STAGE TO SCREENS: A Chat with TV Writer and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' Jeffrey Lane
By Michael Buckley
29 Aug 2004
Before he left television, Lane "did a lot of pilots and had a lot of
development deals. If you have success in TV, everybody tries to get you to
do it again. It's a crapshoot. I did a pilot called 'Wish You Were Here,'
with Joely Fisher. It never went anywhere. It was one of those things they
loved, because it was different, and then they didn't want to put it on,
because it was different. It was about a magazine writer and a photographer,
and each week it took place in a different town. The premise scared people.
Now, it's a pleasure to see things like 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' 'The
Sopranos,' 'Arrested Development.'
"Friends of mine had to keep writing [for TV], in order to support a
lifestyle, but I made sure that I would never have to do that. My work has
afforded me a really nice life, and a place to do work I wanted to do. I
loved doing 'Mad About You.' But when your work is not making you happy,
it's time to go and try to find a place where you can do your best
work." That brings us back to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. With book and
score in hand, Lane and Yazbek went in search of respectable counterparts to Bialystock and Bloom.
"We met with a bunch of people," continues Lane. "A lot of them watched the
movie and didn't see it [as a musical]. One producer said that the problem
with it was the characters were scoundrels. We said, 'Yes, in fact they're
dirty, rotten scoundrels.' When we met with Marty Bell and David Brown, they
saw exactly what we wanted to do and were really enthusiastic. We were
very happy to go with them.
"Jack and Jerry [O'Brien and Mitchell] both wanted to work with David again
after Full Monty, but they waited until I had a first draft and David
had at least three songs. We had started in November 2002; they came on
board in June 2003." Then came casting. "Nine million names went back and
forth." Eventually, those were narrowed down to the current leads: John
Lithgow, Norbert Leo Butz, Sherie Rene Scott, Joanna Gleason, Greg Jbara
and Sara Gettelfinger.
"We did two workshops in November [2003] and February [2004]. Brian
Stokes Mitchell and Norbert Leo Butz were supposed to do the first. Stokes
did half of it, and then his first child was born, and Doug Sills came in
for the last week. We had always seen Norbert in it, but he threw out his
neck in
Wicked, and Brian d'Arcy James, who was really a prince,
stepped in. Sherie Rene Scott has been with us since the first workshop, in
which Denis O'Hare, who was great, played the part that Greg Jbara's
doing.
"Stokes did the second one, with Norbert. Joanna Gleason also did the
second. I had worked with her before, and it's a thrill to be able to work
with her again. John [Lithgow] was invited to see the second workshop. He
said he didn't think of it in terms of himself. But Stokes, who was
wonderful, went and did something else, and when we called John, it just
sort of all fell into place. John's really amazing onstage and off. I
kind of lucked out all over."
Scoundrels, Lane explains, "is about a con, and theatre is a con. I
tried to use that structure. A con man, to me, is really interesting because he's smart enough and knows people enough that he can look into
their hearts and realize what they want, and yet has to put a mask on and
stand back from any kind of emotional involvement. That really fascinated
me. The analogy between that and musicals, which also create a fantasy,
helped me write it. God knows if anybody will ever know that."
Born in St. Louis, Lane lived there two weeks before moving (with his
parents) to Belle Harbor, New York, "where I stayed until I was four. I grew
up on Long Island, in Wantaugh, gateway to Jones Beach and, though it's
since been moved, the grave of Checkers Nixon. [Checkers was a dog given to the late President.] I have two younger brothers and a younger sister.
Michael was a casting director, but went into the family live-poultry
business, because he has two kids. Eric is a playwright, who edits books and
just did a short film. Lisa is a hairdresser, who's about to have her fourth
child." Lane is single.
Incidentally, some sources credit the writer with an appearance in a 1987
horror flick, "Forever Evil," but that's a different Jeffrey Lane. "Nor did
I play Clarice's father in 'Silence of the Lambs,'" he insists. (That was
Jeffrie Lane.)
Currently, in addition to the musical, Lane is working on a play, and he and
Yazbek are discussing "a couple of projects." Here's hoping that this Lane
finds as much Broadway success as the one named Nathan. By the way, the
excitement that he felt when first working on "Ryan's Hope" has returned. "I
have the same kind of feeling about Dirty Rotten Scoundrels [which,
as of now, begins Broadway previews January 31, 2005]," admits a very happy Jeffrey Lane.
***
Michael Buckley also writes for TheaterMania.com and The Sondheim Review.
He's the author of "Between Takes (Interviews with Hollywood Legends)," to
be published in spring 2005.
