Fame Becomes Me to Close Jan. 7; Tour Planned

The Broadway engagement of Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me will play its final  performance on Sunday, January 7, 2007 at 3:00 p.m. at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre (242 West 45th Street). 

The show, conceived by Martin Short and Scott Wittman, features a book by Martin Short and Daniel Goldfarb (Modern Orthodox), music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman (Hairspray) with additional material by Alan Zweibel.

The production will have played 22 previews and 165 regular performances on  Broadway.  Including the three pre-Broadway engagements at San Francisco's Curran Theatre, Toronto's Canon Theatre and the LaSalle Bank Theatre in Chicago, the show will have played over 250 performances.

Fame Becomes Me will launch a 35-week national tour in 2007; dates and itinerary to be announced shortly.

Producer Scott Zeiger, Co-CEO of BASE Entertainment commented, "There is no harder working star than Martin Short. He has given himself tirelessly and brilliantly to this project for over a year, and played eights shows a week for more than 250 performances with no understudy and no break, unheard of  in a musical role of this magnitude.   We're proud to be able to go out on top, having played only profitable weeks on Broadway, and allow Marty time to shoot The Spiderwick Chronicles prior to beginning rehearsals for our  national tour."

Fame Becomes Me "features Short in a comic tour de force, guiding us through an improbable version of his life story in a transparent play for love and attention.  Leading the audience through a breathless 100 minute romp, Short  re-enacts such imagined lifetime high points as his birth in 1976; his abusive father, a legendary Saskatchewan song and dance man; his heartbreaking Golden Globe-nominated performance as a mentally challenged concentration camp survivor and even his afterlife in show biz heaven. Along the way, Short and his five co-stars conjure Sarah Jessica Parker, Liz Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Jodie Foster and Renee Zellweger along side Short's unforgettable characters Ed Grimley, Irving Cohen and Jiminy Glick who interviews a different celebrity each night," press notes state.

During the run of the show Jiminy Glick will have conducted on-stage interviews with more than 125 stars who have cumulatively won 8 Grammy Awards, 19 Tony Awards, 90 Emmy Awards, 2 Oscars, a Pulitzer Prize and an Olympic Gold Medal.  The guest list includes Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn,  Jerry Seinfeld, Bette Midler, Steve Martin, Conan O'Brien, Jon Stewart, Ben Stiller, Paul Shaffer, Kathleen Turner, Sean Hayes, Neil Simon, Nathan Lane, Brian Williams, Connie Chung, David Hasselhoff, Jimmy Fallon, Regis Philbin,  Jerry Springer, Susan Lucci, James Belushi, Kristin Chenoweth, Bernadette Peters, Rosie o'Donnell, Rosanne Barr, Tracey Ullman, Martha Stewart and Larry King.

The cast also  features Brooks Ashmanskas, Mary Birdsong,  Capathia Jenkins, Donna Vivino and on-stage musical director Marc Shaiman playing a wide variety of different characters, both real and imagined, who figure into Short's parallel reality.

The original cast album of will be released on Ghostlight  Records in mid-February.

Produced by BASE Entertainment, Harbor Entertainment, Roy Furman and Jeffrey A. Sine in association with Lisa Lapan and Terry E. Schnuck, Fame Becomes Me features a design team of set designer Scott Pask (Tony Award for The Pillowman), costume designer Jess Goldstein (Tony Award for The Rivals), lighting designer Chris Lee and sound design by Peter Hylenski.  Orchestrations are provided by Larry Blank and Christopher Gattelli (Altar Boyz) choreographs.

Tickets are available through Telecharge, (212) 239-6200 or www.telecharge.com or by visiting the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre box  office (239 W 45th St).  Performances are Tuesdays at 7:00 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday at 8:00 p.m., Wednesday and Saturday at 2:00 p.m. and Sunday at 3:00 p.m.  Tickets prices are $111.25 and $56.25.  Premium seating is available.

For more information, please visit www.martinshortthemusical.com.