Kattan pulls out of role in ‘Frogs’

Former “Saturday Night Live” star Chris Kattan withdrew Sunday night from the second lead role in a new Stephen Sondheim/Nathan Lane musical, “The Frogs,” currently in previews on Broadway. The show is set to open in 10 days.

Roger Bart, a Tony Award winner who appeared with Lane in “The Producers,” will take over Kattan’s role as Xanthias, a mutinous slave/sidekick to the central character, Dionysos, the god of drama and wine, played by Lane in the musical adaptation of Aristophanes’ classic of the same name.

The eight-year “SNL” veteran Kattan, who created such characters as the ambi-sexual male stripper Mango and one of the head-bopping Butabi brothers, could not be reached for comment Monday. But in an interview last week with The Times, he had expressed dismay that the role that he was tapped for last winter had been cut down considerably.

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-- Geraldine Baum