Another openin', another show. Or, taking last week into consideration, four other shows. I've already done my critique on Pacific Overtures, so now I'll do the other three, in order of attendance.

La Cage aux Folles: I saw the original production the night before it opened, 20 years ago. It was, to use a cliche, fabulous. This production was a little scaled down, but not that much, and it's still fabulous...elegant...sensual, as Zaza puts it in her first song. Zaza, for those of you who have never seen La Cage or its American cousin, The Birdcage, is a drag artiste -- real name, Albin -- who is never more alive when in her highest drag on the stage of the St. Tropez nightclub he owns with his partner of 20 years, Georges. Trouble comes in the form of Georges' son, Jean-Michel (the result of a one-night stand many years ago). Seems the boy loves a young lady whose father is a moralistic politician -- and her parents are coming to visit his parents. Except that a mother who's really a man just won't fly with the boy's soon-to-be in-laws -- so Albin has got to go, while Georges pretends to be straight for just one night. But this is a comedy, after all, so in the end true love and unwanted publicity triumph, and Georges and Albin walk off into the St. Tropez sunset arm in arm.

It's been 20 years since the original production, which for its time was daring (not only do you have a long-term loving homosexual relationship presented as not only normal but accepted by the community, but you have the chorus line -- the notorious Cagelles -- making you wonder just which ones are male and which are not). You'd think the show was dated, but it's not. With today's "gay marriage crisis" and the public discussion on just what marriage means, this show -- with its message of love and tolerance -- is needed now more than ever. (One could have wished the show were playing when the GOP rolled into town, but I doubt the RNC would have provided tickets to the delegates for this one.) Plus you have Harvey Fierstein's still-funny book, and Jerry Herman's glorious score (which includes "Look Over There", "The Best of Times", and "I Am What I Am" -- and if you aren't familiar with these songs, you should be). My recommendation: What are you waiting for? La Cage aux Folles is still the jewel of the cabaret world, the toast of the Riviera, the pride of St. Tropez -- and one of the best musicals in town.

Gem of the Ocean: August Wilson has, for the past few decades, been writing the plays that will make up a ten-play theatrical history of the African-American experience (one for each decade). This play is the ninth one written, but the first one chronologically, taking place in 1904, with slavery still a living memory. I can't say too much about it, since Wilson has always had a penchant for mixing grim reality with the supernatural which makes any description pale in comparison to seeing the work. But I can praise the cast, led by Ruben Santiago-Hudson and LisaGay Hamilton, and featuring the towering performance of Phylicia Rashad as 230-year-old Aunt Ester, a woman who carries the history of her people within her like a transcendant, glorious burden. Ms. Rashad's performance alone is worth the price of admission, but every component of this production is just so close to perfection. (Side note: Why hasn't anyone in Hollywood, black, white, or paisley, started to film Wilson's plays? Even the Pulitzer Prize-winning Fences, which had a top-of-his-career performance by James Earl Jones, has not reached the screen. Shame on Hollywood, and especially on its black actors and directors, for not getting these works before a wider audience.) My recommendation: There will be many strong dramas this season, and many excellent performances, but if you consider yourself even a semi-serious theatregoer you must see Phylicia Rashad in Gem of the Ocean.

The Rivals: Richard Brinsley Sheridan's first play introduced the amazingly unique Mrs. Malaprop to the world (and to the dictionary). Dana Ivey plays her to within an inch of her life, and whenever she's on stage you find yourself paying especial attention to what she's saying -- no one else mangles English quite like Malaprop. I wish I could say the rest of the cast in Lincoln Center Theatre's revival of this eighteenth-century classic was equally fun to watch. Not that they do badly, mind you; but the long and, I daresay, boring first act is the price you have to pay for the faster, funnier second act. My recommendation: If you're teaching your high school English class about Sheridan and Restoration comedy, see this. Otherwise -- well, I hear there are some other good shows on Broadway that are much less of a chore and just as substantial.