Short Ribs Broadway in Fame Becomes Me, Opening on Broadway Aug. 17

By Robert Simonson
17 Aug 2006

Martin Short as Jiminy Glick in Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me.
Martin Short as Jiminy Glick in Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me.
Photo by Paul Kolnik

After tryouts in San Francisco, Toronto and Chicago, Tony-winner Martin Short's new show Fame Becomes Me opens at Broadway's Jacobs Theatre on Aug. 17, after previews since July 29.

The new comedy with music stars "SCTV" and "Saturday Night Live" veteran Short, and was conceived by Tony Award winner Short (Little Me) and Hairspray's Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman.

The production features music by Shaiman (who is also cast member), lyrics by Wittman and Shaiman and direction by Wittman. Charlie Alterman is the musical director. Wittman and Shaiman's Fame Becomes Me score includes such tunes as "Stepbrother de Jesus," "12 Step Pappy" and "Sniff, Sniff."

Alan Zweibel recently joined the creative team, providing "additional material."

Joining Short onstage are Brooks Ashmanskas (Little Me), Mary Birdsong ("Reno 911"), Capathia Jenkins (Caroline, or Change) and Nicole Parker ("Mad TV"). They play numerous different roles alongside Short "guiding the audience through an improbable musical version of his life story," according to press materials.

One much talked-about section of the evening has Short adopt one of his best-known characters, clueless and corpulent celebrity interviewer Jiminy Glick. Glick drafts a famous guest out of the audience and then grills them with needling questions. Past victims have include David Schwimmer, Dennis Miller, Michael Riedel, Gene Simmons, Bob Costas, Chris Noth, Nathan Lane, Cynthia Nixon and Kevin Nealon. On some evenings, the interviewee is an average theatregoer.

The structural nature of the long-gestating show is described thusly: "Leading the audience through a breathless 100 minute romp, Short re-enacts such imagined lifetime high points as his birth in 1976; his abusive father, a legendary Saskatchewan song and dance man; his heartbreaking Golden Globe-nominated performance as a mentally challenged concentration camp survivor and even his afterlife in show biz heaven. Along the way, superstars including Ellen DeGeneres, Liz Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Jodi Foster and Renee Zellweger are conjured nightly along side Short's unforgettable characters Jiminy Glick, Ed Grimley and Irving Cohen."

Short most recently starred in the Los Angeles debut of The Producers as Leo Bloom. He won a Tony for Little Me and also starred in Broadway's The Goodbye Girl.