The Birdcage (1996) on Netflix
Armand Goldman runs a drag club in South Beach and lives above it with his partner Albert, the club's star. Armand's son Val is engaged to the daughter of a conservative senator.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.3/10118,660 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes81%
Trailer
Plot summary
Armand Goldman owns the Birdcage, a drag club in South Beach, and lives above it with his partner Albert, the club's star attraction under the name Starina, and Agador, their housekeeper. Armand's twenty-year-old son Val returns home to announce his engagement to Barbara Keeley. Barbara has told her parents that Armand is a straight man, married to a woman and working as a cultural attaché to Greece. Her father, Senator Kevin Keeley, co-founded the Coalition for Moral Order and is embroiled in a political scandal, and Louise Keeley argues that the wedding will shore up his image as a family man. The Keeleys plan a visit to South Beach, and Armand agrees to keep up the story, redecorates the apartment, and asks Katharine Archer to pose as his wife.
Cast
- James Lallyas Cyril
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Birdcage (1996)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Nichols wanted Robin Williams and Steve Martin as Albert and Armand. Martin turned it down, doubting he could bring the camp the part required, and Williams did not want Albert after playing Mrs. Doubtfire; when Williams chose Armand, Nichols cast Nathan Lane and persuaded producer Scott Rudin to postpone Lane's Broadway musical.
- Nichols originally conceived of British actor Adrian Lester in the role of Agador, but reworked the part after he and Lester came to a mutual agreement that showing a Black person in the role of a housekeeper would connote racist undertones.
- Nichols had originally been the director of the 1983 Broadway adaptation of La Cage aux Folles, but producer Allan Carr fired him. In 1994 he convinced John Calley, then head of United Artists, which owned the rights to the 1978 film version, to renew the option with him as director and producer.
- Nichols researched the film by traveling with May and production designer Bo Welch to drag shows in Chicago and Savannah. After going to a drag show in South Beach at Welch's suggestion, he decided to change the film's setting from New Orleans to South Beach.
