Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, who broke box office records in 2001 as stars of the Broadway musical megahit The Producers, will team up again later this year in Terrence McNally's It's Only a Play.
This newly revised version of the showbusiness comedy, which was most notably presented at the Manhattan Theater Club in 1986, will star Broderick as "a nervous playwright" and Lane as "his envious, backbiting friend," according to The New York Times.
Directed by Jack O'Brien (Hairspray, The Nance), the play is expected to open in September at a Broadway theater yet to be announced with Tom Kirdahy, McNally's husband, as the lead producer. Kirdahy is currently producing McNally's gay-themed drama Mothers and Sons, which is nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play.
"I've wanted to do the play for a while, but so much has changed," McNally told the Times of updating It's Only a Play. "So I did a rewrite ... The world of Broadway has changed drastically since the original."
Broderick and Lane last shared the stage in the 2005 Broadway revival of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple. They appeared in the movie musical adaptation of The Producers the same year.
Lane came out publicly as gay in a 1999 interview with The Advocate. Broderick called Lane one of his "biggest influences" in a 2007 Advocate interview.
