Recent Assassins star Mario Cantone reteams with his Tony Award-winning director Joe Mantello on the solo set to begin Oct. 5 and open Oct. 17.

The cable network, as part of the arrangement will air the Broadway show on its channel in 2005. Showtime makes its debut as a producer, joining Jonathan Burkhart.

Cantone, known to television audiences as ruthless gay wedding stylist Anthony Marantino on "Sex and the City," has also starred on Broadway in Love! Valour! Compassion!, Off-Broadway in The Crumple Zone and many comedy gigs including spots on "Chappelle's Show" and his own Comedy Central special.

Laugh Whore is written and performed by Cantone and features musical numbers composed by tick, tick...BOOM! and Once on This Island actor Jerry Dixon with lyrics by Cantone. Tom Kitt (Debbie Does Dallas) serves as musical director.

The show — which "will offer his acerbic views on current events, plus his takes on celebrities, old and new and what is was like growing up as Mario Cantone" — was developed from limited engagements at the American Airlines Theatre entitled An Evening With Mario Cantone. Mantello (Take Me Out, Wicked) directed those shows which featured the same musical team and Lisa Leguillo providing musical staging. In the Evening, Cantone took on many of his staples Judy Garland, Jim Morrison, Peggy Lee and Liza Minnelli in the two-act program.

In a 2001-02 Broadway season filled with one-person shows, Cantone jokingly contrasted his work. "No, I'm not going to come out in a white shirt and leggings and miss the last note of 'Ladies Who Lunch' a few times," he said, referring to Elaine Stritch's At Liberty. Instead, he said, "It's going to be fun. Everybody thinks 'Well, you need a theme' [or] 'you should have a play.' It's not a play. Dame Edna didn't have a play, she had no theme at all and she was hysterical."

Cantone will share the Broadway boards with the Dame, who returns to New York — following her 2000 Tony Award-winning Royal Tour — in Dame Edna: Back With A Vengeance. Other planned Broadway solo shows include Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays and an as-yet-untitled Martin Short work.

For more information, visit www.mariocantone.com.