{"id":224055,"date":"2026-03-17T18:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T18:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/224055\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T18:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T18:40:10","slug":"one-of-socals-famous-vaudeville-playhouses-is-hidden-inside-knotts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/224055\/","title":{"rendered":"One of SoCal’s famous vaudeville playhouses is hidden inside Knott’s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Bird Cage Theatre has stood inside Knott\u2019s Berry Farm for 72 years \u2014 albeit not always soundly. Long framed by a tin roof and a tent, the theater had a reputation for discomfort, as it was a source of punishing heat and the occasional mouse sighting. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hot, it stunk and it was dirty,\u201d says Payden Adams, the park\u2019s VP of entertainment. <\/p>\n

Still, though it has long felt like an endangered species, the Bird Cage Theatre is one of Southern California\u2019s most historic revival houses, a place for vaudeville-style, fourth-wall-breaking shows that deviate from the expected theme park fare. To quote the theater\u2019s most recent production, its entertainment can be \u201cflirtatious and a little bit saucy.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Knott\u2019s Berry Farm\u2019s Bird Cage Theatre is modeled after a historic venue in Tombstone, Ariz. <\/p>\n

(Kyusung Gong \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

\"Historic <\/p>\n

Opened in 1954, the Bird Cage Theatre has specialized in vaudeville-style melodramas. <\/p>\n

(Knott\u2019s Berry Farm)<\/p>\n

And now, against all odds, the Bird Cage is getting a second life. Knott\u2019s Berry Farm recently completed a renovation designed to keep it thriving for another 72 years. Gone is the tarpaulin roof: The Bird Cage is now a fully enclosed, soundstage-like structure. And blessedly, it has modern air conditioning. <\/p>\n

The theater reopened this past weekend with \u201cThe Great Bank Robbery,\u201d a 30-minute-plus show in which audiences are encouraged to boo, hiss and swoon over the characters, a Bird Cage tradition since 1954. Characters are caricatures, be it a villain that feels plucked from a cartoon western, complete with a purring raccoon for a sidekick, to a greedy wannabe politician of a bank manager. Though set in Ghost Town with period garb, there are modern flourishes, such as tongue-in-cheek nods to the theme park\u2019s attractions and a damsel in distress who ultimately proves to be anything but. <\/p>\n

Though it once operated as a daily theater, the Bird Cage is today most active during holidays and seasonal events, such as the park\u2019s annual Boysenberry Festival, which also began this weekend. Popular summer show \u201cMiss Cameo Kate\u2019s Western Burle-Q- Revue\u201d is a 20-minute cabaret-style performance, complete with a torch song and a slightly risqu\u00e9 cancan finale.<\/p>\n

When it\u2019s running, the Bird Cage is a must-see attraction. Live theater in theme parks can feel like a moving target, as conventional wisdom often argues that today\u2019s smartphone-addled guests are after thrills and more attention-grabbing, interactive experiences. But when it works, such as during the over-the-top silliness of \u201cThe Great Bank Robbery,\u201d or at Universal Studios\u2019 \u201cWaterworld\u201d-themed stunt show, it can offer guests some of the most memorable, personal moments at the parks. <\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Bird Cage Theatre reopened this past weekend with the show \u201cThe Great Bank Robbery.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Kyusung Gong \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not wrong, especially when it comes to attention spans. We experience that,\u201d says Adams, who oversaw the theater\u2019s restoration. \u201cThe way we\u2019ve pivoted and navigated is just ensuring our shows are tight and clean. It might be a little over 30 minutes, but audiences are engaged. In melodramas, we ask the audience to participate, and we can train them how to participate beforehand. When you see characters, even when they\u2019re heightened or over-the-top, people still connect with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bird Cage Theatre first opened in the summer of 1954, its facade a near-replica of the original Bird Cage in Tombstone, Ariz. That the family-focused Knott\u2019s would nod to the Arizona locale is an oddity in and of itself, as the actual theater had a bawdy reputation. Stories today speak of a place that initially opened with grand ambitions but eventually succumbed to gambling and prostitution. <\/p>\n

At Knott\u2019s, the theater was built around existing structures, although park founder Walter Knott, according to the book \u201cKnott\u2019s Preserved\u201d by Chrstopher Merritt and J. Eric Lynxwiler, often talked about completing it as a full tribute to the Arizona space. That never really happened. <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Knott\u2019s re-created the original wallpaper of the Bird Cage Theatre for its remodeling.<\/p>\n

(Kyusung Gong \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

And yet over the years the Bird Cage won over audiences thanks to programming from Vaudeville veterans. Early on, students from nearby colleges would appear at the space, including Steve Martin, whose signed photograph graces a celebrity wall in the Bird Cage\u2019s introductory hall. Donna Mills and singer Rick Nelson have graced the Bird Cage\u2019s horseshoe-shaped stage, as have Dean Jones and Skip Young. <\/p>\n

It was, to say the least, a quirky place to perform. \u201cKnott\u2019s Preserved\u201d tells of a show in which a mouse once sat at the base of the stage, and quotes Martin as reminiscing over performances affected by the weather. \u201cWhen it rained, no one could hear each other because the rain was beating so hard on that tarp,\u201d Martin said. <\/p>\n

None of that should be a problem anymore, although returning guests will likely feel they\u2019re in a familiar space. Though the Bird Cage has been outfitted with modern lighting capable of new theme park tricks and projections, the rig is hidden among curtains designed to re-create the look of the original tent. Lights, in bird cage enclosures, still hang above the audience seating area, which has room for about 250 guests. <\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Bird Cage Theatre at Knott\u2019s Berry Farm now has a properly enclosed roof and air conditioning. <\/p>\n

(Kyusung Gong \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

And along the way a few discoveries were made. Adams says that when they began stripping away wooden walls added sometime in the 1970s, they found the Bird Cage\u2019s original wallpaper, a scarlet-red strip that surrounds the space with flower-adorned bird cages. Not all of it could be salvaged, so Knott\u2019s meticulously re-created the look. With the new-old wallpaper intact, Adams estimates that guests can count about 11,055 bird cages throughout the theater.<\/p>\n

The original pieces will be preserved in the park and gifted to important Bird Cage players. Adams jokes, \u201cIf you have a mailing address for Mr. Steve Martin, I have a gift to send him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bird Cage Theatre has stood inside Knott\u2019s Berry Farm for 72 years \u2014 albeit not always soundly.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,102150,1864,43649,102146,6193,102152,43648,1833,102148,1410,102147,102151,1058,102149,2335],"class_list":["post-224055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-arizona-space","tag-audience","tag-berry-farm","tag-bird-cage-theatre","tag-character","tag-horseshoe-shaped-stage","tag-knott","tag-park","tag-payden-adams","tag-place","tag-smartphone-addled-guest","tag-steve-martin","tag-theater","tag-theme-park-fare","tag-today"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}