Douglas Carter Beane’s play “The Nance” opened on Broadway starring Nathan Lane, where it received five Tony nominations and won three. It was filmed for PBS “Live from Lincoln Center” and was shown in movie theaters and then broadcast on PBS.
Beane’s previous play “The Little Dog Laughed” opened on Broadway where it was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play and won a Tony award for Julie White. It then opened in the West End at the Garrick Theater where it starred Tamsin Grieg and Rupert Friend and Gemma Arterton and was nominated for the Olivier for Best New Play.
His other plays include “Fairycakes” starring Mo Rocca, Jackie Hoffman, Ann Harada, and Julie Halston, “Shows for Days” featuring Patti Lupone and Michael Urie, “The Country Club” starring Cynthia Nixon and Amy Sedaris, “Mr. & Mrs. Fitch” which starred John Lithgow and Jennifer Ehle , “Music From a Sparkling Planet” and “As Bees in Honey Drown” which won the Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award and an Obie award for its star, J. Smith Cameron. His first play “Advice From A Caterpillar” was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle award and was made into a film starring Cynthia Nixon and Timothy Oliphant. It received the Aspen Comedy Festival Best Feature award.
He wrote the film, “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar” which starred Patrick Swayze, John Leguizamo, Wesley Snipes, Robin Williams and Stockard Channing.
A respected practitioner of musical theater his adaptation of “Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella” ran on Broadway for two years and was also nominated for Tonys for both Best Book of a Musical and Best Musical Revival. His musical stage version of the film “Xanadu” also ran on Broadway for two years and was nominated for a Tony for Best Book of a Musical and Best Musical. It received the Drama Desk Award for best book of a musical and the Outer Critics Circle Best Musical award. Beane’s new book for the musical “Sister Act” ran on Broadway for two years and was nominated for the Tony for Best Book of a Musical and Best Musical. It opened in London this summer with Jennifer Saunders as Mother Superior. He wrote the book for the Broadway musical, “Lysistrata Jones” and received both the Drama Desk and Tony nomination for Best Book of a musical.
He wrote the book to the stage adaptation of MGM’s “The Bandwagon” which was produced at the Old Globe and Encores and he’s written the summer show for the Rockettes and Radio City Music Hall. His libretto for “Die Fledermaus” debuted at the Metropolitan Opera and is in their repertoire.
He is married to composer Lewis Flinn and they have two children Cooper and Gabrielle who like theater but don’t want to do it.
