My First Time heads to the stage

My First Time, the groundbreaking late night nonfiction adult drama series produced for Showtime by our pals at Frozen Pictures and their then-partner the Academy Award-winner, is making its way to the off-Broadway stage. My First Time: The Play, said to be "in the style of The Vagina Monologues," features four actors telling stories of first sexual experiences.

Producers say it's based on the original My First Time website that was created to attract people to share anonymous sex stories-- allegedly true-- about their "first times."

And as we all remember, in 2002, Frozen Pictures, teaming up with The Ruddy-Morgan Organization (headed by two-time Oscar-winning producer Albert S. Ruddy, Frozen's partner on the motion picture comedy, Cloud 9), won the rights to that very site and produced two seasons and 26 half-hour episodes of the series in which young women (Showtime's bosses at the time decided they didn't want to hear from men) spoke candidly and graphically about their deflowerings. Their stories were dramatized in high-quality film segments.

The series popped back to the pubic consciousness last summer, in the brouhaha over the TV Land network's decision to steal the title of the brave series (and admitting it did so for the double-entendre buzz) for a nostalgia show.

"We've got nothing to do with the play," says Brett Hudson of Frozen Pictures, an executive producer of the Showtime series. "Funny, because I think we and Ruddy-Morgan still own the rights."

Various release dates for the DVD version of the Showtime series have been announced over the past two years, but delays by the distributor have led the producers to negotiate a new deal, timeframe and special features that should be announced soon.

The play is in previews at the New World Stages Theatre V on West 50th Street in Manhattan. Opening night (heh heh) is July 28th. It contains no nudity.