'Matt & Ben''s Women Heading West

By Stephen M. Silverman

Tuesday February 03, 2004 07:39 PM EST

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Hollywood will now get its own chance to fantasize about Matt Damon and Ben Affleck the same way New Yorkers have been since last summer.

The West Coast premiere of the critical and commercial off-Broadway hit, "Matt & Ben," a two-woman spoof about the actor-screenwriter buddies and their early Boston days together, is now set to open at the Acme Comedy Theater in Hollywood on April 8, after a preview period beginning April 1 (aptly, April Fool's Day), the show's producers have announced.

The original writer-performers of the show, Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers, will take their act west, while the New York run is slated to continue with replacements, according to a press rep for the comedy.

"When we wrote this show, we were recently-graduated, unemployed best friends with way too much free time for reading celebrity tabloids," Kaling and Withers say in their statement.

"We would have never imagined that the show would be enjoying such a successful run off Broadway," they add. "But now, to play Hollywood's most celebrated hunks, in Hollywood, is mind-boggling."

The show, which first became a hit in New York last July, pokes sometimes not-too-gentle fun at the overly earnest Damon (as the play depicts) and the intellectually less serious Affleck (again, per the play) and takes place "before J.Lo, before Gwyneth, before 'Project Greenlight,' before Oscar. ... before anyone actually gave a damn," the creators said.

"When the screenplay for 'Good Will Hunting' drops mysteriously from the heavens, the boys realize they're being tested by a Higher Power," they added.