B'way ups & downs
The good news at the box office was tempered by the dreadful fare that marked the opening of the 2005-06 Broadway season: "Lennon," "The Blonde in the Thunderbird" and "The Mambo Kings," which had the good taste to shutter out of town.
Too close to call
It was high-profile while it lasted. Sarah Jessica Parker has had to recuse herself from the Tony nominating committee due to husband Matthew Broderick's upcoming Broadway turn in "The Odd Couple" with Nathan Lane. It would have been Parker's first of three seasons on the committee.
Playwright David Henry Hwang also had to say good-bye to the nominators, at least for 2005-06. He wrote the book for Disney's new musical "Tarzan," which is skedded to arrive on Broadway in March.
Parker and Hwang might have wanted to vote in categories not affected by their respective spouse or project, but the Tony rules don't allow it; it's an all-or-nothing gig. See them in 2006-07.
H'wood on the Hudson
A couple of legit pros make their movie debuts with "A Very Serious Person."
Daryl Roth produces and Charles Busch directs the film about the extended family of a male nurse (Busch), his patient (Polly Bergen) and her orphaned grandson (newcomer P.J. Verhoest).
Roth and Busch first collaborated on his 2000 comedy "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife," which she produced on Broadway.
While "A Very Serious Person" marks Busch's debut as a film director, the noted female impressionist has occasionally made other forays into portraying a man on stage and screen, most notably in "You Should Be So Lucky," "The Maids" and the HBO series "Oz."
Busch co-wrote the "Serious Person" script with Carl Andress, who rounds out the cast along with Dana Ivey, Julie Halston and J. Smith Cameron. The film recently completed principal photography. Roth is producing with Richard Guay and Starec Prods.
Fatal attraction
While someone is probably at work on turning "Six Feet Under" into a stage musical, the Araca Group ("Wicked") is definitely going the necro route with its in-the-works project "Pretty Dead Girl."
Sundance and Tribeca fest auds will recognize the title from a short film that unspooled there in 2004. In "PDG," an intern (Christian Campbell) has a thing for corpses until he is seduced into the real-live thing by a pretty nurse (Christina Souza), who poses as one of the girls on the slab. Shawn Ku wrote and directed the film, which has a score by Annmarie Milazzo. They are joined on the stage version by book writer Brad Fraser.
Araca had a reading of "PDG" last month. "We think it has great potential," says Matthew Rego. "We're in the beginning of the process."
What goes around
CAA has signed Motown songwriters Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland, who, after 25 years, have reunited to write the score for the new "First Wives Club" tuner.
Mamie Gummer makes her Gotham stage debut this autumn in Roundabout's production of the Michael C. Hall starrer "Mr. Marmalade" by Noah Haidle. Gummer, the daughter of Meryl Streep, has signed with the Gersh Agency.
