Fred Melamed Departs Broadway's Relatively Speaking

Fred Melamed has left the cast of Relatively Speaking, according to the New York Times. The show, an evening of three one-act plays by Woody Allen, Ethan Coen and Elaine May, began previews on September 20 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Melamed, who was appearing in Coen’s play Talking Cure, left the show after the matinee on October 2, and has been replaced by Allen Lewis Rickman.

Melamed and Coen have worked together on films like A Serious Man, but he told the Times that the two were clashing on their Broadway endeavor, and he decided to fulfill a commitment for Sacha Baron Cohen’s new movie, The Dictator.

"We kind of weren't together on the character,” Melamed told the paper. “There were things Ethan wanted that I didn’t like, that seemed to take the character in a direction that felt artificial. Stuff I couldn’t really make sense of. I don’t think it was the sort of stuff that I would get fired over. But when my film work began calling for me to take more days off away from the play, we all amicably decided to part ways.” The relationship between the two artists, Melamed says, is unaffected. “I have very affectionate feelings for Ethan and great respect for him as a writer, and all of that stayed intact,” he added.

Relatively Speaking is said to be comprised of three one-act comedies springing from a different branch of the family tree. In Talking Cure, Coen uncovers the sort of insanity than can only come from family. In George Is Dead, May explores the hilarity of death, and in Honeymoon Motel, Allen invites you to the sort of wedding day you won’t forget. The play, directed by John Turturro, will officially open on October 20.