page_title: Big Business (1988 film)
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Big Business (1988 film) / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: The Plaza Hotel in New York City as viewed from across the Pond in Central Park.
context_page_description: Big Business is a 1988 American comedy film starring Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin, each playing two roles, as sets of identical twins mismatched at birth. The nature versus nurture farce adapts The Comedy of Errors, but with female siblings in contemporary society: one of each twin being reared in a wealthy urban setting, while the others grew up in a poor rural environment.
  Produced by Touchstone Pictures, the film co-stars Chris Aable who also plays twins in a scene with Fred Ward, Edward Herrmann, Joe Grifasi, and Seth Green, as well as siblings Michael Gross and Mary Gross. Directed by Jim Abrahams, critical reaction to the film as a whole was generally lukewarm. Both Midler and Tomlin were nominated for the American Comedy Award for Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture for their performances with Midler winning.
context_section_description: The movie was originally written for Barbra Streisand (Midler's role) and Goldie Hawn (Tomlin's role). The plot playfully combines three recognizable stories: Aesop's The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper, and Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors.
  The production company could not get the rights to film at the actual Plaza Hotel in New York City, so it had the hotel recreated on sound stages. To recoup construction costs, Disney built a sitcom called The Nutt House around it.  Jim Abrahams said he staged one of the boardroom scenes based on an experience he had when a large agency used many employees to get him to sign with them.
caption: The Plaza and its International Modern style neighbors as seen in the film.
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