The Birdcage

Comedy, Drama, Music

Robin Williams	Armand Goldman
Gene Hackman	Senator Kevin Keeley
Nathan Lane	Albert Goldman/Starina
Dianne Wiest	Louise Keeley
Dan Futterman	Val Goldman
Hank Azaria	Agador
Christine Baranski	Katherine Archer
Calista Flockhart	Barbara Keeley
James Lally	Cyril
Tom McGowan	Harry Radman

Director	Mike Nichols
Producer	Mike Nichols
Writer	Jean Poiret; Francis Veber

The great improvisational comedy team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May reunited to (respectively) direct and write this update of the French comedy La Cage Aux Folles. Robin Williams stars as a gay Miami nightclub owner who is forced to play it straight and ask his drag-queen partner (Nathan Lane) to hide out when Williams's son invites his prospective--and highly conservative--in-laws and fiancée to a meet-and-greet dinner party. Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest play the straight-laced senator and his wife, and Calista Flockhart (from television's Ally McBeal) plays their daughter in a culture-clash with outrageous consequences. May's witty screenplay incorporates some pointed observations about the political landscape of the 1990s and takes a sensitive approach to the comedy's underlying drama. Topping off the action is Hank Azaria in a scene-stealing role as Williams's and Lane's flamboyant housekeeper, "Agador Spartacus." --Jeff Shannon