Armand Goldman is the openly gay owner of a drag club in South Beach called The Birdcage; his effete and flamboyant partner Albert is the star attraction of the club under the name Starina. They live together in an apartment above The Birdcage with Agador, an openly gay, equally flamboyant, Guatemalan housekeeper who aspires to be in Armand's drag show.
One day, Armand's son Val, who is a product of Armand's drunken one-night stand with a woman named Katharine, comes home to announce that he has been seeing a young woman named Barbara whom he intends to marry. Although unhappy about the news, Armand agrees to support Val. Unfortunately, Barbara's parents are the ultra-conservative Republican Senator Kevin Keeley and his wife Louise.
Kevin, co-founder of a conservative group called the Coalition for Moral Order, becomes embroiled in a political scandal when the group's co-founder and Kevin's fellow senator is found dead in the bed of an underage black prostitute. Louise and Barbara convince Kevin that a visit to meet the family of his daughter's fiancé would be the perfect way to stave off bad press, so they set out for South Beach.
Barbara shares news of her father's plan to Val. To conceal the truth about the Goldmans, she has told her parents that Armand is straight, named Coleman (to hide that they are Jewish) and is a cultural attaché to Greece. Armand dislikes the idea of being forced into the closet, but agrees to play along, enlisting the help of friends and club employees to redecorate the apartment to more closely resemble a traditional household. Val and Armand attempt to get Albert out of the house, but when they fail, Albert suggests that he will pose as Val's straight uncle. Armand contacts Katharine and explains the situation; she promises to come to the party and pretend to be his wife. Armand then tries to coach Albert on how to act straight, but Albert's flamboyant nature makes the task difficult. Armand realizes his plan will not fool anyone. Albert takes offense and locks himself in his room.
The Keeleys arrive at the Goldmans' redecorated apartment; they are greeted by Agador, who is attempting to pass as a Greek butler named Spartacus for the night. Unfortunately, Katharine gets caught in traffic, and the Keeleys begin wondering where "Mrs. Coleman" is. Suddenly, Albert enters, dressed and styled as a conservative middle-aged woman. Armand, Val, and Barbara are nervous, but Kevin and Louise are taken in by the disguise.
Despite the success of the evening, trouble begins when the senator's chauffeur betrays him to two tabloid journalists, Harry Radman and his photographer, who have been hoping for a scoop on the Coalition story and have followed the Keeleys to South Beach. While they research The Birdcage, they also remove a note that Armand has left on the door informing Katharine not to come upstairs. When she arrives, she unknowingly reveals the deceptions, leading Val to confess to the scheme and finally identify Albert as his true parent.
Kevin is initially confused by the situation, but Louise informs him of the truth and scolds him for being more concerned with his career than his family's happiness. When attempting to leave, he is ambushed by the paparazzi camped outside to take his picture. Albert then realizes that there is a way for the family to escape without being recognized. He dresses them in drag and they use the apartment's back entrance to sneak into The Birdcage where, by dancing to Sister Sledge's "We Are Family," they make their way out of the nightclub without incident. Barbara and Val are married in an interfaith service that both families attend.
