Gays on the big screen: Angels in America National Theatre Live and The Birdcage
13 Jun 2018

Pride month is in full swing and Inside Out has just ended, but gay cineastes have a chance to revisit two very different classics on the big screen. Or maybe not so different, both were, in their time, shockingly gay and lovingly embraced by mainstream audiences.

Angels in America took flight in 1991, fuelled by anger over the escalating AIDS plague and the mass indifference it was being met with. As the second part of the title, "A Gay Fantasia on National Themes," states, playwright Tony Kushner had not written just an AIDS play, or even just a gay play, he was writing about the human soul. Angels in America is intellectually rigorous and wildly entertaining, extravagant in ideas, insights and emotional impact. It was a major Broadway hit, despite its considerable length spread over two parts, as have been subsequent stage productions and the HBO movie version.

On the play's 25th anniversary, Britain's National Theatre produced a version of Angels in America featuring an all-star, and very openly gay, cast. It too was a huge hit (as is the transfer to Broadway) and was filmed for the National Theatre Live (Follies) series. It is this version that is being shown several times during Pride Month.

The Birdcage is an English remake of the subversive hit French film La Cage aux Folles. Released in 1996 it is not concerned with the AIDS epidemic but is determined to make gays lovable, nonthreatening and equal. It is a lot of fun and the jokes at the expense of gays are gentle and, for the most part, accurate. Co-star Robin Williams was at his zenith coming off Mrs Doubtfire and he gives a warm non-mannered performance that never winks at or denies the character's sexuality. He is ably supported by what now looks like a stunt cast consisting of Dianne Wiest, Gene Hackman, Claista Flockhart and the incandescent Christine Baranski. 

The Birdcage never hits the heights of Broadway's La Cage aux Folles and the anthem "I Am What I Am," but it probably did more outreach in multiplexes. And a live theatre experience is more emotionally visceral, most of the time.

That is the beauty of this Angels in America. The thousands of us who didn't get to cross the ocean and sit in the dark for this epic production, can experience the next best thing. I have seen Angels in America on stage twice, re-read the script three times, and watched the HBO movie twice. This version, and it should be noted that I was watching a screener rather than on a big screen, is riveting and powerful and shook me to the core. Part of that is the incredible cast. Russell Tovey (Looking) is a gay sex symbol/role model who is also a mesmerizing thespian by any standards. Andrew Garfield is charming and slides into the role of Prior Walter seamlessly. Denise Gough and Amanda Lawrence are Streepian. And as the pivotal Belize, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett nails the camp and heartbreak with precision.

The cast member linking the two films is Nathan Lane. He is glorious in The Birdcage, the sweet bitter queen we all love, fear and admire. It is a stereotype, but one with heart and Lane is irresistible. We have seen him do this before on Modern Family, multiple other character actor bit parts, and his short-lived sitcom (cancelled because audiences wouldn't accept a gay lead when in actuality it just wasn't very good), but anyone who has seen him on stage knows there is an eye-catching vibrancy that he radiates. I was lucky enough to see him in Love! Valour! Compassion! on Broadway and he tucked the show under his apron and walked away with it despite a tour de force scene by John Glover as twins and the upstaging often on display prodigious penis of Randy Becker.

In Angels in America, Lane gets to soar. His Roy Cohn is vicious, tragic, evil, comedic and breathtaking. He also provides an unintended link between these two films: outing himself to Tovey's Prior Walter by lambasting and then praising the musical La Cage aux Folles. He tells a matron she won't like it because it is so gay and not very good, then tells Tovey that it is the best thing on Broadway, "Maybe ever." A mini-Nathan Lane film festival for Pride is a very intriguing idea, and The Birdcage and Angels in America are two of his best, maybe ever.

Both texts are of a certain age, which is why it is rare to see them on a big screen (and for Tovey's nude scene and Hank Azaria's abs and double-takes, a big screen is a distinct advantage). While Angels in America can't help but resonate with current events (from Cohn to Guiliani is not a big leap), The Birdcage is trickier and after the screener a lively debate ensued about whether gay life and attitudes towards it have changed. There was no debate after the Angels in America screener, just awe.