MEGAN MULLALLY AT THE WHBPAC

when:

Sun, Aug 26, 2012 8:30 PM

where:

Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center
76 Main St
Westhampton Beach

details:

You know her as Karen Walker on TV’s WILL & GRACE. But did you know this multi-talented Emmy Award-winner is also an accomplished singer? She made her Broadway debut alongside Rosie O’Donnell in GREASE and starred opposite Matthew Broderick in HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING. Incorporating witty and entertaining story-telling between songs, she’ll charm you with a diverse mix of genres – including blues, country, rock and Broadway showstoppers – accompanied by pianist, Seth Rudetsky, the popular Broadway host on Sirius Satellite Radio.

contact information:

Box Office
info@whbpac.org
631 288-1500
http://www.whbpac.org/pages/event_detail.php?event_id=590
Price: 125;95;75

Fox pulls ‘Breaking In’ from its schedule

By Yvonne VillaRreal – Los Angels Times

LOS ANGELES – “Breaking In” just can’t catch a break on Fox. The network has pulled the comedy from its schedule.

The Christian Slater-helmed series won’t be back for the rest of the season. Instead, Fox will air double doses of “New Girl” on Tuesdays, with encores of the hit rookie series airing at 9:30 p.m. EDT (the slot that “Breaking In” formerly occupied).

Though not officially canceled, the outlook seems grim for the comedy. The most recent episode brought in a stunted 2.6 million viewers, with a 1.3 rating in the advertising-coveted 18-49 demographic. It was slated to return April 24 before the move to take it off the schedule.

The series, currently in its second season, has a troubled history on the network. The show was canceled last May before Fox reversed its decision and revived the series for the midseason. But even with the addition of comedy vet Megan Mullally (“Will & Grace”), it failed to gain traction.

No word on when the remaining three unaired episodes will make it to air.

Posted on Thu, Apr. 12, 2012 08:04 AM

(http://www.kansascity.com/2012/04/12/3550183/fox-pulls-breaking-in-from-its.html#storylink=cpy)

Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman Advocate Marriage Equality – VIDEO

Megan Mullally and hubby, Parks and Recreation’s Nick Offerman, have joined the ranks of celebs stumping for equal rights as part of HRC’s Americans for Marriage Equality.

Mullally, best known for her indelible character Karen Walker on Will and Grace, is a long-time LGBT rights advocate who married Offerman in 2003.

The couple jokes that on their wedding night Mullally thought she was marrying Cedric the Entertainer but Offerman showed up instead.

“Any random man or woman can show up at a 24-hour wedding chapel in Vegas, exchange I dos.” Offerman says. “And boom, they’re married,” Mullally adds.

“So why can’t gay and lesbian couples who’ve literally spent their entire adult lives together have the same opportunity?” Offerman asks.

Watch the video, which is a part of HRC’s Americans for Marriage Equality, a campaign that features prominent Americans who support committed gay and lesbian couples getting married.

Megan remembers getting punk’d by her then-boyfriend Nick Offerman

http://www.cbs.com/e/BUiYG8R3aOayGbFfeVRLBZsQasB6AdcG/cbs/1/

LATE NIGHT with DAVID LETTERMAN March 30, 2012

Follow Spot: Megan Mullally (Feb 7, 2005)

By Michael Portantiere • Feb 7, 2005 • New York

“The funniest woman on TV” is all set to shake up Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series.”

Honey, honey! If you think Megan Mullally is just like Karen Walker, the outrageous character she plays on the hit TV series Will & Grace, think again. Hailed by the New York Post as “the funniest woman on TV” for her no-holds-barred portrayal of the booze-lapping, work-shirking Karen, MM is a theater trouper, having made her Broadway debut as Marty in the 1994 production of Grease! before stepping up to the leading female role of Rosemary Pilkington in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying one year later, opposite Matthew Broderick. She has also done theater in L.A. and Chicago.

According to her bio, “one of her fondest projects is her glamorous cover band, Supreme Music Program, with whom she has released two CDs, most recently Big as a Berry on the Fynsworth Alley label.” Now, vocalist Mullally and the boys in the band — Greg Kuehn, Stuart Mathis, and Joseph Berardi — are getting ready to do their stuff for two nearly sold-out performances in the spectacular new Allen Room at the Time Warner Center on Friday, February 11, as part of Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series. (They will also be playing the K.C. Jazz Club at the Kennedy Center on March 11 and 12.) Via telephone, I spoke with Megan about what’s in store for those who were lucky enough to snag tickets to the Allen Room gig.

