Kevin Kline will star in a new half-hour comedy called “American Classic,” which has been picked up to series by MGM+.
The “Disclaimer” actor will star alongside Jon Tenney (“The Closer”) in the show, co-created by Michael Hoffman (“Soapdish”) and Bob Martin (“The Prom”).
The eight-episode series follows a narcissistic Broadway star named Richard Bean (Kline), who returns to his hometown after suffering a spectacular public meltdown. He’s headed back to his family-run theater, where he first fell in love with acting, but is surprised to see that his brother Jon (Tenney) has turned the venue into a low-rent dinner theater serving roast beef and murder mysteries. So, Richard sets out to save the town, the theater and himself by presenting a great American classic on the dinner theater stage.
The series is set to enter production in 2025 in New Jersey. Hoffman will direct the pilot episode and executive produce alongside Martin and Ellen Fairey, plus non-writing EPs Kline, Leslie Urdang, Anthony Bregman, and Miriam Mintz; David Levine and Garrett Kemble for Anonymous Content; and co-EP Tenney. Kevin Cotter will serve as co-producer. Fifth Season is the studio with Mar-Key Pictures, Likely Story and Anonymous Content producing.
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“The two of us have been shaped from childhood by our love of the theater and those magical creatures that inhabit it: true actors,” said Hoffman and Martin in a statement. “To get to tell a story with new friends and longtime collaborators, among them that grand man of the theater, Kevin Kline (who happens also to be one of the world’s supreme comic talents), and a story about art, community, and family… for us, that’s about as good as it gets.”