Trivia for
The Birdcage (1996) More at IMDbPro »

• The original working title of the film was "Birds of a Feather" and the first drafts of the script still bear this title.
  
  
• Filmmaker and PBS producer Rick McKay was hired by director Mike Nichols, months before filming of "Birdcage" began, to go to Paris, London, San Francisco and Atlanta to make a feature length documentary about drag queens. McKay did thorough research to find drag queens all over the world to interview and to film in performance. This finished documentary was used to train Nathan Lane and Robin Williams.
  
  
• In his guise as "Mother", Albert tells the Senator that "she" grew up in "Grovers Corners". Grovers Corners is the fictional, idyllic small town in Thornton Wilder's famous stage play "Our Town."
  
  
• The song sung by Armand and Katherine in her office, "Love is in the Air", is a song that was cut from the Stephen Sondheim musical "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum". Originally supposed to be the first number in the show, it was replaced by the song "Comedy Tonight", sung by Nathan Lane in the 1996 Broadway Revival.
  
  
• The Stephen Sondheim song "Can that Boy Foxtrot", used in the film, was a song cut from the original stage production of Sondheim's musical, "Follies".
  
  
• Agador Spartacus is based upon Hank Azaria's grandmother
  
  
• Hank Azaria created two different voices for the character of Agador Spartacus, one being somewhat of a more masculine voice and the other one being higher pitched. He was worried about the second one being too stereotypical until he asked a gay friend of his, who thought it was more realistic.
  
  
• The Jonathan Swift piece about Irish peasants eating their babies that Val refers to is "A Modest Proposal".
  
  
• The two-minute opening sequence looks like one continuous Steadicam shot when, in fact, the sequence consisted of three separate shots seamlessly combined through the magic of dissolves, matting, and morphing: - Shot one began in a helicopter out over the Atlantic and ended over the street in Miami's South Beach area where the club was located - Shot two began on a crane (simulating a chopper) where the Steadicam operator was gradually lowered to ground level before stepping off the crane; he then traversed the street and proceeded through the club's front door - Shot three was executed on a studio soundstage where the Steadicam operator began just outside the "club" exterior, and then proceeded inside for the shot's conclusion. According to cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, the most difficult aspect of the process was matching the speed of the crane with that of the helicopter.
  
  
• Robin Williams was originally cast as Albert, but he wanted a change from flamboyant characters, and asked to be cast as Armand. Mike Nichols agreed, and re-cast him.
  
  
• Hank Azaria realized after filming that he had actually based his voice on his grandmother's.
  
  
• Mike Nichols required that Nathan Lane and Robin Williams filmed at least one good take of each scene sticking to the script before he would allow them to improvise (something both of the two actors are known for)
  
  
• Director Mike Nichols had to be covered by a sound blanket during the toast scene because he was laughing too loud.
  
  
• In the movie, Calista Flockhart's character Barbara is supposed to be 17 or 18. At the time, she was actually 31 at the time of the filming. Dan Futterman's character Val is supposed to be 20, but in reality, he was actually 27 when the film was being shot.
  
  
• With $18.3 million, had the highest weekend opening gross with an openly gay character in the lead until Brüno (2009).
  
  

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