********************

THEATERMANIA: There’s a lot of excitement about your American Songbook appearance. Are you guys going to be doing any songs from Big as a Berry? I love that CD.

MEGAN MULLALLY: You’re a sweetheart! We’re doing a couple of songs from that album; then we’re doing stuff that we haven’t recorded but have done live, and one or two brand new things that we’ve never done before. The hardest part of the whole thing is figuring out the set list for this venue, particularly since the series is called American Songbook. I was looking at our list and I noticed that, technically, not every single song that we’re doing was written by Americans; there’s one by Kurt Weill, and we’re doing a song by P.J. Harvey. She’s British, so we’re just going to pretend that she’s very patriotically American.

TM: I don’t imagine that Lincoln Center is very strict in terms of the series title.

MM: Yeah, I don’t think anybody’s gonna shut us down! At one point, I thought, “Oh my God,” because our show is not a club-act kind of show like some people who are doing American Songbook have — yet we’re maybe not as laid back as Dar Williams or Lisa Loeb, who are also performing in the series. It’s somewhere in between. We don’t really do any standards.

TM: There are a few songs on Big as a Berry that might be classified as standards. “Danny Boy,” for example.

MM: Yeah, see, we’re not doing that! We are doing a Brecht/Weill song that’s technically a show tune. There’s no patter in the show. Then again, on the other side of the coin, the material’s probably more theatrical than some of the stuff that other people in the series are known for.

TM: Is there no patter at all?

MM: Well, I mean, I talk — but it’s not planned out beforehand. I will be speaking, but on which topics? We don’t know yet!

TM: Is there any through-line to the program.

MM: No. There is SO not a theme here. It’s just the craziest grab bag — something for everyone, I guess. It would be almost impossible to put the songs in any kind of order that means anything because the styles of the songs are so radically different. I will have a surprise guest star, who I cannot divulge, and the number that I will be doing with this person is so far afield from everything else in the show that it’s going to be quite jarring. We’ll see what happens!

TM: Did you work up the program in collaboration with your musical director?

MM: I always do the set list myself and try to gear it to what I’m feeling at the time, but more than that, I try to gear it to the venue and the audience. Of course, it’s a very savvy audience at Lincoln Center. It’s different from playing — I don’t mean this in any judgmental way, but I grew up in Oklahoma City and I played a couple of benefit concerts there in August at their Civic Center. It was fantastic but it was a very different set list than we’re going to be doing in New York. I wanted the songs to be a little more accessible because that particular audience is not gonna know from an Edna St. Vincent Millay sonnet set to music by Jeff Blumenkrantz. [pauses] Actually, on second thought, I might have done that song there! [laughs] Anyway, even if we don’t have a lot of songs in our repertoire that are recognizable to most people, our shows are always palatable. About halfway through, people think, “I don’t know any of these songs but I’m enjoying them.” We’re sort of like a songwriter tribute band; our shows are about the music and the lyrics. I’d say that we have about 70 songs in our repertoire to choose from.

TM: You’ve become famous as Karen on Will & Grace. Do you enjoy playing against that type when you do concerts and other things?

MM: I don’t consciously think about playing against anything because I’m so different from that character. I got together with my musical director and keyboard player, Greg Kuehn, before Will & Grace even started. There have always been certain songs that I’ve responded to emotionally; I was very susceptible to music when I was a kid. Later on, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool to get some of these songs out there where more people can hear them?” So that’s why I sing. Sometimes, people are very disappointed when I’m not Karen — and Supreme Music Program is probably the least commercial band in the history of music. Hopefully, people won’t be stomping out of the show and asking for their money back. I may take my pants off, which would be an added bonus.

TM: I saw you in How to Succeed… on Broadway. In retrospect, it’s amazing to think that you played Rosemary Pilkington, a character that’s pretty much the polar opposite of Karen Walker.

MM: I know! If Karen ever met Rosemary, she would punch her out.

TM: Will we ever see you back on Broadway, schedule permitting?

MM: I have an idea for a musical that I’m developing; it’s top-secret classified information, but I’m really excited about it. I think it’s gonna be hilarious.

TM: Is it an adaptation of something, or…

MM: It’s a secret!

TM: Okay! Well, both of your shows at the Allen Room are practically sold out. Have you been to see the room yet?

MM: No, but I saw pictures of it online and I almost fainted. Oh my God, it’s unbelievable. Gorgeous. I think we’re gonna have a lot of fun.

