Stamos, Gershon say hello again in ‘Bye Bye Birdie’

By MARK KENNEDY

NEW YORK — When John Stamos heard he’d be starring opposite Gina Gershon on Broadway this fall, he was beyond psyched.

Not because he was intrigued to meet and work with Gershon on a revival of “Bye Bye Birdie,” though he was. Not because both had built up impressive Broadway credits, though they have.

It was because she had been in “Showgirls.”

“I’m fascinated. That’s all I care about,” Stamos says. “I make her do moves from it. I talk about how it was shot. I talk about what it was like.”

A quick refresher: “Showgirls” was the trashy 1995 skin flick starring Elizabeth Berkley as an up-and-coming stripper who elbows her way to the top of a Vegas pole. If you wanted a film with inexplicable nudity, atrocious dialogue, flat attempts at humor and a gratuitous rape, this was the movie for you.

Despite taking a grilling from critics, the film became something of a guilty cult pleasure. Stamos has even hosted “Showgirl” drinking parties at his house.

“There are many drinking games, but it’s best to drink as much as you can before you hit play,” he says, laughing. “That’s the game.”

So you can imagine how pleased he was to meet Gershon, who played a stripper in the film. “She survived that movie — a lot of people didn’t,” he says.

Gershon is putting up with Stamos’ persistent questions — for now. She’s quietly planning her revenge: He, after all, was in something that also became a punch line — “Full House.”

“I haven’t seen it. It’s actually even more insulting, really,” she says in a separate interview. “Once I see it, honestly, that’s going to be the end of that — there’s going to be no turning back. I should probably wait a little bit because I will be shameless, ruthless.”

Such gentle offstage teasing will be an asset when the two appear in the first Broadway revival of “Bye Bye Birdie” since the 1960 original introduced songs such as “A Lot of Livin’ to Do,” “Kids” and “Put on a Happy Face.”

The show, produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company, involves an Elvis Presley-like rock ’n’ roll star named Conrad Birdie and the effect his being drafted into the Army has on teens in a small Ohio town. Stamos plays Albert Peterson, Birdie’s nebbishy manager, and Gershon portrays Albert’s long-suffering secretary, Rose.

It’s Stamos’ fourth time on Broadway, but the first time he’s originated a part.

The musical is Gershon’s third Broadway credit, after a turn as Sally Bowles in the same revival of “Cabaret” that would star Stamos a year later, and in last year’s “Boeing Boeing.”

Theatergoers might be surprised that Stamos — still boyishly handsome and an accomplished drummer who tours with The Beach Boys — passed on playing the rock ’n’ roll star in favor of portraying Albert.

“He’s a lot closer to me. He’s a sort of fidgety guy. He’s a hypochondriac. He’s a little afraid of his mother, which is me in real life as well. I’m digging into all that,” he says.