In this, the summer of the $250 million “Mamma Mia!” starring none other than Meryl Streep, who could imagine that there would be another show-stopping musical and that its star would be even less familiar with song and dance? “Hamlet 2,” which opens next Friday and stars the British comedian Steve Coogan — festooned with an unlikely wig and messianic robes, and shaking his caboose to a pop-operatic hymn to sacred desire called “Rock Me Sexy Jesus” — could be Andrew Lloyd Webber on drugs, but it’s really a spoofy, strangely heartwarming comedy from director Andrew Fleming, who co-wrote the script with Pam Brady.

Mr. Coogan is best known to American audiences for his performances in a pair of Michael Winterbottom comedies. In 2002’s “24 Hour Party People,” he played the pompous television host-turned-record mogul Tony Wilson; three years later, he was a fatuous, ego-crazed actor in “Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story.” Mr. Coogan has also taken roles in such American cineplex-ready fodder as “Tropic Thunder” and “Night at the Museum,” but musical theater has never been his bag.

“I hated it,” the 42-year-old actor said. “I mean, when I was a kid, I liked ‘Mary Poppins.’ But I grew out of it when I was 8 … or 7.”

Nonetheless, his character in “Hamlet 2,” an idealistic failed actor-turned-high school drama teacher, embraces the form in a desperate, last-ditch bid to not only “save drama,” but redeem his hapless, flailing character.

“He’s willing to do the unlikable thing,” Mr. Fleming said of his star. “He has no vanity. He’s willing to take chances that other actors wouldn’t. He also has a different way to be funny each time. He finds a new pathology every time.”

The director was also drawn to a certain fearlessness that made the performer ideal for the role, a quality that allowed Mr. Coogan to excel in the sort of role he’d never tried before.

“What was interesting to me was playing a character who is vulnerable and naïve, and has an innocence,” Mr. Coogan said. The actor, occupying a makeshift perch in a Midtown hotel room, was dressed casually and taking time to carefully reiterate comments to ensure he’d said what he meant to say. “Normally, I’m playing characters who are twisted and screwed up. I wanted to see if I could pull off a character that people could care about.”

That’s the real trick of “Hamlet 2,” which gamely savages both Broadway clichés and the inspirational teacher drama (think “Mr. Holland’s Opus” or “Dangerous Minds”), while at the same time suggesting that even a ridiculous fop can make his dreams come true if he just … believes.

“He’s a fool, but he’s not malicious,” Mr. Coogan said. “He’s slightly clueless, but he has good intentions. I’m used to playing people who have bad intentions — and are pricks. The reason people like to watch the other characters is they all feel like they’re watching a car crash. This movie was actually quite demanding because I had to play someone with slightly rounder edges and who wasn’t as twisted. I didn’t know if I could pull it off. That’s what attracted me to it.”

The other appealing element, he said, was the writing.

“Pam Brady had my character putting on a stage version of ‘Erin Brockovich.’ I read that and laughed a lot, because it’s not an obvious choice. As someone who writes comedy as well, you go, ‘Okay, I see how they’ve done that.’ It’s like a Route One choice, I call it. They give viewers too much of what they want. Whereas Pam and Andy, they’re not doing that for viewers. They’ve done it to their own taste.”

Mr. Coogan, whose extensive television work has made him something just shy of an icon in Britain (playing “pricks” almost exclusively), could claim the same for himself. So it was amusing and surprising when he confessed an admiration for that most foursquare of stalwart American actors: Harrison Ford.

“I’m always going up to my girlfriend, because I’m obsessed with him,” he said, clenching his teeth to do his impression of Mr. Ford delivering one of his signature lines in, well, just about any Harrison Ford movie that comes to mind. “These … people … have … my … family,” Mr. Coogan intoned, before busting up with laughter. “He’s just the guy in a business suit whose day goes really badly. I’m sure there’s a Pam Brady take on that. I just can’t be that person.”

Maybe, though, since he’s braved the musical format, there might be another new frontier for the actor. He could, for example, make an inspired choice to play an arch-nemesis in a James Bond film.

“I would make a very good Bond villain,” he said. “But if you wish for it, it won’t come true. Also, there’s a certain kind of pattern. Anyone who plays a Bond villain, you almost never hear from them again. Having said that, I would love playing a Bond villain — someone slightly twisted and dysfunctional. They’ve gone as evil as they can go, so now they have to go slightly left field toward a nerdy evil. Just gargantuan, megalomaniacal evil isn’t as good. We live in an age of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. People who have this power don’t have huge collars and capes. They wear T-shirts and sneakers. That should be the new Bond villain. An evil guy in a sweater.”