Showbiz411

Matthew Vaughn‘s “X Men: First Class” is picking up another cast member. Benjamin Walker, star of the Public Theater’s “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson,” is the name to remember. He’s going to play Beast, the character played in “X Men 3″ by Kelsey Grammer. He’ll be joining the already cast James McAvoy and possibly Michael Fassbender.

Walker, like Grammer a Juilliard grad, is the hottest newcomer in New York theater this season. Until now, Andrew Jackson alsways was in the shadow of Abraham Lincoln. Walker made him hot.

Walker is so hot that the “X Men” role is turning out be an actual, uh, Beast. He still has a few more performances left at the Public. Then the not for profit theater is making plans to transfer to Broadway this fall. But Walker won’t be done with “X Men” until the end of the year. The question is, Will the Public wait for him? The answer is, Most likely, since Walker makes Andrew Jackson. Changing actors would do the play and the audience a disservice.

What a dilemma! Seen from the Public’s side, they’re ready to go and have the rest of the cast in place. It is hoped that this situation will not a Civil War.

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.