Loose Lips

So, will Jon Tenney truly never eat lunch in that town again after starring as producer Bobby Gould in the Geffen Playhouse’s upcoming production of David Mamet‘s scathing Hollywood satire Speed-the-Plow? “I think it will be fun to do it in the belly of the beast,” says Tenney with a laugh. “The play does have a very distinctive milieu, and Hollywood and the studio system is certainly ripe for satire. But Bobby’s behavior isn’t limited to wicked Hollywood producers. I know the relationship that David captures between Bobby and his friend Charlie — how you scam each other and love each other and bullshit each other.”

Tenney didn’t see the original Broadway production, but he did see a staged reading in Los Angeles, with Adam Arkin and Jeff Goldblum in the leads. “I just fell in love with the play, and I am so excited it came around to me,” he says. “It is so beautifully constructed, and it has such music. It really sings when you hit all the right notes. David was at rehearsal the other day, and he was talking about how everyone gets their own aria.”

The production is finally allowing Tenney to work with his old friend Greg Germann as Charlie, and with new friend Alicia Silverstone as Karen. “Greg and I met when we both understudied for the Broadway production of Biloxi Blues, and then he directed me in the first reading of Snakebit. We’ve stayed friends since; we’ve even vacationed together, but this is the first time we’re acting on stage together,” he says. “Alicia is a sweetheart. She is so alive and so enchanting. You completely understand how she seduces Bobby and gets him to do this 180-degree turnaround.”

Tenney’s hoping for full and attentive houses; this is only the second play he’s ever done in L.A. But one person not likely to catch the show is his nine-year-old daughter Emerson Rose, the product of his now-ended marriage to TV star Teri Hatcher. “She’s heard me practicing my lines and she’s hung around the theater, but no, I won’t have her at the play — even though maybe it would chase her away from entering the business. If she does make that choice some day, I hope it’s a mature decision and not just the result of her parents both being actors.”

The last few weeks of the run will be extra tiring for Tenney because he needs to go back to shooting the TNT series The Closer, in which he plays Fritz Howard, the love interest of police detective Brenda Johnson (played by series star Kyra Sedgwick, who just nabbed the Golden Globe for Best Actress). “It’s such a great group of people to work with,” he says. “I’m not sure what’s planned for this season; I just hope that Brenda’s not so fickle in love. I think people really want to see us together.”

IT’S GOOD TO BE THE KING
Not every actor gets to play both Macbeth and Père Ubu in his career, but former Avenue Q star Jordan Gelber is currently pulling off that feat in The Polish Play, which combines both characters into one messed-up King. “Henry Wishbacher, the author, had seen me in Birth and Afterbirth at the Atlantic and he thought aspects of the overgrown kid I played there was sort of Ubu-like, so he contacted me,” says Gelber. “I had read and seen both of the source plays, and I thought having them cut together would be fun. Plus, while the play is not overtly political, it speaks to the world today.”

In addition to re-reading both the Jarry and Shakespeare plays, Gelber utilized another, more unusual research tool. “My relationship to my wife in the play, Mère Ubu, is very Ralph and Alice Kramden, so I watched a lot of The Honeymooners,” he says. “Ubu just wants to find a place he likes in the world, and she always wants something better for them. I think you’re supposed to love to hate these characters, or at least laugh at them. You may want to see them fail, but you also enjoy watching them get away with murder — literally.”

Has Gelber considered returning to Avenue Q, in which he originated the role of Brian? “I think I would do it if there was some sort of original cast reunion,” he says. “I almost had to come in for a weekend recently, because so many of the actors were sick and they were running out of understudies. But it’s not the same world as when I left. And I’d have to come back as Brian; it’s not going to be some Bebe Neuwirth-type thing where now I’d get to play Princeton.”

FULL HOUSES

Jason Graae had a star-studded audience for his sold-out show at Birdland on Monday night. In addition to surprise guest performers Liz Callaway and Mary Testa, the very enthusiastic crowd included Tommy Tune, Ann Hampton Callaway, Ron Raines, Lari White, Jarrod Emick, David Zippel, Michael Winther, Peter Sachon, Jonathan Dokuchitz, Billy Stritch, and Gerard Alessandrini. Some of them even stuck around for the weekly Cast Party!

On Tuesday, the opening of Rita Moreno‘s new cabaret act Little Tributes at the Café Carlyle brought out a slew of Tony Award winners, including the aforementioned Mr. Tune, Phyllis Newman, Eli Wallach (with wife Anne Jackson), Liliane Montevecchi, and Donna McKechnie. Also cheering on the star were Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, Arlene Dahl, Joy Behar, and Margaret Whiting.

SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT
To launch Manhattan Theatre Club’s new “After Words” series of talkbacks, Translations director Garry Hynes will speak with the audience immediately following the matinee performance of the show on Saturday, January 20. The creative team behind the cult hit Evil Dead: The Musical will discuss the process of adapting that horror film to the stage at Makor on Sunday, January 28. And there will be a special Salon connected to the Arena Stage production of August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean, directed by Paulette Randall, on Monday, January 29. Looking ahead, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts will host a free lecture on the life and work of Jerome Robbins on February 1, to be followed by a panel discussion of the great director-choreographer on February 3; playwrights Christopher Durang, and Jeffrey Hatcher will participate in a symposium at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts on Saturday, February 10, in conjunction with The Philadelphia New Play Festival; and Tony Award winner Michael Yeargan will present a free lecture titled The Art of Set Design: The Creative Process at the Hershey Theatre in Hershey, Pennsylvania on Wednesday, February 15.

HOWARD’S BEGINNING
Of all reasons to take a leave of absence from your last semester at NYU, few could be better than Paige Howard‘s. The 21-year-old actress has the lead role in the Vineyard Theatre’s upcoming production of J.M. Barrie’s rarely produced play Mary Rose, about a young British woman’s mysterious disappearance on a remote island. “When I first read the play, I fell in love with it because it’s such a great story,” says Howard. “But I felt my first audition was really ridiculous, so afterward I went to Barnes & Noble and bought this book called A Little Teaspoon of Courage. I was so happy when they called me back.”

The show marks her first Off-Broadway experience, and she’s learning a lot from director Tina Landau and her castmates, who include such veteran performers as Keir Dullea and Betsy Aidem. “Everyone is being so generous and willing to really extend themselves,” Howard says. “They’re happy to give me advice when I need it, but what I admire is that they really work to make the environment comfortable and totally non-judgmental.”

Howard may be a stage novice, but she’s no stranger to the acting world; her father is actor-turned-Oscar-winning director Ron Howard, and her big sister, Bryce Dallas Howard, has starred in such films as The Village and The Lady in the Water. “I talk to my family constantly, and they’ve been very supportive and helpful,” she says. “Bryce did Tartuffe on Broadway, so she’s been giving me little tips on how to hold myself and how to breathe while wearing a corset.”