How Much Camp Brilliance Can You Fit Into A Single Birdcage?
This week's writing
The Birdcage was released 30 years ago this month. Directed by Mike Nichols, the 1996 film starred Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, and Nathan Lane (I miss when I could see new movies with Hackman and Williams). The fabulous Christine Baranski and Hank Azaria added to its joy.
The Williams/Lane film is an adaptation of the 1978 French film La Cage aux Folles, which is different from the musical version that hit Broadway in 1983. The plot is roughly the same, just transported to 1990s Miami: Armand and Albert Goldman are a gay couple whose 20-year-old son Val (Dan Futterman) announces that he’s about to marry the even younger Barbara Keeley (a generously cast Calista Flockhart, who was 32 at the time). Barbara’s parents are right-wing senator Kevin Keeley (Hackman) and his wife Louise (Dianne Wiest). Thus enters the conflict.
Val is a callow creep who is ashamed of his family (and thus himself). Barbara lies to her parents that Armand is a straight man with the surname “Coleman” so her bigoted parents won’t know he’s Jewish. (The antisemitism here is unfortunately still relevant.) Albert intends to pose as Val’s very straight “uncle,” but circumstances result in Albert instead passing himself off as Val’s mother. “Mrs. Coleman” impresses the Keeleys with her traditional values. (Watch below as Matt Baume explores Val’s villainy.)
Keeley originally hopes that his daughter’s marriage to a “normal” family can help dampen the political blowback from a scandal involving his fellow senator and co-founder of the Coalition for Moral Order, Eli Jackson, who’s found dead in bed with an underage Black prostitute. Now, we understand that the “underage Black prostitute” is a minor who couldn’t legally consent and Jackson is a child rapist. We also didn’t fully appreciate back then how the Epstein Class preyed on young girls with impunity. Instead, the focus was more on Jackson’s moral hypocrisy than his vile sexual abuse.
The Birdcage is Lane’s breakout role but his career almost ended when Oprah Winfrey flippantly tried to out him (much against his will) during a promotional appearance on her show.
“I came out when I was 21 to my mother and to my family,” Lane said in 2020. “Everyone knew. And certainly everyone in [the] New York [theater scene] knew. But this notion of coming out publicly, as if I was a public figure — no one had been interested in my sex life up until then.”
Lane had previously told US Magazine when asked about his sexuality, “I’m 40, single and I work a lot in the musical theater. You do the math. What do you need — flash cards?” However, he feared (rightly) that wit alone wouldn’t satisfy Oprah.
“I said to Robin beforehand, ‘I’m not prepared. I'm so scared of going out there and talking to Oprah. I'm not prepared to discuss that I’m gay on national television. I’m not ready,’” Lane said in 2023. “... She was like, ‘How come you’re so good at that girlie stuff? Are you worried about being typecast?’ And then Robin sort of swoops in and diverts Oprah, goes off on a tangent and protects me because he was a saint.” (Watch below.)
Gay actors had every reason to fear typecasting, if audiences refused to see them as anything other than queer. Worse, studios would consider an out “gay” actor unacceptable for family films or anything that wasn’t explicitly queer-themed. Winfrey’s question — “why are you so good at the girlie stuff?” — itself diminishes Lane’s tremendous talent, suggesting that his revelatory performance is a simple reflection of his personal identity. (Lane had no children, but he was still believable as a father willing to do anything for his ungrateful son.)
I don’t think Winfrey necessarily owes the world an apology for Dr. Mehmet Oz but she probably should consider a public apology to Nathan Lane.
Spring Break is almost over here in Portland, Oregon, but our Spring Break subscription sale continues. If you haven’t already, please consider taking advantage of my “Spring Break” subscription sale — 40 percent off the usual annual paid subscriber rate. That’s just $30 a year. Thanks to all who have upgraded to paid subscriber status recently.
Previously on The Play Typer Guy:
I revisited a piece I wrote for Primetimer after Fox News unceremoniously fired Tucker Carlson. Three years later, he’s experiencing an unsettling resurgence.
Mitt Romney was right 10 years ago when he argued that his party was in a fierce battle between “Trumpism and Republicanism.” He just missed the mark a bit on which faction would prevail.
Republican Vivek Ramaswamy is in a tighter-than-expected race for Ohio governor, which might have a lot to do with right-wing bigotry backfiring. I won’t say I’ll be disappointed if this results in Democrat Amy Acton winning the election.
I also shared my 2021 review of HBO’s Exterminate The Brutes.
That’s it for this week. See you on Monday.
I've known that Oprah inflicted "Doctor" Oz on us, but didn't know about how she tried to out Nathan Lane, who didn't want to be outed. Good for Robin Williams for his kindness to his friend.
No one should be outted although sometimes it seems so right to do so to the gay people in government who shout from the rooftops that being gay is wrong while also being gay. Robin was by all accounts one of the kindest people in the business. His loss was felt so dramatically because he was.