RIALTO CHATTER: NANCE Next for Lane?

The New York Times reports today that Nathan Lane may be teaming up with Douglas Carter Beane following his run in The Addams Family for The Nance, a new play "about a performer who played the role of the nance in burlesque shows in the early 20th century." The play centers on a nance (or "nancy boy"), who performs at the downtown burlesque club, The Irving, "during the era when Mayor Fiorello La Guardia was moving to ban burlesque in New York City."

Beane hosted a private reading of the play last month starring Lane, Benjamin Walker, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Kevin Chamberlin.  Beane tells the New York Times that his goal is to workshop the piece at Lincoln Center Theater sometime this season. 

To read the full report in the New York Times, click here.

Nathan Lane is a two-time Tony and Emmy award-winning stage and screen star. He is best known for his roles as Albert in The Birdcage, Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers, Ernie Smuntz in MouseHunt, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and his voice work in The Lion King and Stuart Little. In 2008, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. He currently appears nightly in The Addams Family at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.