Beach won the 2001 Tony Award for Best Supporting Actor (Musical) playing Roger DeBris, the flamboyant stage director enlisted to helm a production of Springtime for Hitler in the Mel Brooks show-within-a-show. His performance, which references everything from Beauty and the Beast to Judy Garland to Rosalind Russell, is greeted with howls of approval at Broadway's St. James every night.
Beach's exit date out of the Broadway company is April 27; he is expected to return to the Broadway compnay in late 2003 or early 2004. It's thought his Broadway replacement might be a star name.
The current national tour of The Producers, with Don Stephenson as Leo, Lewis J. Stadlen as Max and Leroy Reams as Roger, will take up residence at the Pantages Theatre in L.A. (through Jan. 4, 2004), but without its current tour leads. Short, Alexander and Beach jump in for the L.A. run.
Casting for the second tour that begins in Boston come summer has not been announced. Opening for the L.A. run is May 29.
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The casting of Short ("Prime Time Glick," "SCTV," "Saturday Night Live"), known for neurotic, quirky characters in film and TV, has been a longtime dream for Brooks. Alexander ("Seinfeld") is known for his blustery character acting and a solid singing voice. Both players bring huge marquee value to the staging.
Martin Short won the Tony Award for Little Me and was nommed for The Goodbye Girl. Alexander won the Tony for Jerome Robbins' Broadway.