Living Out Loud (TV Guide – March 6-12, 1999)

That voice may grate, but as kibitzing Karen on Will & Grace, Megan Mullally is winning a chorus of approval

by Hilary de Vries
background photograph: Challenge Roddie for TV Guide

The legendary W.C. Fields warned against the dangers of sharing the spotlight with animals or children. But then he never met Megan Mullally, the diminutive actress with a bid voice who’s stealing every scene on Will & Grace not nailed down.

Her part as Karen Walker, a tart-tongued, spoiled socialite water first conceived as simply the hapless assistant to interior Grace Adler (Debra Messing). But Mullal6y’s on-camera antics–especially with Sean Hayes, who plays Jack McFarland, Will Truman’s (Eric McCormack) campy friends have quickly made her a breakout star.

“Megan,” says series cocreator Max Mutchnick, “is a world-class comedian who’s got timing that’s pure genius.” Still, the 40-year-old Mullally is talking a modest game. She had been working almost two decades before landing the hit NBC comedy (Tuesdays, 9:30 P. M./ET) last fall. She lives in the same West Hollywood house she had rented for 12 years and, unlike spendthrift Karen, “never owned a piece of clothing that cost $14″–at least until now.

Things are definitely looking up for the only child of Martha, a former model, and Carter Jr., a retired Paramount Pictures contract player. “I’m really good at staying home all day in my pajamas because I had a [dad] who did that,” recalls Mullally, who got her first taste of stardom in high school as a soloist with the local ballet troupe in her hometown of Oklahoma City.

She entered Northwestern University intent on acting, but her first class “horrified” her: “There was no way I was going to roll around on the floor pretending to be a bean or whatever.” She switched majors to English literature (her living-room bookshelves are a reader’s paradise), but became a campus star in spite of herself after lead roles in several musicals. When producers began calling, Mullally quit school and spent the next six years working in Chicago’s booming theater scene.

In 1985 she moved to Los Angeles, where she quickly made her TV debut as the daughter on the short-lived Ellen Burstyn Show and landed small roles on such series as Seinfetd and Mad About You. “But I had a chip on my shoulder about Hollywood because I really wanted to do Broadway musicals,” says Mullally, who finally realized her dream with lead roles in two hit revivals, “Grease” with Rosie O’Donnell in 1994 and “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” opposite Matthew Broderick in 1995.

“I never made my peace with L.A. until after I’d done New York,” says Mullally, who initially turned down the part of Karen because “it was just like the role Christine Baranski played on Cybill, this bored rich woman. If she’d been written in the pilot the way she is now, I would have been knocking people down to get it.” But the producers persisted. “Megan was the only one we wanted,” says cocreator David Kohan. Now, after some fine-tuning (“during the first table read I was improvising all this stuff that ended up in the script,” she says), she’s having fun playing “this completely clueless trophy wife who’s happy as a clam.” (Mullally was briefly married in the early ’90s to Michael Karcher, now a CBS casting vice president.)

While the booming voice is all part of the act, her chemistry with Hayes is very real: “We have this symbiotic but unorthodox flirtation on the show, but it’s 10 times that in real life.” Fans, she adds, should be braced for further revelations. Stan, Karen’s husband, might show up, as will Rosario, her long-suffering maid, who will marry Jack in the season finale to prevent deportation. “They were talking about whether Karen should leave Stan, but I don’t think she should ever be poor,” says Mullally. “My favorite idea is that she was a showgirl in her other life.”

Beautytalk – Megan Mullally of Will & Grace

by Honor Brodie
photography by Carlo Dalla Chiesa/LaChappelle

“I should have my ‘girl citizenship’ revoked. never get facials. I never get my nails done. I’m so busy,” says Megan Mullally about the lack of carryover from the pampered Park Avenue trophy wife she plays on Will & Grace to the hectic reality of shooting the hit NBC comedy. Other than being “a happy person,” the Emmy Award-winning actress swears she is nothing like Karen, the my-way-or-the-highway socialite she portrays. While her co-star Debra Messing occasionally borrows from her character Grace’s funky wardrobe, Mullally claims she’d never be caught dead in one of Karen’s outfits. “They are too ‘rich lady’ for me,” she says. Instead, the 5-foot-4-inch Irish-American beauty takes her more youthful style cues from “Japanese girls” and aspires to smell like a Parisian. And when she gets a break from the small-screen grind, the 42-year-old Oklahoma native does not sit around watching hawks making lazy circles in the sky. This year she has three films coming out–two comedies, Speaking of Sex and Monkey Bone, and the film noir Everything Put Together.

