News Flash: The SHOW will NOT go ON!

The Broadway revival of Terrence McNally’s play “Lips Together, Teeth Apart” has been postponed for the spring season, the Roundabout Theater Company announced on Thursday. The decision was made after the actress Megan Mullally quit the show this week because of frustration with the inexperience of a co-star, the comedian Patton Oswalt, whom she tried to have replaced, according to four people familiar with her departure.

Todd Haimes, the Roundabout’s artistic director, said in a statement that there was no way “to maintain the production schedule” after Ms. Mullally quit so close to the start of preview performances on April 9. Mr. Haimes had disclosed Ms. Mullally’s departure on Wednesday night, calling it a surprise and a breach of contract.

Ms. Mullally, a two-time Emmy Award winner for her role as Karen on “Will & Grace,” departed two weeks into rehearsals, after the show’s director, Joe Mantello, refused her request to replace Mr. Oswalt, according to the four people who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were disclosing information that was shared with them confidentially. Two of the people are involved in the production, and two had been briefed in detail on Ms. Mullally’s departure.

Ms. Mullally had gone so far as to suggest names of veteran Broadway actors who might replace Mr. Oswalt in the play, in which the two were to portray siblings. The four people said that not long after rehearsals began, on March 9, Ms. Mullally became concerned that Mr. Oswalt was having difficulty with his nuanced role, that of her unsophisticated, homophobic brother — a part for which Nathan Lane drew critical praise in the original Off Broadway production.
Actors typically do not offer direct criticism to their cast mates, so Ms. Mullally began sharing her fears with Mr. Mantello privately. She told him that her concern was heightened by the negative critical reaction to “Young Frankenstein,” her last outing on Broadway, and by anxiety over her mother being seriously ill.

Mr. Mantello is said to have responded to Ms. Mullally that while Mr. Oswalt was less experienced onstage than her and her co-stars, Lili Taylor (“I Shot Andy Warhol”) and David Wilson Barnes (“Becky Shaw”), Mr. Mantello was confident that he would eventually draw a fine performance from Mr. Oswalt.

Asked about this on Thursday, Mr. Haimes of Roundabout said in a statement, “Joe, Terrence and I were fully confident that Patton was going to make an outstanding Broadway debut.” Representatives for Ms. Mullally, Mr. Mantello and Mr. Oswalt declined to comment on Thursday.

Mr. Mantello, who is known in the theater industry for having a temper, reacted to Ms. Mullally in private on a couple of occasions in a manner that she found to be brusque or unsympathetic, the four people said. Yet the observers agreed that things never got out of hand, and that both actors and the director behaved professionally in the rehearsal room.

In a statement, Tripp Phillips, the show’s production stage manager, said: “As an Actors’ Equity stage manager of a dozen Broadway shows in 15 years, it is my responsibility to protect both the actors in the show and the integrity of the production itself. In the case of ‘Lips Together, Teeth Apart,’ Joe Mantello is an experienced, consummate professional who conducted himself appropriately at all times.”

Roundabout announced the casting of Ms. Mullally and Mr. Oswalt in December for play, about two couples sharing Fourth of July at a Fire Island beach house that one character inherited after her brother died of AIDS.

Aside from “Young Frankenstein” in 2007 and 2008, Ms. Mullally has appeared on Broadway in the 1995 revival of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” and the 1994 revival of “Grease.” In April 2002, the Geffen Playhouse announced in a statement that Ms. Mullally had left a production of the play “He Hunts” shortly before preview performances began due to “irreconcilable scheduling conflicts.”

A spokesman for Roundabout said the theater company, which had not announced a replacement for Ms. Mullally, was now seeking another show for its subscription audience this spring in place of the McNally revival. The spokesman said the length of the postponement was not yet known.