Mike Nichols was originally involved as the director of the 1983 Broadway adaptation of La Cage aux Folles, but was fired from the production by producer Allan Carr.[3] In 1994, Nichols convinced John Calley, then the head of United Artists, who owned the rights to the original 1978 film version, to renew the option with him as a director and producer.[4][5] Calley, a longtime friend of Nichols, said, "I asked Mike if there was anything we owned that interested him. And he said, 'You own a project that has one of the greatest comedy structures.' We got the rest of the rights, and he said he wanted to call Elaine and ask her to do it. The next day she said yes."[3]
Among the changes Elaine May added to the film's plot was renaming the character of Georges to Armand and Albin to Albert.[6] She also incorporated the plot line about the potential in-law characters being a conservative Moral Majority politician and his wife, in order to address right-winganti-LGBT sentiment that was in the news at that time.[6][7]
Nichols envisioned Robin Williams and Steve Martin in the roles of Albert and Armand, respectively, but Martin turned it down as he did not think he would be able to bring the camp quality required for the part, and Williams did not want to play Albert because he had already played a flamboyant character in Mrs. Doubtfire.[8][3] When Williams decided he wanted to play Armand, Nichols settled on Nathan Lane as Albert. Lane had already committed to starring in a Broadway production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, but Nichols convinced producer Scott Rudin to postpone the musical so Lane could star in the film.[9] Gene Hackman said taking a role in the cast was an opportunity for him to return to his improvisational comedy roots.[10]
Nichols originally conceived of British actor Adrian Lester in the role of Agador, but reworked the role after he and Lester came to a mutual agreement that showing a Black person in the role of a housekeeper would connote racist undertones.[11] Hank Azaria, who was eventually cast, said: "I worked up different versions [of Agador]. One was more understated, barely obviously gay, almost a street tough. And one was the character that ended up in the movie. Both felt real to me—I had grown up with Puerto Rican street queens who were very effeminate and flamboyant and others who weren't. I tried both versions out for a friend who was a drag queen, asked which one he liked better, and got his seal of approval."[12]
Nichols did research for the film by traveling to drag shows in Chicago and Savannah, Georgia, with May and production designer Bo Welch. After going to a drag show in South Beach at Welch's suggestion, Nichols decided to change the film's setting from New Orleans to South Beach.[13]
Williams and Lane, both known for being comic improvisers, were allowed to improvise during weeks-long rehearsals before filming. Nichols and May took the best parts from the rehearsals as Nichols wanted to shoot the film like a play, without too much editing.[14][15]
Though the studio had initial reservations about the film's politics, particularly its portrayal of conservative characters, Calley said, "Mike anticipated [the concerns] eight or nine months ago. He said, 'By the time the movie comes out, you won't be able to parody these guys anymore; they'll be parodying themselves.'"[3]
Soundtrack
The Birdcage: Original United Artists Motion Picture Soundtrack
Three songs written by Stephen Sondheim were adapted and arranged for the film by composer Jonathan Tunick.[14] Albert's first song (as Starina) is "Can That Boy Foxtrot," cut from Sondheim's Follies. "Little Dream" was written specifically for the film, ultimately used during Albert's rehearsal with the gum-chewing dancer.[18] While Armand and Katharine dance in her office, they sing "Love Is in the Air", cut from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.[19]
The Birdcage opened on March 8, 1996, and earned $18,275,828 in its opening weekend, topping the box office.[20][21][3] It remained on top for the next three weeks before being derailed by the openings of Primal Fear and A Thin Line Between Love and Hate. By the end of its 14-week run, the film had grossed $124,060,553 domestically and $61,200,000 internationally, eventually reaching a worldwide total of $185,260,553.[2]
Critical response
The film received positive reviews upon release. On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an 84% approval score based on reviews from 62 critics, with an average rating of 7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Mike Nichols wrangles agreeably amusing performances from Robin Williams and Nathan Lane in this fun, if not quite essential, remake of the French-Italian comedy La Cage aux Folles."[22]Metacritic reports a score of 72/100 based on reviews from 18 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[23]
Film critic Roger Ebert awarded the film three out of four stars, writing that while the material will be familiar to those who have seen the original 1978 film or its Broadway incarnation, "what makes Mike Nichols' version more than just a retread is good casting in the key roles, and a wicked screenplay by Elaine May, who keeps the original story but adds little zingers here and there ("Live on Fisher Island and get buried in Palm Beach - that way you'll get the best of Florida!")".[24] In his review for The Washington Post, Hal Hinson noted the film's subversiveness, commenting, "While politicians like Keeley talk a good game of family values, it's Armand and his nontraditional clan who have the stable home life. They are a family."[25]
