Broadway gets a Queer Eye makeover

Playbill reports that Jai Rodriguez, the culture guru on TV's Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, will be taking over a role in the Broadway musical The Producers. Rodriguez will be performing the role of Carmen Giya, valet to Roger De Bris, the flamboyant Broadway director of the show within a show. Rodriguez also snagged the same role for the upcoming movie re-remake.

Previous to his work for Queer Eye, Rodriguez worked in the Broadway production of Rent and the off-Broadway Zanna Don't! On Bravo's Queer Eye, Rodriguez acts as the culture guy, responsible for helping out hapless straight guys with things like choosing iPods or deciding which periodicals they should have displayed in their bathroom magazine rack.

The Producers is Mel Brooks's blockbuster reimagining of his 1968 film comedy. The plot revolves around down-and-out theater producer Max Bialystock who attempts to make a musical that is such a bomb he can collect insurance money on it. Along the way he dupes accountant Leo Bloom into helping him finance and produce the surefire flop, Springtime for Hitler.

The Broadway version of The Producers originally featured Nathan Lane as Bialystock and Matthew Broderick as Bloom. The roles were played in the 1968 film by frequent Brooks collaborators Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, respectively.

The upcoming film remake of the reimagining of the original Producers stars Lane, Broderick, and Rodriguez as well as Uma Thurman, SNL funnyman Will Ferrell, and Roger Bart of Desperate Housewives.