Nathan Lane offers lesson in wit; Crimson is on Steven Pinker's mind

9/27/2003

FAST LANE Nathan Lane doesn't open in "Butley" until the end of October, but he's already getting laughs at the Huntington Theatre. At yesterday morning's press conference with Lane, director Nicholas Martin, and costar Benedick Bates (yes, his dad, Alan Bates, did take that name from "Much Ado About Nothing"), a hapless reporter asked Lane to show off the English accent he'll use as the furiously witty Professor Butley. "What is this, like Thanksgiving, and you're Aunt Sylvia?" Lane shot back, in pure American. " `Get up and sing a little something!' No, it doesn't work that way. You have to see the play." The "Producers" star saw it with the elder Bates years ago on Broadway -- "when I was very, very young" he insisted -- and has wanted to do it ever since. In fact, he whipped out a Fireside Theater edition, inscribed to him by playwright Simon Gray at New Haven's Long Wharf Theatre in 1985. Now, that's persistence.

BEAM HIM UP Moments after the Red Sox secured a playoff spot, broadcaster Jerry Trupiano asked Mayor Tom Menino if he'll be making a friendly wager with Jerry Brown, mayor of Oakland. (The A's are the Sox' first-round opponent.) Menino thought for a moment, then replied, "Maybe a spaceship versus some good seafood." Menino, it seems, still recalls when Brown was "Governor Moonbeam."

BRAIN DRAIN Hoping, as we were, for a cocktail or two, we were mighty disappointed to discover that the send-off for Steven Pinker was a sit-down affair. Friends and colleagues of the famed MIT professor filled a lecture hall Thursday to wish Pinker well on his long journey down Mass. Ave. (Pinker, one of the world's foremost experts on language and the mind, got a new teaching gig at Harvard.) Asked why, after 21 years at MIT, he's ditching the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Pinker said the reason's simple. "Reporters have been sniffing around for a Cornel West soap opera," he said, referring to West's acrimonious departure from Harvard, "but, really, it was just time for a change of scenery."

ROAD TO MEMPHIS "It's born!" said David Bryan as he made his way down a red carpet into Finz in Salem on Thursday night. That's where a gala after-party was held for "Memphis," which enjoyed its world premiere at the North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly earlier that night. Bryan, the Bon Jovi keyboardist who collaborated on the music for "Memphis," was beside himself with joy, as was fellow collaborator Joe DiPietro, director Gabriel Barre, and Jon Kimball, NSMT's artistic director. Jon Bon Jovi had attended the opening but couldn't make the party because his wife wasn't feeling well. "I loved the show," Bon Jovi said before disappearing into a limo. "I know that David has been working his [butt] off for five years, and he really deserves all the attention." Lead actor Chad Kimball, playing the role of a Memphis DJ who first played "race music" on a white-owned station, was also at the party. "This is the biggest role I've had. I love the energy of it," said Kimball, who attended the Boston Conservatory before moving to New York. "People say that it's hard to sing a rock score night after night, but if it challenges you, you can sing it forever." Also at Finz was Ruth Pointer (of the Pointer Sisters), who hung out with cast member Cynthia Thomas, with whom Pointer had toured in "Ain't Misbehavin'." Pointer noted, "I was talking to David [Bryan], and he said they've been working him hard. And I said, `David, if you want to work hard, the theater is the place to go.' "

READY FOR LOBSTERS? At a press conference Thursday for the World Team Tennis "Smash Hits" event that night at the FleetCenter to benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation and the Massachusetts Community AIDS Partnership, cohost Billie Jean King talked about tennis in Boston. She reminisced about the early days of the tour, when she played doubles at the Longwood Cricket Club and singles at Forest Hills. It was during those days, she said, that our colleague Bud Collins got his TV voice. In her remarks about the first tennis event at the FleetCenter since it opened, King said Boston might be getting a World Team Tennis franchise. She wouldn't hint to a possible owner but said they've checked and the name Boston Lobsters is still available. Tennis, anyone? The event -- which King hosted with Elton John and featured Andre Agassi, Anna Kournikova, John McEnroe, Chandra Rubin, and Monica Seles as an umpire -- raised more than $400,000.Louise Kennedy and Steve Morse of the Globe staff contributed. Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253.