Brendan
Fraser — once a promising actor, now virtually a cartoon — wants to be taken seriously again.
Which means he’s coming to Broadway in a “dramatic” play.
The star of such seminal films as “Dudley Do-Right,” “The Mummy” and “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” — as well as the monumental “Looney Tunes: Back in Action” — Fraser will appear in “Elling” this fall at the Barrymore Theatre.
The play, a London import, was adapted for the stage by Simon Bent from a popular 2001 Norwegian movie (Is there such a thing?). It tells the story of two inmates from a mental institution who, under the supervision of a social worker, are given a shot at living on their own.
Fraser will play Kjell, a big, shaggy lump of a man who, at 40, is desperate to lose his virginity. The always excellent Denis O’Hare will play the title character, a man so rattled by his mother’s death that he sleeps in a closet and has panic attacks whenever he ventures out into the streets.
Jennifer Coolidge will play Kjell’s girlfriend. Coolidge has given memorable comic performances in the Christopher Guest movies “A Mighty Wind” and “Best in Show.”
The producer is Howard Panter, a jolly British impresario who owns a lot of theaters in London and is making a bid to become a force on Broadway — although his last venture, a revival of “Guys and Dolls,” was not exactly the stuff of Tony Awards. The production will be staged by Doug Hughes, whose credits include “Doubt,” “The Royal Family” and the upcoming “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” at the Roundabout starring Cherry Jones.
British critics raved about “Elling.” Charles Spencer, in the Telegraph, said “this variation of ‘The Odd Couple’ works like a dream,” while The Evening Standard called it a “poignant theatrical tonic.”
One producer who read the play, however, calls it “a little too precious” and questions Fraser’s box-office draw.
“If he did a play right when ‘The Mummy’ came out, he would have sold tickets,” the producer says. “But he hasn’t been an A-list movie star for a long time.”
Another insider says: “Have you seen his movies? In the posters, he’s always got a monkey on his shoulder. Or a cockatoo. Or he’s with a dog.”
Fraser, who’s given sensitive performances in good movies like “Crash” and “Gods and Monsters,” is well aware of his image, which is why he’s doing a play and not “George of the Jungle: Watch Out for That Other Tree.”
THIS time of year, I’m inundated with e- mails from shows at the New York International Fringe Festival.
Everybody’s hoping they’ve come up with the next “Urinetown,” which catapulted from obscurity to Broadway back in 2001.
It wasn’t my cup of pee, but it ran nearly 1,000 performances and put the Fringe Festival on the map.
Frankly, most of the shows sound ghastly — tedious performance art pieces staged in basements. But every now and then there’s something that looks like it might be fun and original.
This year that might be “Driving the Saudis,” which opens Sunday at the SoHo Playhouse.
Written and performed by Jayne Amelia Larson, it’s based on her experience as a chauffeur in Beverly Hills for a Saudi princess.
Larson was one of 50 — 50! — drivers assigned to the princess and her entourage of friends, bodyguards, nannies and sycophants.
It’s said to be a “sharp social satire.” Let’s hope it’s dangerously politically incorrect, as well.