The Bird Cage Theater has been inside Knott's Berry Farm for 72 years, although not always solidly. The theater, long framed by a tin roof and a tent, had a reputation for being uncomfortable, a source of exhausting heat and occasional mouse sightings.
“It was hot, smelly and dirty,” says Payden Adams, the park's vice president of entertainment.
Still, though it has long felt like an endangered species, the Bird Cage Theater is one of Southern California's most historic revival houses, a venue for vaudeville-style shows that break the fourth wall and deviate from expected theme park fare. To quote the theater's most recent production, its entertainment can be “flirty and a little risqué.”
The Bird Cage Theater at Knott's Berry Farm is modeled after a historic venue in Tombstone, Arizona.
(Kyusung Gong / For The Times)
Opened in 1954, the Bird Cage Theater has specialized in vaudeville-style melodramas.
(Knott's Berry Farm)
And now, against all odds, the bird cage is getting a second life. Knott's Berry Farm recently completed a renovation designed to keep it thriving for another 72 years. Gone is the canvas roof: Bird Cage is now a completely enclosed structure, similar to a soundstage. And fortunately, it has modern air conditioning.
The theater reopened last weekend with “The Great Bank Robbery,” a 30-plus-minute show in which audiences are encouraged to boo, hiss and swoon at the characters, a Bird Cage tradition since 1954. The characters are caricatures, whether a villain who feels like something out of a Western cartoon, with a purring raccoon as a sidekick, to a greedy would-be politician or bank manager. Although it's set in a ghost town in period costume, there are modern flourishes, such as tongue-in-cheek nods to theme park attractions and a damsel in distress who ultimately proves to be anything but.
Although it once operated as a daily theater, Bird Cage today is most active during holidays and seasonal events, such as the park's annual Boysenberry Festival, which also began this weekend. The popular summer show “Miss Cameo Kate's Western Burle-Q-Revue” is a 20-minute cabaret-style performance, complete with a torch song and a slightly risqué cancan finale.
When in operation, the Bird Cage is a must-see attraction. Live theater at theme parks can seem like a moving target, as conventional wisdom often holds that today's smartphone-addicted guests seek more attention-grabbing thrills and interactive experiences. But when it works, like during the over-the-top silliness of “The Great Bank Robbery” or at Universal Studios’ “Waterworld”-themed stunt show, it can offer guests some of the most memorable personal moments in the parks.
The Bird Cage Theater reopened its doors last weekend with the show “The Great Bank Robbery.”
(Kyusung Gong / For The Times)
“You can't go wrong, especially when it comes to attention spans. We experienced that,” says Adams, who oversaw the theater's restoration. “The way we've pivoted and navigated is just to make sure our shows are tight and clean. It may be a little over 30 minutes long, but the audience is involved. In melodramas, we ask the audience to participate and we can train them beforehand to participate. When you see characters, even when they are exaggerated or exaggerated, people still connect with them.”
The Bird Cage Theater first opened in the summer of 1954, its façade almost a replica of the original Bird Cage in Tombstone, Arizona. That the family-focused Knott's gave a nod to the Arizona venue is an oddity in itself, since the actual theater had a bawdy reputation. Current stories tell of a place that initially opened with great ambitions but ultimately succumbed to gambling and prostitution.
At Knott's, the theater was built around existing structures, although the park's founder, Walter Knott, according to the book “Knott's Preserved” by Chrstopher Merritt and J. Eric Lynxwiler, often spoke of completing it as a complete tribute to the Arizona space. That never really happened.
Knott's recreated the original Bird Cage Theater wallpaper for its remodel.
(Kyusung Gong / For The Times)
And yet, over the years, Bird Cage won over audiences thanks to programming from vaudeville veterans. From the beginning, students from nearby universities would appear in the space, including Steve Martin, whose signed photograph adorns a wall of celebrities in the Bird Cage presentation room. Donna Mills and singer Rick Nelson have graced the Bird Cage's horseshoe-shaped stage, as have Dean Jones and Skip Young.
It was, to say the least, a peculiar place to perform. “Knott's Preserved” tells of a show in which a mouse once sat at the base of the stage and quotes Martin remembering performances affected by the weather. “When it rained, no one could hear each other because the rain hit the tarp so hard,” Martin said.
None of that should be a problem anymore, although returning guests will likely feel like they're in a familiar space. Although the Bird Cage has been equipped with modern lighting capable of performing new tricks and theme park projections, the platform is hidden behind curtains designed to recreate the look of the original tent. The lights, in bird cages, still hang over the public seating area, which has room for about 250 guests.
The Bird Cage Theater at Knott's Berry Farm now has an enclosed roof and air conditioning.
(Kyusung Gong / For The Times)
And along the way some discoveries were made. Adams says that when they began removing the added wood walls sometime in the 1970s, they found the original Bird Cage wallpaper, a strip of scarlet red surrounding the space with flower-adorned bird cages. Not everything could be saved, so Knott meticulously recreated the look. With the new and old wallpaper intact, Adams estimates that visitors can count about 11,055 birdcages throughout the theater.
The original pieces will be kept in the park and given to important Bird Cage players. Adams jokes, “If you have Mr. Steve Martin's mailing address, I have a gift to send you.”
