NEW YORK — Billy Porter has returned to the stage for the first time since a severe bout of sepsis nearly killed him last year.

He stepped out Wednesday in his dream role as Albin in the off-Broadway, all-Black revival of “La Cage Aux Folles,” a part he has wanted to play “since I was too young to play it,” he told “CBS Mornings” earlier this week.

Robert O’Hara directs the revival of the 1984 Tony-winning musical penned by Harvey Fierstein and Jerry Herman and now starring Porter opposite Wayne Brady, playing Georges. The show runs June 17-28 at New York City Center.

Porter had to bow out of “Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club” last fall after being diagnosed with sepsis, which led to the closure one month early of the Broadway production. He had starred since July 2025 as the Emcee at New York City’s August Wilson Theater and had played the role in London’s West End before that.

His run was cut short by a case of sepsis so severe that he was “dead for three days” on life support and almost lost a leg, Porter recounted in March. The near-fatal bout started with a urinary tract infection that turned into kidney stones, he explained on TS Madison’s “Outlaws” podcast. A kidney stone became trapped in his urethra, surrounded by so much debris and puss that he went uroseptic within minutes, Porter told Madison.

He was hooked up to a heart-lung machine for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), used during life-threatening heart and lung conditions. After the life-support ordeal, his leg went into compartment syndrome, when muscles clench so tightly that they cut off their own oxygen, he said. To save his leg, doctors had to cut it open lengthwise while he was in a coma.

Earlier this week on “CBS Mornings” he spoke about his return, expressing his extreme gratitude at being alive and performing again.

“I have a new lease on life,” he said Monday. “I am alive. I’m working more than ever before, and I’m grateful to be alive. My work isn’t finished on this earth.”

Next up for the 56-year-old actor is a part in another “Hunger Games” installment, and a new podcast with Leslie Jones and Phoebe Robinson.

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