Donna Vivino Joins Cast of Martin Short's Fame Becomes Me Oct. 3

By Robert Simonson
28 Sep 2006

Donna Vivino
Donna Vivino
Photo by Ryan Jensen

Donna Vivino will join the cast Martin Short's new show Fame Becomes Me, now playing at Broadway's Jacobs Theatre, on Oct. 3.

Vivino replaces cast member Nicole Parker, who will return to her role on Fox's "Mad TV."

Vivino has appeared in the Broadway company of Hairspray, Saturday Night Fever and was the original Young Cosette in Les Miserables.

Also in the cast are Brooks Ashmanskas (Little Me), Mary Birdsong ("Reno 911") and Capathia Jenkins (Caroline, or Change).

The comedy 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."

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."