Feature: Taking their act on the road

LOS ANGELES, April 28 (UPI) -- Michael McKean and Annette O'Toole have not let an Oscar nomination for their song "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow" distract them from their main livelihood, acting -- but the Hollywood couple will take another side trip into music next month when they open a two-week engagement at one of New York's leading night spots, Feinstein's at the Regency.

McKean is best known as Lenny Kosnowski on the TV comedy "Laverne & Shirley." O'Toole stars as Martha Kent on the TV series "Smallville."

Married since 1999, the two have developed something of a reputation for their musical collaboration -- which they will take to Feinstein's when they perform "An Evening with Michael McKean and Annette O'Toole: No Standards" from May 24 through June 4.

No standards?

That's a pun, said McKean in an interview with United Press International, intended to clue audiences in that the performance will not feature the usual fare for Feinstein's -- Cole Porter, for example, or the rest of the typical supper-club songbook.

"We're checking to see if we can establish a 'Send in the Clowns'-free zone, legally, before doing this gig," he said. "There are plenty of places to go in New York to hear everything Cole Porter ever did."

McKean did acknowledge that with the recent death of nightclub legend Bobby Short there is "an amazing gap" to be filled for fans of the genre. But McKean and O'Toole will not be the ones to fill it, since their set will consist primarily of their own songs.

In addition to "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow," the team will also likely play "Fare Away" and "Potato's in the Paddy Wagon" -- two other songs they collaborated on for director Christopher Guest's 2003 folk-music send-up, "A Mighty Wind."

Oscar nominations have a tendency to be life-changing experiences for actors, and McKean said the original song nomination changed his and O'Toole's life -- but not dramatically. To be sure, he said, it hasn't led to some expectation that the two would change their specialty from acting to music.

"If it had we'd get out the business as soon as possible," he said.

Still, McKean is -- for the record -- a Grammy winner. He shared the prize with Guest and Eugene Levy for best song written for a movie for the title song from "A Mighty Wind," which was also nominated for a Golden Globe.

He is also a Broadway musical star, having recently played Edna Turnblad in the Tony-winning "Hairspray." He also appeared recently on the New York stage in the world premiere of Woody Allen's play "A Second-Hand Memory."

O'Toole -- who began playing the mandolin a little over two years ago -- plans to play on five or six songs during the Feinstein's engagement.

"I'm playing every day and frantically trying to be good enough to play along with Michael," she said. "Mostly I'm doing a lot of the signing."

O'Toole's daughter Nell Geisslinger will also be part of the act, providing musical accompaniment.

On the same day that McKean and O'Toole open in New York, the Turner Movie Classics cable channel will turn over its entire evening to movies chosen by McKean as part of its "Guest Programmers" series.

"The Turner people asked me to pick my four favorite films," he said. "I said, 'I don't know how to do that -- I'll give you 10 and you pick the ones that are the most convenient.'"

TCM will show "Paths of Glory," "North by Northwest," "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek," "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" and "The Time Machine" -- accompanied by discussion about the pictures between McKean and TCM host Robert Osborne.

"It was really nice sitting down with Bob," said McKean, "who knows probably more about movies than any other human being."

McKean -- who has appeared in scores of movies including "Clue" and "Best in Show" -- said classic movies have always been a "driving force" in his life.

"If I'm switching channels and I see the middle of 'North by Northwest,' I get drawn into it again," he said. "If I'm in a snit I can put on 'Miracle of Morgan's Creek,' and I just find myself elevated emotionally. I just think that good art is good for you. This country, one of the things that it's done -- along with all the crap that it's made -- it has made some great films."

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