By Romeo San Vicente
Lane and Broderick 'Couple' up again
Move over Sally Struthers and Rita Moreno – the "Odd Couple" boys are back. The last time this show saw a revival staging, the roles were rewritten for women, but now the mismatched male roommates of the original are making a return trip to Broadway, this time portrayed by Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. As much as these two have been working together, you'd think they were an actual couple, but for Lane and Broderick it's just about the luck of hitting on an entertaining formula that keeps on working. After they wrap the film version of their previous Broadway hit, "The Producers," the pair will step into Oscar and Felix's shoes for an August 2005 opening and almost sure-fire ticket-mover. The only question is, which one of the duo is going to butch it up to play Oscar?
'Wonderfalls' creator has new 'Assistants'
Romeo wept a tear for quirky, quality television when Fox cancelled the little-seen but much-loved "Wonderfalls." But queer co-creator Bryan Fuller has a new idea in his slightly warped creative mind, and NBC liked it enough to commit to a pilot titled "The Assistants." The comedy will follow the ups and downs of a group of executive assistants who all work in the same building, but for different employers. Think "The Office" or "The Apprentice," but with even more insufferable bosses and disgruntled employees. Gay filmmaker Adam Shankman ("Bringing Down the House") will executive produce the show along with Fuller and Jennifer Gibgot ("The Wedding Planner"). Romeo's crossing his fingers for this one.
Singing in the 'Gardens'
When Albert and David Maysles pointed their documentary cameras at Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edie Jr. – distant relatives of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis – they couldn't have known that the crazily beloved (and sort of just plain crazy) mother-daughter team of "Grey Gardens" (1975) would inspire the lasting cinematic devotion they have. But now, nearly 30 years after that film appeared, gay author Doug Wright ("I Am My Own Wife," "Quills") is bringing a musical version of the Bouviers' story to the stage. "Grey Gardens" will feature music by Scott Frankel and Michael Korie and is being directed by Michael Greif ("Rent"). Currently being worked on at the Sundance Institute Theatre Laboratory, the song-filled tribute to the pair's odd life of old money and weird habits will hopefully make it past the workshop phase and onto stages in due time. Somewhere, the Edies must be smiling.
Gay in 'The Flyover States'
Here are two names you might not know: Darren Stein and Clint Catalyst. Stein is the gay director of the teen cult favorite "Jawbreaker," while Catalyst is a queer, post-Goth author and performer whose book "Cottonmouth Kisses" was an underground literary must-read. And together they are on board with ABC and producer Jon Marcus ("Party Monster") to create "The Flyover States." Taking its name from the somewhat derogatory term used to describe the America that exists between coasts, "Flyover" will deal with a widowed New Yorker who returns to live in her Arkansas hometown, where she discovers that big cities and small towns have similar dark sides. Call it "red state in denial about its blueness" syndrome – something Arkansas native Catalyst probably knows quite a bit about. Better yet, call this upcoming pilot one to watch out for.
