Cossette bringing back 'Follies'

Hugh Jackman being eyed for lead role

By LIZ SMITH

Jackman

REMEMBER the 1991 B'way hit "The Will Rogers Follies," directed by Tommy Tune with music and lyrics by Cy Coleman, Betty Comden, Adolph Green? Producer Pierre Cossette wants to bring it back with a r-e-a-l-ly big name playing Will -- Hugh Jackman. (Keith Caradine played the lead in the original.) And maybe Cady Huffman who played "Ziegfeld's favorite girl " could return. I ran into her recently and she is unchanged. Producer Cossette is eager to win another Tony Award and though he has been flying under the radar of late, he is still planning also to mount the musical "Woody Guthrie" with his wife Mary ... Reports that producer Hal Prince has snapped back from his minor stroke two weeks ago are true. He has no lingering symptoms and he is already working again, fine-tuning "The Phantom of the Opera." He was seen at the matinee last week taking and giving notes. Hal, 80, is said to have his eye on the record of his mentor, the great George Abbott, who lived to be 107 and worked to the end.

SEEN & SCENE at Primola, in Manhattan -- Linda Fairstein, former district attorney-turned bestselling crime author, dining with Mariska Hargitay of "Law & Order: SVU." Linda is working on a new book, of course. She always is. Will Mariska --who is now probably as much an expert on crime and punishment as is Linda -- somehow be a part of this coming book?

IT'S FUNNY. When I see Brooke Smith taking control of the operating room in "Grey's Anatomy," I always find myself wondering how many remember Brooke as the slightly plump victim of the man collecting women's skin in "The Silence of the Lambs." But even in that, she took control; a smartie who lured the serial killer's little dog to the edge and down into the well with her, saving her life even before Jodie Foster could come to her aid.