5 Questions With Martin Short, the New Star of Broadway's It's Only A Play

Throughout his illustrious career, Martin Short has played a number of iconic characters: elderly songwriter Irving Cohen, entertainer Jackie Rogers Jr., "completely mental" man-boy Ed Grimley, and robust talk show host Jiminy Glick, among them. Short is also a stage veteran, having won a Tony for his performance in the 1999 revival of Little Me, as well as appearing in The Goodbye Girl, the Los Angeles run of The Producers, his self-titled musical Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, and the original Toronto cast of Godspell.

After a nine-year absence, Short is back on the New York boards, taking over the role of bitter television star Jimmy Wicker from his pal Nathan Lane in Terrence McNally's It's Only a Play. TheaterMania caught up with Short to discuss his engagement in the Broadway comedy and to figure out precisely what Jiminy Glick would ask Jimmy Wicker if he were conducting an interview.

1. Were you looking for a stage role when It's Only a Play came about?
I'm always looking for something…It became such a massive hit in previews and they knew it was going to be this hit, but they had a hard January 3 out…the theater was booked for someone else [and] Nathan is off to do Iceman Cometh. They approached me initially and I had to think about it. I was concerned. I didn't have much time to rehearse it. It was early October. I was having dinner with Mike Nichols in Los Angeles, and he said, "I hear you're going to do it"…He went back to New York and phoned me and said, "You really must do this play. It's a glove that will fit you perfectly, and it's a hit. You'd be a fool not to do it."

2. You and Matthew are great friends. Is it easier or harder to act opposite people you're friendly with?
I have great affection for Matthew, and in this play, my character has great affection for Peter, Matthew's character. I think that helps. He walks into the party late, doesn't know I'm watching him, and I'm upstage and I find myself doing what I normally do when Matthew walks into a room: I smile.

3. So much of Jimmy Wicker was written for Nathan. Has much changed to tailor it to you?
Your job is to…If there is a certain riff that exists to get, let's say, an anxious thought out there, with the hope that it will get a big laugh at this point, you have to figure out how to do that. Maybe you look at it and say, "Well, I know Nathan gets a laugh. That's his energy, but that isn't mine." You can't do Nathan; you have to figure out how to get the laugh doing your own thing. But as far as changing the words, no words were changed.

4. As an actor, have you related to Jimmy Wicker?
I think we all have. I don't think anyone's a saint. At one point, [Jimmy and Peter are] having an argument, and I say to Matthew, "I wish I could say the same about your play," and he says, "I thought you loved my play." And I say, "I turned it down. When do I turn anything down? I did Dancing With the Stars." And I think the reality is that we all feel that. We all have resentments toward friends who don't mention our…If we're on a television series and no one calls you about it, you kind of go, "I'll remember that." It's just human nature.

5. If your great character Jiminy Glick were to interview Jimmy Wicker, what would the first question be?
[affecting the Jiminy Glick voice] "Whatever cosmetic surgery you've had, Jimmy, I'd say twenty percent more and then I'd stop. Is that a fair analogy?"