NEW YORK: Students Perform La Cage Aux Folles At Special Needs School

A NYC private school for special needs kids has put on a student production of La Cage Aux Folles. While the show itself is fairly G-rated, the idea of ten year-olds performing in drag has gotten the New York Post's vile Andrea Peyser screaming.

"Dad, do I have to wear a dress to school?" No joke. These conversations went on in kitchens and living rooms around the city, as a top school that educates learning-disabled and autistic children staged a student production of "La Cage aux Folles" -- a cross-dressing, limp-wristed, gay comic romp whose main characters are a pair of "married" men. As the show packs in adult audiences on Broadway with campy star Kelsey Grammer and a cast of drag queens, the kiddie version of "La Cage" was cooked up by the executive director of Child School, a private institution on Roosevelt Island that takes on youngsters from kindergarten through middle school. Some 50 children as young as 10 were cast to play screaming queens, a school assistant told me.

The father, whose boy is autistic, was horrified that his vulnerable child might be made into a spectacle. "I'm outraged!" said the dad, who did not want to be identified for fear his kid would be hurt. "They're advocating for the gay lifestyle, giving them ideas. Saying, 'It's OK. If you're having these feelings, experiment with it.'" Then came the defense, necessary in this climate. "Look, I'm not a homophobe," the father said. But as a Catholic, "I'm teaching him that straight couples screwing around is a sin. If they want to teach tolerance, do 'West Side Story.'" Better yet, "teach them reading and writing."

The second of the school's two performances of La Cage was last night. But I'll bet we haven't heard the end of this.