NATHAN LANE--UNCAGED

By Richard Zoglin

FOR YEARS HE'S BEEN A LOCAL HERO on Broadway, but Nathan Lane is just now learning what it's like to be a real star. Most Hollywood vets know the drill: the rash of press interviews, the upsurge in people stopping you on the street to sing your praises. But Lane, who plays the flamboyantly effeminate half of a gay couple in The Birdcage, has to contend with something other movie stars don't. Stopped in Manhattan traffic in a taxi one day last week, he noticed a rough-looking van driver staring down at him. The fellow turned to his friend, then leaned out the window and yelled, "Hey, faggot!"

Lane froze. "It was really a horrible moment," he says. "I just sat there and thought, well, here's the flip side."

Luckily, it's the minority side. The Mike Nichols comedy--which earned $18.3 million at the box office its first weekend, the best opening record of any film this year--portrays a gay couple whose old-fashioned family values even Bob Dole conservatives could love. And Lane's funny, flouncy yet surprisingly restrained performance--topped by a bravura drag bit as a Barbara Bush-style matron--is a big reason why.

Lane's transition from the hothouse world of New York City theater to multiplexes across America is both unusual and heartening. Onstage, he has won plaudits for playing a series of extravagant gay characters in such plays as Terrence McNally's The Lisbon Traviata and Love! Valour! Compassion! Yet Lane has also been hailed for such all-American straight roles as Nathan Detroit in the 1992 revival of Guys and Dolls, and his movie parts have ranged from Michael J. Fox's brother in Life with Mikey to the voice of the Hakuna Matata-singing meerkat in The Lion King. Lane has little interest in being treated as a standard bearer for gay roles in movies. "I'm just an actor," he says. "I'm not a politician."

It was the actor who impressed director Mike Nichols, who came backstage after watching Lane play a Sid Caesar-like TV star in Neil Simon's Laughter on the 23rd Floor. On the spot, he offered Lane the role of Albert in a remake of the French comedy La Cage aux Folles--alongside Robin Williams, in the more sober role of Armand. Lane initially had to turn Nichols down because of a scheduling conflict with his next big Broadway show, a revival of the musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. But Nichols kept calling, and the show's producers finally agreed to postpone Forum (which starts previews this week) so Lane could do the film.

On the set, Lane was a match for his wildly inventive co-star. "He'd try things just as outrageous as I would," says Williams. "Hard to find someone who does that." Nichols would typically let the pair run loose with improvisations in at least one take per scene. Lane's own favorite came when Albert learns that Armand doesn't want him around to meet the uptight parents of the girl Armand's son wants to marry. Lane went high-flying hysterical, screaming to onlookers at a sidewalk cafe ("I'm a homeless person!"), then fainting dead away. "All the extras on the street applauded," says Lane. "And Mike looked at us and said, 'Well, I got to admit, it was very funny.'" Nichols opted for a quieter take, but says he was in stitches for most of the filming. "I think what happened in the first few weeks of rehearsal was that Robin gave the picture to Nathan, in a very loving way," he says.

Sipping tea in his Broadway dressing room last week, Lane, 40, was subdued and a little weary, his voice only occasionally rising to his patented pitch of whiny sarcasm. (Asked about working in the shadow of original Forum star Zero Mostel, he replies with a tart "Who?") Lane grew up in a working-class Irish-American family in Jersey City, New Jersey, where he regularly starred in the plays at St. Peter's Prep. In New York he started building his theater resume, appearing in flops (the Doug Henning musical Merlin) and a few prestige successes (a revival of Noel Coward's Present Laughter starring George C. Scott) before finding his artistic voice in several plays by McNally. His long association and friendship with the playwright is currently asunder, because Lane passed up a chance to co-star in the movie version of Love! Valour! Compassion! Lane blamed a schedule conflict, but McNally has stopped talking to him. "I assume we'll get over it," says Lane. "We work extremely well together. I would hate to lose that."

Then again, it may be a while before Lane is back in plays by McNally or anyone else. He has a commitment to remain in Forum for a year, and after that the dam could burst on Hollywood offers. Which suits him fine. "I would certainly like to do more films. Theater is harder. It takes a lot of stamina. As one gets older, one wants different things." A pause, then the familiar Nathan Lane whine: "I'm tired!"

--With reporting by William Tynan/New York

With reporting by William Tynan/New York