Nathan Lane got his start in Terrence McNally’s plays, making enormous splashes for himself in Lisbon Traviata, Lips Together, Teeth Apart and Love, Valour, Compassion. It was one of those relationships between a playwright and an actor that you dream of finding. Rare. Lane was almost McNally’s muse. McNally brought out the best in Nathan Lane, and Nathan Lane lifted McNally’s words off the page and made his plays LIVE. If all you know of Nathan Lane is his performance in The Birdcage (which is wonderful, by the way) – then you only know half of what this man can do. To see him onstage??? People. People. The man is a stage actor. It’s not just that he is funny and broad and over-the-top, although he is all of those things. But … it’s a matter of technique, I guess, or spirit. Not sure. He plays to the back row. His work is specific, emotionally connected, like a laser beam, he has comedy down to a SCIENCE and yet you never feel him mugging or pandering to you … He is great in The Birdcage but he is one of the best there is onstage.
Lane and McNally had a rather famous falling out. I am not sure of the wheres and whyfores of it, but I believe it had something to do with whatshisname from Seinfeld – Jason Alexander – being cast in Lane’s role in the movie version of Love, Valour, Compassion. Both Lane and McNally have been rather reticent on this, but it is apparent that something pretty bad went down between the two friends over this issue. Lane made a kind of wistful comment about it when he came and talked at my school, basically saying that he would love to work with McNally again, and wouldn’t it be great, wouldn’t it be something … But he made that comment years ago.
Now it looks like it is actually happening. Nathan Lane has joined the cast of Terrence McNally’s new play Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams , premiering at Primary Stages.
I saw the notice today and it made me happy. Made me happy to think that these two old New York pros had obviously buried the hatchet, and decided to work together again. Wonderful.
Good friends of ours managed to score awesome seats to see Lane and Broderick in The Odd Couple. I’d sell my right arm to see it, just sounds incredible.
Dude – that is so awesome!! It does sound incredible – I bet it will be a massive hit.