician, and singer-songwriter. He is best known for starring in multiple Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, including his portrayal of Link Larkin in Hairspray on Broadway, and most notably for his Emmy and Golden Globe nominated role as Will Schuester on the Fox television show Glee (2009–present). He has also received a Satellite Award for this role.

Matthew Morrison was born in Fort Ord, California, and raised in Orange County, and is of Scottish heritage. He was part of the Collaborative Arts Project 21 (CAP21) and the Orange County High School of the Arts, while at the Los Alamitos High School campus. While in high school, he did a musical with actress Jodie Sweetin. He attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for two years before dropping out and joining the Broadway adaptation of Footloose.

By freshman year of college Morrison already was a regular performer on Broadway. He states in Details "There were all these beautiful, beautiful dancers. As a straight guy I had some room. There were the shared interests in singing and dancing, and I always find dancing with someone very erotic and sexual. I definitely hooked up with a lot of girls when I was a young guy on Broadway. It was fun, I guess. Very joyous and free."

Michel Serrault (24 January 1928, Brunoy, Essonne – 29 July 2007, Équemauville, Normandy) was a celebrated French actor who appeared in over 150 films.

Having originally wanted to be a circus clown, Serrault was sent by his parents to a seminary to study for the priesthood. He spent only a few months there before taking up acting. His first professional job was on a tour of Germany in Molière's Les Fourberies de Scapin. After military service in Dijon, he returned to Paris and joined Robert Dhery's burlesque troupe, appearing in their second hit show, Dugudu.

In 1948, he began his career in the theatre with Robert Dhéry in Les Branquignols. His first film was Ah ! Les belles bacchantes, starring Robert Dhéry, Colette Brosset (Dhéry's then-wife), and Louis de Funès; directed by Jean Loubignac in 1954. Serrault played in the 1955 suspense thriller Les Diaboliques, starring Simone Signoret and directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.

He had met and worked with Jean Poiret in the early 1950s, which led to a song and comedy cabaret act and their playing together in 18 films from 1956 to 1984, and in a number of plays written by Poiret. The films they worked together in included Cette Sacrée Gamine (1956), with Brigitte Bardot, and Sacha Guitry's last film, Assassins et Voleurs (1957).

Ugo Tognazzi (Italian pronunciation: [ˈuɡo toɲˈɲattsi]; 23 March 1922 - 27 October 1990) was an Italian film, TV, and theatre actor, director, and screenwriter.

Tognazzi was born in Cremona, in northern Italy but spent his youth in various localities as his father was a traveller clerk for an insurance company.

After his return in the native city in 1936, he worked in a salami production plant. In World War II, he was called to the Army, returning home after the Armistice of September 1943. His passion for spectacles and acting dates from his early years, and also during the conflict he had organized spectacles for his fellow soldiers. In 1945 he moved to Milan, where he was enrolled in the theatrical company led by Wanda Osiris. A few years later he formed his own successful musical revue company.

In 1950 Tognazzi made his debut for cinema, in I cadetti di Guascogna directed by Mario Mattoli. In the following year he met Raimondo Vianello, with whom he formed a successful comical duo for the new-born RAI TV (1954–1960). Their shows, sometimes containing satirical aspects, were also among the first ones to be censored in Italian television.

Michel Louis Edmond Galabru is a French actor born on 27 October 1922 in Safi, Morocco.

Over the course of his career, Galabru appeared in over 200 movies and worked with such renowned directors as Bertrand Blier, Costa-Gavras, Luc Besson (for Subway), and Jean-Luc Godard. He is also known for his collaborations with Louis de Funès in Le gendarme de Saint-Tropez, Le gendarme se marie, Le gendarme et les extra-terrestres, Le gendarme en balade, Le gendarme à New York, Le gendarme et les gendarmettes, Le petit baigneur, L'avare, and Nous irons a Deauville (with Michel Serrault).

He has also worked with actors Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault in La Cage aux Folles, La Cage aux Folles II, and La Cage aux Folles 3; Le viager; Les gaspars; Le room service; Antonio Vivaldi, un prince à Venise; and L'ibis rouge.

In 1977, Galabru received a César for Best Actor for his portrayal of Joseph Bouvier in Bertrand Tavernier's The Judge and the Assassin.