What was it like growing up the daughter of a model? My mom is like girl power to the nth degree. I’m a compulsive nose powderer, and I definitely got that from her. I prefer a less feminine presentation, though. I like looser clothing, which always prompts my mom to say something classic like, “You have such a darling figure–show it off more!”

How do you care for your hair? I have the gray covered with Redken Shades EQ Conditioning Color Gloss [only at salons]. I also like Kiehl’s shampoos and Bumble and Bumble Super Rich conditioner.

What’s your best hair disaster story? I had an unfortunate perm in the eighties that bleached my hair the color of a dead leaf. Then I got a roommate who happened to be a hairdresser. A month after he moved in, he said, “I cannot spend one more night under the same roof with that hair!” He made me come to the salon, and he totally changed it.

What’s in your makeup bag? Vincent Longo Water Canvas, a water-based cream-to-powder foundation, in Creme Beige; MAC pressed powder in NC 15; MAC chestnut lip pencil; Maybelline Great Lash mascara; Body Shop Honey Lip Care; Stila blushes in cream and Tutu; and Stila Sophia lip color.

Do you ever tan in the sun? No! I grew up in Oklahoma City at a time when you were supposed to be tan or die. I wouldn’t wear skirts because my legs were so white. It wasn’t until I was 36 that I was able to leave the house in a skirt. Fortunately I’ve learned to love my white skin.

Describe your clothing style. I don’t like anything that’s too froufrou. I feel best in really simple clothes. My favorite article of clothing is a suede Tiffany-blue Elmer Fudd-style hat I found at Barneys. It’s got fake fur and ear-flaps. It’s so cute.

Who are your favorite shoemakers? I like chunky Prada shoes. I have big old healthy Oklahoma ballet-girl calves and ankles, so those beautiful delicate little Manolo Blahniks make my legs look like pencils sharpened down to the little points of my shoes at the end.

What do you do for exercise? I’ve been taking yoga for about a year and a half. I do between three and five classes a week. It’s my one luxury, and it’s so worth it.

You studied ballet, right? I was a soloist in a ballet company from eighth grade to 12th grade. I studied for two of those summers at the School of American Ballet in New York City. It was very intense. I never had time to have a proper boyfriend, so I spent a lot of my 20s and 30s trying to make up for it.

Do you have a boyfriend now? Yes, I have a great boyfriend. His name is Nick. I’ve always gone for skinny, rock and roll, androgynous guys, but he’s like a TV repairman–big and solid.

Is there anything about your appearance that’s always bugged you? I’ve gotten to a point where I’ve accepted that my weight goes up and down 15 pounds on either side. I’ve been supercrazy borderline-eating-disorder thin, like 95 pounds, and I’ve been 130 pounds. Somewhere in the middle is where I like to be.

How do you relax? Baths. I like to get in there with a book and read. I love Caudalie bath oil. It has a real spa kind of feel.

Describe your perfect day. Wake up with no alarm clock, eat a cheese omelet for breakfast, and sit around and read for a couple of hours. Then drive somewhere really beautiful and walk around and look at things. (This is all done with my man because I really like him.) Then meet up with a bunch of friends for either sushi or soul food and then go to sleep. I’d probably have a little extra something before I go to sleep! –Honor Brodie

THE FIRST GAY SHOW TO SUCCEED IN PRIME TIME IS NOT ONLY LAUGH-OUT-LOUD-FUNNY, IT’S CHANGING PERCEPTIONS OF SEXUALITY.

Primetime Special Emmy Magazine
May/June 2001
Volume XXIII, Number 3

by John Griffiths
Above Photograph: Alberto Tolot

Little kids are watching. That realization doesn’t make the four stars of Will & Grace paranoid, but it does give them goosebumps.

“At first it was gay couples telling us how much they appreciated the show, then it was people telling us how it helped them come out,” says Eric McCormack, who plays sardonic Will on what might be NBC’s greatest saving grace right
now (after all, the sitcom did take home the Emmy for best comedy series last year). “Now,” says McCormack, “twelve-year-olds with absolutely no malice wave hi at me on the street. They tell me Will & Grace is their favorite show. It’s amazing.”

Debra Messing, known to millions as sweet interior designer Grace, can top that. In New York’s Central Park, reading children’s stories at a pediatric AIDS benefit not long ago, “seven-year-olds were telling me, ‘I love Will & Grace’” the engaging actress says. “That stuns me. If these kids can accept [the gay characters], that bodes really well for the future.”

