Roger Bart by Jason Kempin/ WireImage.com
Roger Bart, best known to TV fans for his role as Desperate Housewives' ill-fated pharmacist — but also known to those with greenbacks to burn as Broadway's Young Frankenstein himself — has joined the cast of an untitled ABC drama pilot set at an upscale Los Angeles law firm. Bart will play Cliff, a volatile barrister whose wife also works at the firm. The cast also includes Norbert Leo Butz (B'way's Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) and Matthew Long (Jack & Bobby). — MWMMore casting news:• Battlestar Boss' New Starship Starts Staffing Up• Rose McGowan to Play a Woman in Chains?
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It is time to put on the Ritz. No sooner had the massive flop musical The Pirate Queen shut down production but it was announced that Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein will set up its laboratory (and revolving bookcase, one has to hope) in the Hilton Theatre, with previews starting Oct. 11, followed by an official Nov. 8 Broadway bow. Tickets go on sale July 15, but that is of no concern for me; our resident theater queen Raven is getting me in for free. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)
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A pair of small-screen stars and a Tony winner will most likely headline Mel Brooks' Broadway-bound Young Frankenstein musical. Per Variety, Roger Bart (late of Desperate Housewives) is said to have landed the role of the deranged doc, while Will & Grace's Megan Mullally will tackle Elizabeth, his taffeta-loving fiancée. Broadway diva Sutton Foster is Inga, the woman who comes between them.Rounding out the cast are stage vets Christopher Fitzgerald as Igor and Shuler Hensley as Frankenstein's monster. Alas Frau Blücher is neighwhere to be seen. — Reporting by Raven Snook
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Peter Krause and Julianna Margulies, The Lost Room
America loves it when an average Joe suddenly exhibits superpowers — witness the success of the Spider-Man movies and NBC's white-hot Heroes. Now Sci Fi Channel is taking that premise one crazy step further. In The Lost Room, a sprawling $20 million, six-hour miniseries (premiering tonight at 9 pm/ET), it's not the people who have amazing abilities, it's the simple, ordinary objects. There's a comb that stops time, a nail file that induces sleep, a pen that can microwave a body and — the big-ticket item — a key to a 1960s motel room that will open a portal to any destination in the world. Crime lords covet these objects, as do millionaires and religious crackpots, because to possess one is to possess its power.
But all Peter Krause wants to possess right now is some bug repellent. The actor, in his first
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Elmo tickles me, and I couldn't be more pleasantly surprised.
Not the cute Muppet but the fictional town of Elmo, Alaska, the gorgeously rustic setting of Men in Trees. Here, men are men, women are scarce and romantic comedy frequently erupts, spreading warmth all around.
At first, I dismissed Trees as a flimsy rip-off of Northern Exposure with a Sex and the City sensibility. (Trees' creator, Jenny Bicks, was a producer of that HBO hit.) I wasn't entirely wrong. Elmo can't hold a candle to Cicely's quirky brilliance, but it isn't meant to.
As I caught up with episodes that had aired on Fridays until ABC moved it after Grey's Anatomy — a better fit than the pretentious Six Degrees — I began to reli
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Question: Is it just me, or does the body count on Desperate Housewives seem pretty high for the neighborhood? At last count I place the tally at eight. At this pace the murder rate is higher than the one for the citizens of Deadwood. The season finale was just OK, but come on, another psycho for Bree? Another note: could the character Annabella Sciorra portrays on Law & Order: Criminal Intent sound any more morose, wooden and sullen? C.I.'s plots this year have been so convoluted, it's barely watchable.
Answer: I'll take your word on Criminal Intent and Annabella Sciorra. Haven't watched her enough on that show to have much of an opinion. As for Housewives, in my Dispatch on the show's season finale, I also moaned over the similarities between Kyle MacLachlan's sinister dentist and Roger Bart's perverted pharmacist. Looked like they were running out of ideas. As for the death rate on Wisteria Lane: welcome to the world of soap-opera cul-de-sacs. Comes with the over-the-top territory ...
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CW has greenlit Aliens in America, a half-hour comedy pilot about a Muslim foreign-exchange student who moves in with a Wisconsin family. "It's hilarious," CW president Dawn Ostroff tells Jack Myers' MediaVillage.com, "and it carries a strong message about tolerance and understanding our differences."... Roger Bart (aka Desperate Housewives' George) is joining Tom Cavanagh in My Ex-Life, a CBS comedy about divorced couples.... Related's Jennifer Esposito has a "second position" gig, replacing Alicia Witt as the titular shrink in Fox's More, Patience.... Cloris Leachman is set to play mom to Eddie McClintock and Craig Bierko in an NBC comedy from Chris Sheridan (Family Guy).
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Desperate Housewives' Roger Bart
On last Sunday's Desperate Housewives, George overestimated Bree's desire to see him stay alive, and instead ODed on sleeping pills chased with booze. Did the funny pharmacist's portrayer see the end coming? TVGuide.com got a hold of Roger Bart to talk about that most curious George as well as his forthcoming — and very "swishy" — turn in the film remake of The Producers.
TVGuide.com: Coincidentally, I just rushed back from interviewing Felicity Huffman.Roger Bart: Oh, you did? For Transamerica? I hear she's brilliant. She plays what?
TVGuide.com
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Question: Everybody has been saying that Desperate Housewives is in a slump. I'm not sure if that's an opinion I truly agree with, or merely one I've acquired from others who have been saying so pretty much since the day after the second-season premiere aired. Whatever the case, I have to say there is one part of the show that I have come to loathe: George. In the first season he was a creepy character who proved to be an interesting wrinkle in Bree and Rex's marriage. This season, with Rex out of the picture, George has taken on a bigger role in Bree's life as well as the life of the show, and I, for one, can't say it has been for the better. We have gotten to see just what level of crazy he is, and to what lengths he will go to get what he wants. I mean, not only did he manipulate Bree into having sex with him when she obviously wasn't ready, but now he's killed her therapist and proposed to her just seven weeks after her husband's death (which he, of course, caused)! To me he is a ...
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