Entertainment

Lane and Broderick amuse audiences and each other

06:19 PM CST on Saturday, December 24, 2005

By MANUEL MENDOZA / The Dallas Morning News

NEW YORK – Is it because they're in the home stretch of a second straight day of interviews and still have to perform tonight in The Odd Couple? Or is this just the way they always act around each other? Either way, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick are giddy.

Andrew Schwartz / Universal Studios

Matthew Broderick (left) and Nathan Lane sing out in the big-screen version of the hit Broadway musical The Producers.

One says something – anything – and the other one cracks up. This goes on for the length of a 20-minute conversation as they promote their new movie-musical, The Producers, which opens today in Dallas.

"Martin and Lewis probably had to do this a lot," Mr. Broderick, 43, says before putting on a voice. " 'We got to be at the Copacabana in 20 minutes.' "

"'We got six shows,' " adds Mr. Lane, 49, before he loses it. "Don't make me cry."

"We were in the Army together," Mr. Broderick goes on.

"In 'Nam," says Mr. Lane.

A lot has been made of their chemistry, and here it is on display. The stage version of The Producers was a monster hit when it opened on Broadway in 2001. But when the pair left the show, ticket sales took a dive. They were quickly lured back for a few more weeks.

Mr. Lane plays a sleazy Broadway producer to Mr. Broderick's nerdy accountant. Together, they decide to make a killing by mounting a musical flop, Springtime for Hitler. The songs are by Mel Brooks, who adapted his original 1968 film.

At the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue, Mr. Lane perches on a couch with his arms crossed. Mr. Broderick sits to his right, rotating toward his comedy partner. They look a bit worn out.

Mr. Lane says they met on a street corner in 1982 or 1983 when Mr. Broderick was in Brighton Beach Memoirs. Mr. Lane stopped him to compliment his performance. Almost 20 years later, Mr. Broderick's name came up for the role of Leo Bloom after Mr. Lane had been cast as Max Bialystock.

"It started slow," Mr. Broderick says of their onstage relationship, which began during rehearsals in New York before the show opened in Chicago. "I admired him enormously by then. We could tell that we were going to be all right.

"I don't really know how to put it. I've been trying all day. I don't know how you talk about why there's one person you have an easy time with, and there's one you don't."

"I don't think it's terribly complicated," Mr. Lane says. "It's like why you hit it off on a blind date or why you don't. It's just luck. That's all it is – mutual respect and admiration and a sense of fun and humor that we share."

As he serves coffee to Mr. Lane, Mr. Broderick suggests their sparks might have something to do with pheromones. So it's a sexual thing?

"No, pheromones are about everything," Mr. Broderick says. "It could be about making silk."

But don't they ever get sick of each other? After Mr. Broderick jokes about putting cotton in his ears, Mr. Lane gets serious for a second.

"We do amazingly well for two middle-aged men who have to spend this amount of time together," he says. "We've remained friends."

After the Broadway run of The Odd Couple ends, they have no immediate plans to work together again.

"We'd like to see other people," Mr. Lane says. "It keeps the relationship healthy."

E-mail mmendoza@dallasnews.com