And Sean Hayes, the sprightly actor who’s prone to blow bubble gum and who plays Will’s out-there buddy Jack — perhaps the most unashamed gay character in the history of American television — was thrown when he heard his name used in a Jeopardy!question recently. But that wasn’t nearly as affecting as hearing one of the characters in the spring flick Josie and the Pussycats make a passing reference to Will & Grace’s popularity. “This was a teen movie,” says Hayes. “When I go to a movie, I turn my brain off and forget everything. But then suddenly I’m reminded I’m part of this great thing.”

Megan Mullally, who in person is much more contemplative than her champagne- swilling sass machine, Karen, sums it up this way: “It’s been interesting from the start, but this year was wild, yeahhh.”

Yeahhh, indeed. In this anxiety-inducing, humanity-questioning era of power crises, hair-by-the-chinny-chin-chin strike threats and just-when-ya-thought-he-was-okay Robert Downey Jr. downers, it’s more than nice to be able to point to a television show that’s changing the way people think and act for the better. Reports of gay bashings are on the rise, which social workers take as a good sign — the theory being that the incidents themselves are not increasing, but people are more inclined to speak out. Meanwhile, straight men seem more inclined to seek affirmation from gay guys — i.e., “Does my butt look okay in these jeans?”

To say that Will & Grace has had a part in any thawing is not too much of a stretch, considering 20 million or so viewers — including everyone from conservative Midwest moms to what Mullally calls “burly straight key grips” who have told her their wives and girlfriends got them watching– are giving the show the thumbs-up each week in its coveted Thursday-night slot.

Those numbers are all the more impressive considering how grim the series’ chances looked when it joined NBC’s withering Monday night schedule back in 1998. Coming off Caroline and the City was one problem, coming way out another. While ABC’s Ellen had drawn tramloads of viewers to the titular character’s — and, in a way, the star’s — sexual awakening, many hopped out as the aftermath became more sturm-und-drang than sitcom. And the last NBC show to center on a gay character was the early ’80s Tony Randall dud Love, Sidney, which watered down its subject’s sexuality so much that it wasn’t even mentioned.

Adding to the inertia was the fact that Will & Grace’s cast was made up of virtual unknowns (though Messing had been paired in Fox’s cult fave Ned and Stacey, another sitcom with an offbeat-couple premise). All things considered, the fact that Will even willed its way onto the tube was a marvel.

“At the beginning, we were uncertain of how things would go, so we just looked at it as a good fight to fight,” Messing says. “I’m still amazed that nothing’s been compromised along the way.” Executive producer David Kohan says that unflinching mindset is what has ensured the show’s success. “We’ve never felt the need to apologize for these characters, and people have followed our lead,” says Kohan.

He created the show with fellow exec producer Max Mutchnick, who boasts a friendship with a Grace-like pal that dates back to the trio’s days at Beverly Hills High. In high school, the two young men swapped favorite-sitcom influences (drama student Mutchnick liked subversive shows like Mary Hartman, while jock Kohan went for Brady Bunch reruns), and a few years after graduating, they decided to tackle writing specs. After landing staff gigs and graduating to show-running the under- rated Boston Common they yearned to lend “a fresh spin” to the sitcom, says Mutchnick, “and that gay man-straight woman friendship seemed like compelling material. It was like a romantic comedy, only the lovers had one insurmountable obstacle.”

The show’s increasing popularity — its audience average among adults eighteen to forty-nine grew 87 percent on its move from a Tuesday slot to Thursdays last year — seems to be a case of kismet. “People haven’t seen these type of relationships before,” Hayes says. “It’s all about timing, because they do exist everywhere.” Messing may know that better than anyone. “I’ve had a lot of women come up and say, ‘I’m Grace,’ and men say, ‘My Grace is at home.’ I can’t tell you how much it means to me to play a character that’s struck a nerve in such a meaningful way. That doesn’t happen very often.”

“We’ve been lucky,” adds McCormack. “But more than that, it’s heartening to know that we can appeal to so many people and still be true.”

And the biggest truism that sets apart this otherwise classic four-character sitcom?
“All four characters wanna kiss men,” says Jim Burrows, the veteran sitcom director who has helped guide the likes of Taxi, Cheers and now Will & Grace. While the four- some make that desire abundantly clear, Will & Grace doesn’t “make an issue of sexuality,” says Hayes. “It just shows these people for who they are.” Gone are the days where topical sitcoms like Maude and All in the Family had “special episodes” with gay revelations (actually, they’re not so long gone; a recent, almost quaint episode of Becker had the doc deal with his godson’s coming out). Freed by the groundbreaking Ellen, Will & Grace has taken TV’s portrayal of gay characters up a big notch by making their gayness secondary to funnyness.

