Tonys 2008: Bening and Quaid out of the race

September 25, 2007 | 4:50 pm

Looks like Oscar nominees Annette Bening and Randy Quaid won't be in the running for Tonys this season, as expected. While Bening has bowed out of her Broadway-bound show for unspecified personal reasons, "The Female of the Species" will go on without her. Quaid's derby player, "Lone Star Love," got shot out from under him in Seattle while he dueled with producers over creative content.

Bening was to headline "Species," a serio-comic work by hot new Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith. Inspired by a real-life incident with Germaine Greer, the play pits a feminist icon (Bening's role) against an obsessed fan. The show will continue as scheduled at the Geffen Playhouse in L.A. in February/March with a Rialto run set for April. No word yet on who will take over her plum part.

Curiously, news of Bening's withdrawal came only hours before the L.A. Stage Alliance announced it was honoring the 49-year-old actress with a career achievement award at the Ovation Awards on November 12. This West Coast counterpart to the Tonys salutes the burgeoning L.A. theater scene. For a full list of the nominees CLICK HERE

Quaid stars as wily con artist Colonel Falstaff in a musical update of Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor" that's set in America's old Wild West. After an earlier run Off Broadway in limited engagement in 2004-2005, "Lone Star Love" was due to open this December at Broadway's Belasco Theatre, but producers — who include Roger Berlind ("Amadeus," "Doubt," "History Boys") — pulled the plug after tepid reviews and backstage battles in Seattle.

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The Post-Intelligencer called "Lone Star Love" "dull," adding its assertion that "this pokey, moseying production -- more an old-fashioned operetta than a contemporary musical -- is not right for $110-a-ticket Manhattan." (CLICK HERE to Read More.) While critics liked Quaid's performance, they were less than enthused about the show's music by the Red Clay Ramblers.

"The producers of 'Lone Star Love' have pulled the plug on the $6.5 million show after clashing repeatedly with their star, Randy Quaid, and his wife and manager, Evi," reports the New York Post. "A source says the producers, who include Ed Burke, Bob Boyett and Roger Berlind, were so desperate for a star that they 'foolishly made a deal that gave these people so much power — power that no actor should ever have over a show."

A source told the Post, "Once previews began in Seattle, the Quaids tried to transform 'Lone Star Love' from a "sweet, delightful romp" into "a raunchy, dark, indie-type movie with lots of twisted sexual ideas." READ MORE

(Avenue A Productions)