Mister D: Yes, Bette gets the Jiminy Glick interview treatment one night during Martin Short’s return to Broadway in his one man show, “Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me,” beginning August 17th. The downer is, you don’t know what night she’ll appear. There will be many celebrity guests during the run of the show…which make the anticipation all the more fun. Mr. Bruce Vilanch was given the Glick Treatment during the San Fran run….Glick can be brutal, but hilarity always ensues….
Variety.com
Short cut to celebs
By GORDON COX
Tom Hanks, Bette Midler, Tina Fey: All of them are on their way to Broadway.
Sort of.
Those celebs are among the A-listers who’ll be catching “Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me.” And at each performance, Martin Short’s rotund alter ego, Jiminy Glick, yanks up an audience member for a mildly abusive interview.
Sometimes the hot seat is occupied by an everyday theatergoer, but on many nights there’ll be a star lined up to go toe-to-toe with Glick.
“I’m sure friends of mine will be popping by,” Short says of his celebrity-skewering sendup of one-man shows, which opens Aug. 17. “People like Steve and Chevy.”
And if the nightly guessing game of who’s-Jiminy’s-guest helps “Fame Becomes Me” build some movie-star buzz, producer Scott Zeiger will take it.
After all, despite many auds’ preconceptions, “Fame” isn’t a one-man show, so it doesn’t have the rock-bottom running costs that come with a solo outing. “We’re a musical,” Zeiger says. “We need that word of mouth right away.”
Alumni guests of the show — in tryout cities Toronto and Chicago, and now in previews in Gotham — include Dennis Miller, Eugene Levy, Gene Simmons and Toronto Mayor David Miller.
The show also has approached Gotham politicians and some major figures in the business world, as well as celebs making the rounds of the New York talkshow circuit.
Not everyone has said yes immediately, but “no one’s said no,” Zeiger says. “If we do our job right, the show could easily be part of the New York promotional tour” for stars talking up new projects.
But according to Short, interviews with civilians can be just as much fun. “Some of the best Jiminy interviews I’ve done are with real people who just went along with it,” Short says. “It’s when we’ve had some of those magical moments of improv happen.”
