Tuesday, March 7, 2000

'Dwarf' is not short on talent:

Ferris' big wheel, Matthew Broderick, is off to Broadway in new comedy

By Robert Nesti, Boston Herald

In ``Taller Than a Dwarf,'' Elaine May's new comedy that starts its pre-Broadway tryout tonight at the Wilbur Theatre, Matthew Broderick plays New Yorker Howard Miller, who takes to his bed rather than deal with the stress of contemporary life.

Call it Howard Miller's Day Off.

And during the course of the day Miller must deal with his wife (Parker Posey), his in-laws, his boss - even his super - who implore him to get out of bed and face life.

``He's having an extremely bad day,'' said Broderick, the personable movie star and two-time Tony Award-winning actor. ``He's an accident ready to happen.''

What has led Howard to this point - and what attracted Broderick to the role - is that this is a story of a couple who, in this age of instant Internet millionaires and e-Trade tycoons, is just scraping by.

``As a New Yorker, I hadn't heard too much about people like them,'' Broderick said. ``So many people are making loads of money; so it's really hard on them. They keep hearing how well they should be doing, but they're barely paying their Visa bill. In this booming economy nothing has changed for them.

``I think there is too much emphasis on everybody doing great,'' he said. ``So it must be a particularly hard time not to be doing great, like Howard. He just hasn't been very lucky. And so much of it is luck, I think, for people who get wealthy. It's a combination of luck and having a head start - you know, a rich father or some connections. He doesn't have any of that.''

But, Broderick, who is married to ``Sex in the City'' star Sarah Jessica Parker, feels that a love story is at the heart of the new comedy.

``And I think you start to feel for them because this stuff is hard for them,'' Broderick said. ``It's hard to say what its effect will be on audiences, but it is more emotional than I thought. It's funny. It's all funny. But like most good comedies it has that human side to it.''

Broderick became involved in this project eight months ago, when he was asked by the play's director, Alan Arkin, to read for the part. At the time, he had just completed two films - ``Election'' and ``Inspector Gadget'' - and was to star in a Broadway revival of the old thriller ``Night Must Fall,'' in which he played a charming, homicidal maniac.

Moving from stage to film and back again is the dynamic that has pretty much defined the 36-year-old actor's career since he made his stage debut some 20 years ago in plays such as ``Torch Song Trilogy'' and ``Brighton Beach Memoirs,'' for which he won his first Tony.

Since then, Broderick has starred in movies as diverse as ``War Games,'' ``Ferris Bueller's Day Off,'' ``Glory,'' ``The Cable Guy,'' ``Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle'' and ``Infinity,'' which he also directed. On stage he's been in ``Biloxi Blues'' and ``How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying,'' for which he won a second Tony.

Broderick sees little difference between the two mediums.

``They're different, but it's not so different to me,'' he said. ``What I like about the theater is having an audience there. It's scary and it's very direct. You do it, they hear it. There's no lag. There's no editing. It's the most straightforward form of storytelling. And it's very satisfying at the end of an evening to have done the whole thing from beginning to end.

``But I really do like doing both (movies and film) and I choose usually what's the better of the two that comes along at that time,'' he said.

He freely acknowledges admiration for his co-star, Parker Posey, dubbed by Time magazine as ``Queen of the Indies,'' who will make her Broadway debut in ``Taller Than a Dwarf.''

``She's been great to work with,'' he said. ``And it's been my experience that being a good actress from a film will translate to being good on the stage, and Parker is fantastically good.''

And he's surprised that Ferris Bueller, the title character he played in John Hughes' 1986 film about a high schooler's escapades skipping school, still has such a following.

``Not that I don't think it's a great movie, but I'm amazed at how it appeals to new youngsters,'' Broderick said. ``Fifteen-year-olds tell me they love that movie. It seems to translate to different times, even though it is so of its time.''