Mullally Quits McNally Show Postponed

A planned Broadway revival of gay playwright Terrence McNally's Lips Together, Teeth Apart has been postponed after actress Megan Mullally quit the show, The New York Times reports.

Mullally, of Will & Grace fame, left the cast because she was displeased with costar Patton Oswalt, finding him inexperienced and unable to handle his role as her character's homophobic brother, sources told The Times. Mullally had asked director Joe Mantello to replace Oswalt, a comedian and Broadway newcomer, but he refused, the sources said. Nathan Lane played the role to acclaim when the play was first produced off-Broadway in 1991.

The revival, a production of Roundabout Theater Company, was to begin preview performances April 9. Roundabout artistic director Todd Haimes said it would be impossible to maintain that schedule, given the need to recast Mullally's role. No new date has been set.

Lips Together, Teeth Apart is about two straight married couples spending the Fourth of July weekend at a Fire Island beach house that one character has inherited after her brother's death from AIDS. Others cast in the planned revival were Lili Taylor and David Wilson Barnes.