December 13, 2005

A classic double take

Broadway's hottest couple hints it's over - or is the joke on us?

By Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News

New York's favorite duo, Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane, are breaking up.

"I think it's important we see other people," says Lane, his voice filling with fake concern - his eyes darting toward Broderick next to him on a couch.

"Do you mean ... you want to, or ... we both should?" says Broderick, pouting.

"We both should," says Lane. "I think it would be healthy!"

But is this really the end?

Hardly. There's the movie musical of Mel Brooks' "The Producers," opening Friday, in which the two co-star along with Will Ferrell, as the loopy Nazi Franz Liebkind, and Uma Thurman, as the sexpot secretary Ulla. There's also the legacy of the Broadway smash it's based on, which cleaned up at the box office, won an unparalleled 12 Tony awards, and is now an institution.

And their current stage hit, "The Odd Couple," sold out in record time.

Who could've guessed?

Not the two New York-based performers (who are also neighbors: Broderick and his wife, actress Sarah Jessica Parker, live in Greenwich Village, not far from Lane's Tribeca apartment). In fact, when Lane first met Broderick, they didn't bond over theater, comedy or Brooks-ian shtick.

But they did share one thing: The same shirt.

"In 1983, Matthew and I passed each other on the street," says Lane. "Matthew was doing 'Brighton Beach Memoirs,' and I stopped him to say he was great in it, congratulations. He didn't know I was an actor, but he replied, 'Thank you very much.'

"Then he said" - and here Lane perfectly imitates Broderick's polite mumble - " 'Gee, look, look, we're both, um, wearing blue striped, buttoned-down shirts ...' And I said, 'Well, you're my idol, I dress like you.' And we went on our way."

Their paths, of course, crossed again. In 1994, they did voices in Disney's animated "The Lion King," though they recorded them separately. But when Broderick was cast as nervous accountant Leo Bloom before the pre-Broadway Chicago run of "The Producers" in 2001 (Lane was Brooks' only choice for shyster showman Max Bialystock, played by Zero Mostel in Brooks' original 1968 movie), something clicked - even if only one of them noticed it.

"I don't recall thinking about any chemistry," says Broderick. "I was just worried about my own material."

Lane, however, remembers The Moment.

"During the second week in Chicago, there was a performance when we had a technical problem. So we did some riffing, and it just was ba-bing, ba-boom, ba-boom!

"The audience went crazy."

Of their old-style partnership, film historian Leonard Maltin says, "Lane and Broderick have inherited what Bob Hope and Bing Crosby once gave to movie crowds: a sense of being in on the joke.

"They're winking broadly at us, and we love it, because it makes us complicit in the game."

It's a trait that the 43-year-old Broderick (whose film career includes "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "Election") credits completely to Lane, 49 (whose stage highlights include "Guys & Dolls" and "Love! Valour! Compassion!").

"Nathan is more familiar with that improv stuff than I am," says Broderick, "but I found with him, anything could go wrong and we'd be like, 'Oh good, let's see what happens!'"

By the time "The Producers" opened on Broadway in April 2001 (directed by Susan Stroman, who also helmed the new film), that rapport was honed to perfection.

"The stage phenomenon was completely surprising," says Broderick. "It grew beyond anything we were in control of. It was like a 1930s movie - I'd go to sleep and see spinning newspapers with headlines like, 'Broderick and Lane to the Rescue!' 'Broderick Saves City!' That sounds like [bragging], but it was amazing.

"And it'll never be like that again," Lane adds, "where all the stars align."

So, this "breakup" they're talking about - is it for real? Broderick has an answer that would fit right into the world of "The Producers."

"It'll spice up the relationship!"

Broadway's dynamic duo ponders next (solo) act

'Odd Couple' Broderick and Lane talk split

Talk about a show-stopper!

Are Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane going their separate ways after two hit Broadway shows and a highly anticipated movie?

"I don't expect something like this to ever happen again," Broderick told the Daily News. "This 'team' thing is a new aspect [to my career] ... I never considered myself 'half' of anything!"

The Tony-winning pair are currently on Broadway as the mismatched roommates in the sold-out revival of "The Odd Couple." Their first blockbuster collaboration was in the musical stage version of Mel Brooks' "The Producers" in 2001. The show won a record 12 Tony Awards.

But when their run together ended, the box office dropoff was so dramatic they were lured back in December 2003 - for a reported $100,000 a week each. They sold out every show during their four-month reprise.

Now, the musical comes to the big screen Friday.

Co-starring Will Ferrell as the loopy Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind and Uma Thurman as the sexpot Swedish secretary Ulla, the film is an old-fashioned movie musical right down to its set, which re-created Broadway's Shubert Alley on a Brooklyn soundstage.

"I didn't want to just document the stage version, though, because then it would feel stale," Broderick said.

"So hopefully the movie is its own, new thing," added the veteran stage and screen actor, who is married to Sarah Jessica Parker. "However, it couldn't be too naturalistic, either - the material demands a certain size, and you can't be very subtle when you do jokes like these."

Returning to the material that made them a 21st century superteam is a little bittersweet.

"Not everything [we do from now on] is going to be 'The Producers,'" Lane said. "It was such a phenomenon; something like that really does only happen once in a lifetime, where you say, 'Wow, who could have predicted that?'"