Sure, Will will deal righteously with the occasional relationship with a closeted sportscaster (Patrick Dempsey’s turn this past season), but the show perhaps makes more of a statement by not making a statement each week. “We’re not writing to the left or the right,” says Mutchnick, who points out the show has nabbed both GLAAD honors and People’s Choice awards. “We’re making a comedy that we want to appeal to as many people as possible.”

In other words, this ain’t ShowTime. Though gay fans flock to Thursday-night viewing parties at favorite hangouts like Casita del Campo, a Mexican restaurant in L.A.’s Sllverlake’ area that double-bills the evening with a tarot card reader in drag, Will & Grace by virtue of its network genetics, “isn’t a niche show,” says McCormack. A Toronto native whose favorite show as a kid was the popcorny Get Smart, he’s happy to clarify, “It’s much broader than that.” Case in point: the now-legendary “water-bra episode” in which Grace’s said liquid-filled bra springs a leak at an inopportune moment. “I was soaking wet, but it was pure joy,” gushes Messing, an NYU drama grad who grew up in Brooklyn and New England idolizing slapstick queen Lucille Ball.

Despite the appreciation of the cast and producers for Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward, the show obviously isn’t always an exercise in — umm — dry wit. “Even though we’re not afraid to be attuned to gay culture,” says McCormack, “we’re also not always about that.” Indeed, ‘Will & Grace resonates most when it finds the humor in the frailties of best friendships, the bittersweetess in the worries of some- day growing apart or being replaced by a sudden love (most recently in the form of Woody Harrelson, who was brought in as Grace’s love interest at the end of this past season).

But if there’s never been a show before like Will & Grace, it’s because there’s never been a sitcom character like Jack. “To me, he’s a totally different character, so hyperactive,” says Burrows, who directed Andy Kaufman back on Taxi. When it comes to helming the Emmy-winning Hayes, he adds, “I’m just the editor.”

Any good show with gays has to have an unflagging gay sensibility, which Jack — and the whole series, in fact — have in spades. With those tearjerker moments has come Audrey Hepburn-worthy style (starting with the sophisticated but playful ampersand that brings the characters together in the show’s opening credits), pop culture references to the likes of Britney Spears, campy mincings, blatant bitchiness, Ab Fab-level partying, and diva appearances extraordinaire (Joan Collins and Cher).

Then there’s that unheard-of- for-net-TV bawdiness. Though McCormack says, “Of course, we have boundaries that cable doesn’t,” Will & Grace is pushing the line and turning it around. These kids don’t go for the chestnut Three’s Company double-entrendre. Noooo. When a hormone-happy Karen read the naughty “homoerotic literature” that Jack pecked out earlier this year, she hubba-uttered things that could actually pass for blue fiction. “I’m surprised at how dirty the jokes are that get on,” says Mullally, an Oprah Club book reader whose roots are in conservative Oklahoma City. Says Mutchnick: “From day one, we’ve been allowed to do what we want.”

And in this sitcom of the new millennium, the fab four may even linger knowingly after tossing those double-entendres, much like performers in a vampy review. “It’s totally intentional,” says McCormack. “Just like the audience, we all grew up on comedies. Everyone knows where the badda-bum is, so we tend to comment on it.” Like a surreal Magritte painting, “we’re inside and out of the sitcom structure because even Will and Grace know it would be too easy to fall into cliches. We have to be smarter and surprise people.”

Such on-your-toes energy has gained Will & Grace a reputation for being one of the most fast-flying, fun sets in television. Here, writers won’t budge (there have been additions but no turnovers in the show’s three years), and all four cast members are happy to banter and drop drawers. “A lot of those jokes, crazy faces and sounds are impromptu, not rehearsal,” says Mullally. “It’s like a party.”

“We sing a lot on the set, hop on top of the piano,” adds McCormack, who has nabbed lilting reviews for his starring turn as The Music Man on Broadway this year. Messing has doo- wopped “Love Will Keep Us Together” with McCormack on the show, the Chicago suburb-born Hayes hit the ivories at age five and started his career as a musical director, while Mullally has done How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying on Broadway and has more recently put up a one-woman, avant-garde musical review. “All that harmony comes across on the show,” says Burrows. “These people are happy with each other in real life.”