In Variety, Todd McCarthy called the movie "a scream", adding, "Just as in their routines when they were a team in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Nichols and May are at their best with political and cultural humor. A reactionary politician is an easy target, of course, but the digs at Hackman's public image-obsessed senator are relentlessly clever and on the mark, as are the jibes at unscrupulous journalists. Final exchange of dialogue, involving Hackman's character, brings down the house in the manner of the famous 'nobody’s perfect' line in Some Like It Hot."[26] McCarthy concluded, ”Lane has all the showy opportunities as the ultra-feminine Albert, and this outstanding Broadway star, little seen up to now in films, makes the most of them, mincing, pouting, posing and cavorting to hilarious and heartwarming effect. Although the gay lifestyles on display here are decidedly old school, the characters' underlying fierce pride, along with the piece's resilient defense of an alternative family structure, will win over all but the most doctrinaire political standard-bearers."[26]
James Berardinelli wrote in ReelViews, "The film is so boisterously entertaining that it's easy for the unsuspecting viewer not to realize that there's a message here."[27]Desson Thomson of The Washington Post described the film as "a spirited remake of the French drag farce [that] has everything in place, from eyeliner to one-liner."[28]Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly called the film "Enchantingly witty."[29]Janet Maslin of The New York Times gave the film a positive review, especially praising Williams' performance: "...this is one of his most cohesive and least antic performances. It's also a mischievously funny one: He does a fine job of integrating gag lines with semi-serious acting..."[30] In his review for The Advocate, Lance Loud commented, "Taking on the conservative agenda—more prevalent in our culture today than when the original film came out in 1979—The Birdcage goes beyond mere politics."[31] He concluded the film's "underlying feelings of compassion, tolerance, and understanding are this Bird's brightest plumage."[31]
Criticisms from the gay community opined that the film contained broad stereotypes of gay people, particularly in its depiction of effeminate gay men.[4][32][25][9] In The New York Times, critic Bruce Bawer acknowledged that although "one of the movie's distinctive achievements is its plausible portrayal of affectionate friendship between a straight man and a gay man", it reinforces stereotypes that "homosexuals are marginal, superficial creatures with plenty of disposable income and relationships that aren't as solid as heterosexual marriages."[33] In response to the criticisms, Nichols stressed that the film is not meant to reflect the gay community as a whole, commenting, "Our jokes were about divas, about the theater, and about the stars. And some critics responded as if they were about gay people in general. That just isn't so."[34]
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) praised the film for "going beyond the stereotypes to see the characters' depth and humanity. The film celebrates differences and points out the outrageousness of hiding those differences."[35] The film was also nominated for a GLAAD Media Award.[36]
Legacy
The Birdcage represented a major turning point for LGBT representation in the media.[37][38][39][40]The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar also featured drag queens and were released prior to The Birdcage, but did not achieve the same level of box office success, and studio films centering gay people to that point, such as Philadelphia, tended to focus on tragic stories concerning HIV/AIDs.[7][14] Academic Matthew Jones said the arrival of The Birdcage, a comedy that celebrated being gay, "helped an audience traumatised by a decade of living day-to-day with the threat of disease and death to laugh again".[7] In 2021, Emily Maskell of the BBC wrote, "What is particularly astute about the film's comedy is the way in which it mixes its farcical hijinks with a satirical intent, taking aim at both homophobia and the crisis of masculinity, as it navigates the infiltration of conservatism into a liberal space."[7]
Many critics have said the film's resonance is due to its core theme of family, its depiction of a loving, long-term relationship between two men, and how the parents ultimately come together to make their children happy.[9] Nathan Lane commented, "Homophobia is still alive and well but there's something about that film that touches people because it's ultimately about family, what you do for your family, why you love your family even though they drive you crazy. Then ultimately — not to sound corny — it's about love. It's about love in both families and coming to accept one another in their differences."[9]
For the film's 25th anniversary in 2021, TCM and Fathom Events screened The Birdcage theatrically as part of their Big Screen Classics series.[41]
