By Ernio Hernandez
05 Feb 2004

Marc Kudisch in The Thing About Men

The cast of Off-Broadway's musical The Thing About Men will head into the studio Feb. 23 to record the original cast album of the show penned by Joe DiPietro and Jimmy Roberts.

DRG Records will record the new musical featuring Marc Kudisch, Ron Bohmer, Leah Hocking, Daniel Reichard and Jennifer Simard. The album release date is scheduled for April 6.

I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change creators Roberts and DiPietro unveiled their newest work, The Thing About Men, at Off-Broadway's Promenade Theatre, Aug. 27 after previews beginning Aug. 6.

Mark Clements (Speaking in Tongues) directs the production with musical staging by Tony Award-winner Rob Ashford (Thoroughly Modern Millie).

Kudisch will soon leave the production to begin rehearsals for the upcoming Broadway revival of Assassins. No end date or replacement for the actor has yet been named.

Billed "a musical comedy affair," The Thing About Men features music by Roberts with book and lyrics by DiPietro. The show — once simply called Men — is based on the German filmmaker Doris Dörrie's 1985 movie "Männer" (Men). The plot finds a middle-aged ad exec (Kudisch) who moves out after discovering his wife (Hocking) is cheating on him. The spurned man then takes up residence with an artist (Bohmer) — who is "the other man." The interactions between the love triangle are accented by a male and female narrator-like duo (Reichard and Simard), who also play all the show's other eclectic and eccentric characters.

The stock and amateur stage rights to the show are now represented by The Rodgers & Hammerstein Theatre Library — as is the songwriter's other show I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.

The Thing About Men plays at the Promenade, 2162 Broadway (at 76th Street). For more information, visit www.thethingaboutmen.com.