Three songs written by Stephen Sondheim were adapted and arranged for the film by composer Jonathan Tunick. While Armand and Katharine Archer (Christine Baranski) dance in her office, they sing "Love Is in the Air", cut from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
In addition to Sondheim's contributions, Tunick utilized popular dance and disco hits, such as Donna Summer's "She Works Hard for the Money" and Sister Sledge's "We Are Family", along with Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine's "Conga".
Track listing
- "We Are Family" - Goldman Girls
- "William Tell Overture" - Stephen Goldstein
- "She Works Hard for the Money" - Donna Summer
- "Can That Boy Foxtrot" - Nathan Lane
- "Mi Guajira" - Cachao
- "Little Dream" - Nathan Lane
- "No Pain For Cakes" - The Lounge Lizards
- "Love Is in the Air" - Christine Baranski, Robin Williams
- "I Could Have Danced All Night" - Hank Azaria, Gene Hackman, Nathan Lane, Robin Williams, Dianne Wiest
- "We Are Family (Reprise)" - Goldman Girls
- "Family Salsa" - Stephen Goldstein
- "Conga" - Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine
Reception
Box office
The Birdcage opened on March 8, 1996, and earned $18,275,828 in its opening weekend, topping the box office.
Critical response
The Birdcage received positive reviews on release. On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an 85% approval score, based on reviews from 65 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." Metacritic reports a score of 72/100 based on reviews from 18 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film three stars out of four, 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'[s] 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!')".
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."
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".
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly called the film "Enchantingly witty".
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." 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."
Janet Maslin of The New York Times gave the film a positive review, especially praising Williams's 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..."
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." He concluded that the film's "underlying feelings of compassion, tolerance, and understanding are this Birds brightest plumage".
Criticisms from the gay community opined that the film contained broad stereotypes of gay people, particularly in its depiction of effeminate gay men. 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."
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." The film was also nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Film – Wide Release.
Legacy
The Birdcage represented a major turning point for media portrayal of LGBTQ people. 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 on gay people to that point, such as Philadelphia, tended to focus on tragic stories concerning HIV/AIDS. Academic Matthew Jones said that 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". 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."
Accolades
{| class="wikitable"
! Association
! Ceremony Date
! Category
! Recipient
! Results
|-
| rowspan="2" |20/20 Awards
| rowspan="2" |2017
|Best Costume Design
|Ann Roth
|
|-
|Best Art Direction
|Bo Welch
|
|-
|Academy Awards
|March 24, 1997
|Best Art Direction
|Bo Welch<br/>Cheryl Carasik
|
|-
| rowspan="4" |American Comedy Awards
| rowspan="4" |1997
|Funniest Lead Actor in a Motion Picture
|Nathan Lane
|
|-
|Funniest Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
|Hank Azaria
|
|-
|Funniest Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
|Dianne Wiest
|
|-
|Funniest Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
|Christine Baranski
|
|-
|Art Directors Guild Awards
|1997
|Feature Film
|Bo Welch<br/>Tom Duffield<br/>John Dexter
|
|-
| rowspan="3" |Awards Circuit Community Awards
| rowspan="3" |1997
|Best Adapted Screenplay
|Francis Veber<br/>Edouard Molinaro<br/>Marcello Danon<br/>Jean Poiret<br/>Elaine May
|
|-
|Best Art Direction
|Bo Welch<br/>Cheryl Carasik
|
|-
|Honorable Mentions
|Mike Nichols
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |Blockbuster Entertainment Awards
| rowspan="2" |March 11, 1997
|Favorite Supporting Actor – Comedy
|Gene Hackman
|
|-
|Favorite Supporting Actress – Comedy
|Dianne Wiest
|
|-
|Casting Society of America Awards
|October 15, 1996
|Best Casting for Feature Film, Comedy
|Juliet Taylor<br/>Ellen Lewis
|
|-
|Chicago Film Critics Association Awards
|March 10, 1997
|Best Supporting Actor
|Nathan Lane
|
|-
|Cinema Audio Society Awards
|1997
|Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Feature Films
|Lee Dichter<br/>Gene S. Cantamessa
|
|-
|GLAAD Media Awards
|1997
|Outstanding Film – Wide Release
|
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |Golden Globe Awards
| rowspan="2" |January 19, 1997
|Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical
|
|
|-
|Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical
|Nathan Lane
|
|-
|International Monitor Awards
|1997
|Theatrical Releases – Color Correction
|David Bernstein
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |MTV Movie + TV Awards
| rowspan="2" |June 10, 1997
|Best Comedic Performance
|Robin Williams
|
|-
|Best On-Screen Duo
|Robin Williams<br/>Nathan Lane
|
|-
| rowspan="3" |Online Film & Television Association Awards
| rowspan="3" |1997
|Best Motion Picture – Comedy/Musical
|Mike Nichols
|
|-
|Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical
|Nathan Lane
|
|-
|Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy/Musical
|Hank Azaria
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |Satellite Awards
| rowspan="2" |January 15, 1997
|Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical
|Nathan Lane
|
|-
|Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical
|Gene Hackman
|
|-
| rowspan="3" |Screen Actors Guild Awards
| rowspan="3" |February 22, 1997
|Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
|Nathan Lane
|
|-
|Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
|Hank Azaria
|
|-
|Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
|Hank Azaria<br/>Christine Baranski<br/>Dan Futterman<br/>Gene Hackman<br/>Nathan Lane<br/>Robin Williams<br/>Dianne Wiest
|
|-
|Writers Guild of America Awards
|March 16, 1997
|Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
|Elaine May
|
|}
See also
- Cross-dressing in film and television
- List of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender-related films by storyline
References
Bibliography
External links
- The Birdcage at AllMovie