Brit-com star is now tickling the Yanks

The title

Hamlet 2

seemed kind of dumb when the script first got in Steve Coogan's hands.

"I was not in the right frame of mind to read it," says the English actor, who just happens to star in

Hamlet 2,

opening tomorrow at the Ritz East and Showcase at the Ritz Center/NJ. "I thought this sounds too stupid, kind of goofball, brainless, idiotic, but then - and then I found out it

was

, and I still liked it!"

It's the "streak of dysfunctionalism and perversion" that got Coogan's attention in the screenplay by Pam Brady and Andrew Fleming. And also the idea that Dana Marschz, the character Coogan agreed to play, is a failed thespian turned inept acting teacher at a high school in Tucson, Ariz. Each semester he helps the students put on a play that he wrote. For instance: a stage version of

Erin Brockovich

.

"It just charmed the pants off me," says Coogan, back with his pants on and in Philadelphia recently for a round of interviews. "I remember the first thing that came across was that mention of

Erin Brockovich

. . . . That kind of told me everything I needed to know about the character, in a way, and it tickled my funny bone.

"But it also made me think that whoever made the decision - they could have chosen any movie for him to put onstage - made a smart choice. Not an obvious choice, but a funny choice. They're thinking. Smart people, smart writers. . . .

"And the rest of the script lived up to that first initial response."

The

Erin Brockovich

bit is but a passing joke in

Hamlet 2

. The big gag is Dana's decision to write and stage a sequel to Shakespeare's tragedy - a musical, no less, and one in which Dana himself gets a role: as Jesus Christ.

The showstopper song in

Hamlet 2

, which features a time machine and a chorus of dancing kids (including

Spring Awakening

stars Skylar Astin and Phoebe Strole), is titled "Rock Me Sexy Jesus."

Needless to say, the PTA is not happy.

Coogan, 43, is a huge star in his native Britain. Alan Partridge, a narcissistic and silly sports and talk show commentator that Coogan incarnated in a number of series and specials, is right up there in the pantheon of Brit-com ninnies with John Cleese's Basil Fawlty and Rowan Atkinson's Blackadder. In Philadelphia, Coogan can walk down the street and not turn a head. In London, he can't go a block without being spotted by fans.

"You develop very good peripheral vision - you know when you've been recognized right on the edge of your vision," Coogan says. "Just by someone turning their head very quickly, you go, 'OK, I know what that is.' People don't turn their heads that quickly unless they just saw something. And I'm in the vicinity."

And now everyone wants to photograph Coogan with their cell phones.

"That's the biggest curse, those phone cameras, he says. "Then again, it might be a pain, but it's when they stop doing it, that's when you have to worry. You think, is it all going to dry up? Is the party over?"

Here in the States in the summer of '08, the party's just kicking into gear.

Coogan has a small but, um, explosive role in Ben Stiller's war movie parody,

Tropic Thunder

- playing the bumbling director of the film within the film. And

Hamlet 2

, which costars Catherine Keener, David Arquette and Elisabeth Shue as Elisabeth Shue (she's retired from acting and working in a Tucson medical office), has been buzzing since its Sundance festival debut in January. Focus Features has launched a pricey campaign to spread the word.

No word need be spread about

Tropic Thunder

. With its controversies (Hollywood's portrayal of the mentally challenged, Robert Downey Jr. in blackface) and its box office ($45 million in its first week of release), the film is out there in more ways than one.

"I shot my stuff in Hawaii early in the shoot, the first month," says Coogan, who then moved on to

Hamlet 2

. "I was there four or five weeks, which, on

Tropic Thunder

, equates to about 20 minutes of screen time," he cracks.

Coogan had already worked with writer/director/star Stiller when he got the

Tropic Thunder

gig. In Stiller's 2006 family adventure smash

Night at the Museum

, Coogan plays a tiny Roman emperor opposite Owen Wilson's equally miniature cowboy.

"I came to

Night at the Museum

because Ben saw my stuff and asked to meet me in London," recalls Coogan, who has also starred in a couple of ace Michael Winterbottom-directed movies:

24 Hour Party People

and

Tristram Shandy

.

"It's like being summoned before royalty. You know: You've been summoned to the Court of Stiller. . . . I'm probably not in the inner circle, but I'm on the inner outer circle, or the other inner circle, of the Court of Stiller. . . .

"And I'm a huge admirer of his, the work he's done, the choices he's made. Especially with

Tropic Thunder

. He is a sort of comedy Godzilla, but someone who's managed to retain his voice. It's not dumbed-down. He's managed to do the almost impossible thing of becoming globally successful and still retaining this sharp edge."

Coogan and Wilson are set to reprise their diminutive roles in Stiller's about-to-start-shooting sequel,

Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian

. "Weirdly, those two little characters that Owen and I played, they registered really strongly with the audience. It baffles me," Coogan says.

"I'm very pleased and grateful, but I don't know - the studio says, 'We've done all these audience tests and the audience really love you and Owen as these two little guys,' and I'm going, 'OK, great.'

"I have no idea why, but I'm very happy and pleased."