The first time I read La cage aux folles, I thought I would fall off my miserable little chair in my miserable little library carrel, laughing. The first time I saw Edouard Molinaro’s Franco-Italic rendition, I thought it was the funniest thing I’d ever seen. The first time I saw Mike Nichols’s adaptation, heaven help us in English, I thought I was gonna die from laugh-induced asphyxiation.
But as we know it’s not the hilarity but the humanity that makes greatness. And I think this is one of the great plays of the 20th century.
Netflix has placed the Nichols rendition, The Birdcage, front and center, by way of tribute to Robin Williams’s demise. Williams plays Armand. Despite the updates (Kevin: “The ones who funded the Mapplethorpe exhibit?”), it’s good, very, very good.
Got Netflix? Look for it. 😀