the birdcage as a modern musical

why

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Well the movie The Birdcage is tacky and dated (way more so than the original French movie), so no. I don't think so. It's a story that is very specific to 1978 France, and moving it to any other time or place is dumb. The whole charm of the movie is to provide a time capsule.

Sorry, but why the **** would anyone want this? The Birdcage and La Cage are the same story. Why not just do a production of La Cage?

And La Cage is fantastic. Who would want to change it?

"The whole charm of the movie is to provide a time capsule."

Really?

I agree that the jokes in the Birdcage are far, far better. But this would be a totally pointless exercise.

I like the score of La Cage but when I finally saw it in the last revival, I couldn't believe how creaky the book was. But I've always found Fierstein's books to be maudlin and poorly structured.

"My only reaction is "Why?"
Which happens to be exactly what I thought when Mike Nichols announced his adaptation."

Well, the answer to the latter lies in the creation phase of La Cage.

As Mr Roxy alludes to, La Cage was not original producer Allan Carr's first attempt at musicalizing this particular story. The original team he put together (adaptation/book by Jay Presson Allen, music and lyrics by Maury Yeston, musical staging and choreography by Tommy Tune, and direction by Mike Nichols) developed an Americanized version set in New Orleans entitled The Queen of Basin Street.

Carr, seeking experienced hands at producing musicals to help lighten his load, brought in Fritz Holt and Barry Brown. Holt and Brown apparently didn't like this version very much, because they went ahead and fired everyone. All the fired parties filed lawsuits, but Yeston was the only one who won his case, and later he would collect a small royalty from the final version of La Cage. And of course Holt and Brown, who had just worked with Arthur Laurents, sought to bring him in, as well as the Fierstein/Herman team; Laurents was resistant and thought they'd never find the money, but he was intrigued by the choice of the Fierstein/Herman team, so he agreed, etc., etc. The rest is history.

My guess is Nichols still wanted to tackle the story. And I also feel he held a grudge, or else why pick (of all people to contrast to Jerry Herman) Stephen Sondheim's musical material to add to the film, and pick the perfect cast (in my opinion) for a La Cage film had one ever been made? (Try and tell me you can't picture Nathan Lane's rendition of "The Best of Times.")

Updated On: 8/6/15 at 12:37 PM