There is one high note that the show has yet to hit: an all-out romance for Will, who is after all a good-hearted, good-looking, successful lawyer. While it may be a surprise — and disappointment — to some that the WB teen drama Dawson’s Creek beat Will and Jack to the smack with a brief guy-guy kiss last May, McCormack for one is confident Will — as critical and fastidious as he can be — will fall in bed with the right guy. “He’s a good catch, and someone will catch him eventually,” says McCormack. Though NBC and the producers have been noncommittal, it’s increasingly hard to doubt him, for the show’s hit status even opposite CBS’s new smash C.S.L is a sign the show will be around a while.

Kiss or not, Will & Grace has engendered a lot of love — and inspiration. Since the series hit, Fox was emboldened to go gay with the John Goodman vehicle Normal, Ohio and CBS whipped up the he’s straight/he’s gay spin Some of My Best Friends. Though those shows fizzled, the nets aren’t giving up as easily as they might’ve years ago; CBS is shepherding Say Uncle, a potential fall show with Ken Olin playing a gay man helping raise a nephew and niece.

Perhaps preemptively,Will’s creators had a little shock for viewers — and Jack — in the season finale: it seems sitcomland’s least-likely paternal character donated his unique genetic code to a sperm bank years back, and the son he never knew popped in to promise plenty of playful plots for next season. “It’s a great way to ground the character,” says Kohan.

By its mere nature — and nurture — Will & Grace continues to make TV history. Which is why its stars can’t wait to get back to year four. Hayes understates that it will be “interesting” to see Jack play dad. Messing, who just wrapped a part as Woody Allen’s girlfriend in the director’s next movie, will push for more big schtick (“They have to pull me back sometimes,” she giggles). Mullally, who just notched a turn as a trailer-park vixen in the upcoming satirical feature Uncle, toasts Karen as “a slightly fabulous survivor in the pantheon of gay icons” — a character so embedded in gay culture that the West Hollywood video bar Revolver bookends Karen clips to Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl.”

And while the in-tune McCormack is thrilled to say he is subletting on Broadway right now, Will is after his heart. “He’s a terrific character,” says the actor. “He has leading-man qualities that aren’t hampered by macho tendencies.”

Mutchnick and Kohan are eager to start up, too. “We went for it with this show, and now sometimes we find ourselves alone in our office laughing,” says Kohan. “It’s hard to believe we’re the same losers that went to high school together.”

Losers? Hardly. Kohan tells the story of a fourteen-year-old boy who wrote them that he had come out to his parents by showing them a tape of the episode in which Jack does the same to his mom. “After they watched the tape, the boy wrote that his parents looked at him with love and said, ‘We get it.’”

JOHN GRIFFITHS is a Los Angeles freelance writer.

Exclusive Breaking In Sneak Peek: Does Oz Like Veronica?

By Kate Stanhope, TV GUIDE
Published 02:03 p.m., Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Contra Security’s new woman in charge, Veronica (Megan Mullally), is definitely not your typical boss.

On Tuesday’s episode of Breaking In (9:30/8:30c), Molly comes to Veronica when she suspects Oz (Christian Slater) has been using a fake identity (“Jones”) to buy expensive gifts and throw pricey parties. However, just when it looks like Oz is going to get a slap on the wrist – or worse – Veronica reveals her real concern: Why didn’t everyone in the office enjoy her party?

Then Veronica asks Oz the absolute worst question any boss can ask an employee: “Do you like me?” How he’s going to get out of answering this one?

Watch this exclusive sneak peek:

Breaking In airs Tuesdays at 9:30/8:30c on Fox.

Breaking In’s Christian Slater and Megan Mullally on Second Chances, Cast Changes, and Creative Control

Making a TV show is hard. You pitch a show, you cross your fingers that a network eventually buys it, and once that happens (if it happens), you risk spending every night weeping in the fetal position because the network has usurped your creative authority and taken your story in an entirely different direction—one that happens to please test audiences, and test audiences, only. And more often than not, you get canceled.

But what happens when you make a TV show, that TV show gets canceled, and you convince the network that canned you to give you another shot? What happens when you break back in?

The cast and creators of Fox’s Breaking In know e’zactly what I’m talkin’ about. During a recent visit to the set, I sat down with Alphonso McAuley (Cash), Christian Slater (Oz), and Megan Mullally (Veronica) to talk about what it’s like to work on a show with such a complicated, albeit short, history. Here’s what they had to say…

On the lady-centric changes to the cast:

One thing the show’s creators (most prominently, producer Adam Goldberg) and Fox have agreed on is that Breaking In is desperate for chicks. Season 1 was heavy on the pop-culture and techie references that are generally more appealing to men than women, and the cast wasn’t exactly brimming with femininity. The decision to add the characters of Veronica (Mullally) and Molly (Erin Richards) prior to Season 2 was explicitly directed at attracting female viewers.

