<i>Fried Green Tomatoes</I> heads for Broadway (15987)

Variety reports that Fannie Flagg's novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Cafe, already the basis of a 1991 film, is being turned into a drama for the Broadway stage. Producer Jeffrey Finn, the man behind the current Tony-nominated revival of On Golden Pond starring James Earl Jones, says the play will be based on the original book rather than the movie, which took heat from queer viewers for its soft-pedaling of the book's lesbian themes. When asked if the stage version would be more explicit in its handling of the female companions, Finn replied, "What an appropriate and premature question." He added that Flagg would be closely involved in the stage adaptation.