Television is apparently offering a big “wilkommen” to Cabaret star Alan Cumming in the form of a plum TV deal that would place him in an NBC sitcom in fall 1999.
According to Variety (Oct. 12), 20th Century Fox Television and producer Steve Levitan (“Just Shoot Me”) will tailor a sitcom for the Scottish actor, and NBC may place Broadway’s lewd Emcee into the primo prime time position before or after “Frasier” in the coveted Thursday evening lineup. Tuesday night is the other option, according to Variety, which reported that despite the lack of a concept, a 13-episode deal is the plan.
Calls to Cumming’s agents, Scott Arnovitz and Andy Cohen at ICM, were not immediately returned to Playbill On-Line.
Cumming has worked in British TV, but not in a major American TV series. His films include “Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion,” “Circle of Friends” and “Goldeneye.”
Cumming is currently on hiatus from Broadway’s Cabaret (for which he won the 1998 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical), in order to take a role in Julie Taymor's movie version of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. He returns to the role Nov. 24 through March 1999. In the meantime, a spokesman for Cabaret says the hit revival is still slated to change venues Nov. 12, when it reopens the Kit Kat Klub (a conceptual nightclub atmosphere) at the former Studio 54 space, a larger room than the current digs on 43rd Street.
-- By Kenneth Jones
