Broderick's Back On Broadway

Since endearing himself to audiences in Ferris Bueller's Day Off in 1986, Matthew Broderick has become a fixture in Hollywood and on Broadway. The actor is currently starring with Parker Posey in the Broadway comedy Taller Than A Dwarf, written by Elaine May and directed by Alan Arkin.

Broderick plays Howard Miller, a character who describes himself as "an urban, Jewish, almost generic white male from Queens. I graduated from City College. I have no special talents. I'm not really happy. I'm very much like you."

The actor tells The Early Show's Mark McEwen that Howard is going through a midlife crisis of sorts.

"He's a market research executive, and he doesn't like his job, and he's not doing all that well," Broderick explains. "He's late one morning, and the shower breaks, and he has a fight with his wife, and he decides that he's not going to continue. So he sort of takes off. He puts on his underwear and goes to bed."

When Broderick finds himself faced with such troubles, he says, "I walk around. I panic. I ask people what they think. I ask my mom. I ask my friend, Kenny - (wife) Sarah. I look at my dog, who says nothing."

Broderick is a two-time Tony winner who was born and raised in New York City. He has been in five Broadway shows, and he bicycles to work.

"I went by these theaters since I was a kid," he observes. "It's like working at the local store, in a weird way."

Taller Than A Dwarf did not get good reviews from the critics. While he admits that's hard, Broderick also says of the play, "It's a comedy. It's a straight-out comedy, and I swear to you it gets laughs as big as any I've heard."

His wife, actress Sarah Jessica Parker, is happily starring in the HBO hit series Sex and the City, which seems only to delight Broderick.

"I'm making Broadway wages, and she's in TV. So, it's great," he says. "You know, it's been nice lately because she loves doing her show. So when she's happy, even the flowers grow better at our house. So, it's just good to see her happy. And I'm doing okay, too. If I was miserably out of work, I'd probably have trouble with all of her success."

And he stolidly claims that he is not bothered "that much" by the sexy scenes his wife must play with other actors.

"Maybe there's something wrong with me, but it doesn't bother me that much," he says, adding, "She doesn't take her clothes off for one thing. That might bother me, I imagine. And the kissing, it bothers me a little. I don't love looking at it. It doesn't bother me that much."

Of course, the Broderick movie that everyone seems to remember is Ferris Bueller.

"When I go to baseball games, I hear. 'Hey, Ferris! Is this your day off?' I hear that joke, like, maybe four times a week, five times a week," he says. "So anybody watching: I've heard that joke. It's not a new joke. Oka?"