Showtime and Jonathan Burkhart present the work which will now begin performances Oct. 12 and open Oct. 24.
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, Dixon and Harold Lubin. Tom Kitt (Debbie Does Dallas) serves as musical director.
The solo show was expected to play the Music Box Theatre in January 2003 but was postponed. The actor went on to perform on Broadway in The Violet Hour and then Assassins.
Cantone, known to television audiences as ruthless gay wedding stylist Anthony Marentino 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.
The design team features Robert Brill (set), Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhower (lighting) and Tony Meola (sound). The show was developed from limited engagements at the American Airlines Theatre, where the actor-comedian appeared in 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, Whoopi Goldberg's Whoopi, Eve Ensler's The Good Body and Martin Short's If I'd Saved, I Wouldn't Be Here: Martin Short On Broadway.
Tickets to Laugh Whore at the Cort Theatre, 138 West 48 Street, are available by calling (212) 239-6200. For more information, visit www.mariocantone.com.