“It’s part of the business, it’s just how it goes. I loved all the actors who were here last year, they were all great. But it was a little boy-heavy. They needed to balance things out and introduce some femininity into the show. I was willing to do a few [episodes] in drag, but that wasn’t the way [the producers] wanted to go, so they brought in Megan! And Erin Richards. And I couldn’t be happier that they’re part of the team.” —Slater

On the school of Megan Mullally:

According to Slater and McAuley, Mullally is both an inspiration to the younger cast members and a joy to work with for the pros like Slater. So if you’re wondering whether the addition of her character, Veronica, might’ve have a negative effect on the cast’s morale, the answer is a resounding “No.”

“Megan is a BEAST! She’s a comedic genius. Just watching her as she does her thing, you know, it’s pretty cool. It’s a classroom, if you will.” —McAuley

On the ages-old battle between show creators and network execs:

Networks generally want a say in the creative choices for their shows, but with Breaking In’s unique history of being canceled and then un-canceled, it’s my understanding that, as work began on Season 2, Fox had a solid grip on the creative throttle. And the consensus on the set was that the network was taking the show in the wrong direction. But by the time Episode 5 was being fleshed out in the writers’ room, the show creators managed to get back behind the controls. From the actors’ perspective, this change will make all the difference for fans.

“In the first three or four episodes, I did more improv because I was a new character coming onto the show. But also, between what the creators originally wanted to do and what the network wanted, there was a little bit of a discrepancy, and then it all changed around to what the creators originally wanted, but by then they’d already written the first four episodes. So we tried to steer [the improv] more toward the creators’ vision in those first few episodes. And I do think there’s a shift between the fourth episode and the rest of the series.” —Mullally

“This show has had a very, very interesting history. For something like this to succeed or continue on would be a phenomenal laugh at the industry and how it will take things away before they’re given a chance to sort of grow and shine.” —Slater

On Season 2′s character-driven focus:

All three cast members agreed that the biggest change audiences will notice in Season 2 is its emphasis on character development. Breaking In will spend less time focusing on the characters’ heists and more time on their internal hijinks and interpersonal relations at the office. It’s an attempt to make not only the characters, but the show as a whole, more palatable to the masses—even those who aren’t pop-culture-obsessed techie gurus. According to the cast, the decision to move in this direction was made by the show’s creators; whether or not Fox had other intentions isn’t entirely clear, but Mullally hinted that it may have been the case.

“I felt like [Breaking In, during its first season] was a show that was just about to hit its stride. It had so much potential in so many ways and now I feel like, if they leave us on the air long enough, it will really come into its own.” —Mullally

“In the first season, this Oz character, this ‘international man of mystery,’ was a very fascinating, very interesting idea, but I don’t know how accessible that was to audiences. So, [producers] wanted to make Oz somewhat more relatable, somewhat more human, and they were open to suggestions on how to make that happen. There are certain character defects that I was able to bring to the table and suggest for them, and Adam [Goldberg] has proven to be somebody who’s really open to these ideas. It’s really fantastic.” —Slater

Upcoming plot points to get pumped about:

– Look forward to a love connection between Cash and one of the other characters.

– Victoria’s ex-husband will make an appearance this season, and will be played by none other than Fred Willard.

– Christian Slater is slated (pun!) to direct Episode 13, if the show makes it that far.

– If the series gets picked up for a third season, Mullally said she’ll force her real-life husband, Nick Offerman (Parks and Rec’s Ron Swanson), into guest-starring.

A few more miscellaneous tidbits:

– Mullally confirmed that a Party Down screenplay is in the works, and that the entire cast is on-board.

– Alphonso McAuley refers to Breaking In producer Adam Sandler as “The Dark Knight” because even though Sandler is often on-set, McAuley has yet to cross his path.

– Mullally said that film—not TV—is where she’d like to see herself in the future. Her words, when asked about her recent role in Smashed, a sobering film that premiered at Sundance this year: “I mean, [film] is what I want to do. I’ve always wanted to do that, and I feel like it’s something that I’m good at, but people only know me from TV and comedies. I was thrilled to be a part of Smashed. So, yes, I do want to do more movies, if you know of anyone. Call me, I’m available this summer.”

(http://www.tv.com/news/breaking-ins-christian-slater-and-megan-mullally-on-second-chances-cast-changes-and-creative-control-28134/)