By Sheila
Pursglove | The Chelsea
Standard
Sparks are still flying between
Elliot and Paula, even after
the passage of a quarter
century.
Chelsea's own Jeff Daniels
stars with "Everybody Loves
Raymond" star Patricia
Heaton in a remake of Neil
Simon's romantic comedy "The
Goodbye Girl," first brought
to the screen in 1977 with
Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha
Mason.
The movie debuts on Turner
Network Television at 8 p.m.
Friday. A premiere screening
was held last night at the
Michigan Theatre in Ann
Arbor as a benefit for
Daniels' Purple Rose Theatre
Co. in Chelsea.
Simon's bittersweet romantic
comedy is about the
relationship between
divorcee Paula McFadden
(Heaton), a former Broadway
dancer with horrendous taste
in men, and Elliot Garfield
(Daniels), an aspiring,
egomaniacal actor with a
sharp tongue.
Daniels joked that his role
required "no research
whatsoever."
"That was me," he said.
"Elliot went from Chicago to
New York; I went from
Michigan to New York, that
same drive down I-80.
"That jump from regional
theater to New York was like
climbing Mount Everest, even
though you learn that it's
not really that big."
Paula and Elliot become
unwilling tenants in the
same New York City apartment
when Paula's actor-boyfriend
abandons her and her
10-year-old daughter, Lucy,
played by Hallie Kate
Eisenberg.
To add insult to injury,
Paula's ex sublets their New
York apartment out from
under her to Elliot.
When the struggling actor
shows up unexpectedly in the
middle of the night at his
new apartment and finds mom
and daughter there, he and
Paula strike an uneasy truce
to temporarily share the
apartment.
Stage life isn't any easier
for the pair. Paula searches
for a dance job, to find
she's too out of practice
and, at 36, too old to
return to dancing. Elliot
has his own theatrical
disaster in an off-off
Broadway production of
Richard III.
A wacky revisionist director
(Alan Cumming) with his own
take on English history
insists Elliot play the
hunchbacked Plantaganet king
as a flamboyant queen.
Opening night for Elliot --
also closing night -- is a
disaster.
"I'm very familiar with
off-Broadway plays like
that," Daniels says. "The
director tells you his
vision and you know you're
dead.
Their disappointments bring
Elliot and Paula closer. As
she tries to comfort and
console the despondent
actor, the two start to fall
in love.
Fate steps in again when
Elliot accepts a movie role
being shot in Seattle. Paula
immediately assumes that,
once again, she will be left
behind as the "goodbye
girl."
But Simon believes in happy
endings, and the sparring
performers find the way to
true love.
So what's it like to follow
in Dreyfuss' Oscar-winning
footsteps -- or hunchback --
26 years after the original?
"When Richard Benjamin
called me and offered me the
part, the first thing I
thought about the remake
was, 'Why?'" Daniels said
Monday. "But it's a great
part and a great romantic
comedy.
"Neil did a little bit of
tinkering with the script to
update it, but otherwise he
wanted to keep it the same
as people loved the story."
Daniels said that when he
was offered the role in
March, he watched a DVD of
the original version, and
skimmed through it.
"I thought I could do
something with it, just
different," he said. "There
are some moments in the
movie that are just
signature Dreyfuss moments
that he'll always be
remembered for, and I tried
to take a different
approach.
"I think after 10 minutes
people will forget and stop
making comparisons."
Daniels, who had not done
any Neil Simon plays before,
said he jumped at the
opportunity to work with
Simon.
"It was such a great chance
to work with him," he said.
"Like working with Woody
Allen and other greats, you
just want to impress him."
