New dysfunctional-family drama – think “Six Feet Under” and “The Sopranos” –

seeks male actor to play patriarch of an American family of con artists.

FX’s choice? Cross-dressing British comedian Eddie Izzard.

“The Riches,” which premieres tomorrow night at 10, stars Izzard and Minnie

Driver in a story about the Malloys, a family of “travellers” (something

like gypsies, only they’re of Irish descent and live in the U.S.) who stumble

into an upper-class suburban lifestyle, and try to pass themselves off as

normal, law-abiding Americans.

Yes, Izzard might seem an odd choice – but given the theme of the show, he

says, it all kind of makes sense. “It’s about outsiders trying to become

insiders, so the fact that we’re English, and [director] Dmitri Lipkin is

Russian, can work,” he says. “We’re really all outsiders.”

In a nice bit of synchronicity, the Malloys’ youngest son, Sam, was written

as a budding cross-dresser – long before Izzard, who’s also an executive

producer, joined the show.

“The character of Sam was nothing to do with me,” he says. “But I pitched

them that he should have my exact sexuality. So this kid is a straight

transvestite. Sam wears what I wanted to wear when I was a kid, at that age.

And I’m basically playing my dad’s reactions.

“I don’t think it’s been on TV or in movies before,” he adds. “Nobody really

knows about straight transvestites.”

Lipkin says Sam’s affinity for sparkly flats and pink barrettes, and his

parents’ easy acceptance of it, is a window into the psychology of the show.

“We joke that Eddie brought that to the table,” he says. “But really, we just

wanted to play with identity without making it an issue.”

Writer Dawn Prestwich agrees: “I think it sort of points to the overall theme

of the show – the American dream,” she says. “For Sam, his American dream is

to be a girl sometimes.”

The Malloys fall into the American dream all at once, in a morbid stroke of

luck, but the director says their relocation to the good life is just an

accelerated version of reality.

“America is such an upwardly mobile country. People can jump several classes

within a lifetime,” he says. “In a way, I think this show is kind of an

extreme example of that.”

“One of the things about the travellers,” adds FX president John Landgraf,

“is that they live this kind of rural, mobile life. They’re very family-

oriented. Kind of like what Americans were like in the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s.

We’ve changed a lot in 50 to 60 years, and you’re seeing the Malloy family go

through the same transformation in a span of days.”

Heavy stuff. But when you’ve got a guy with Izzard’s comedic chops, you’ve

got to draw on that – right?

“I was aware of Eddie’s [comedic] gifts, but I had also seen him do dramatic

work,” says Landgraf, whose network honed the edgy comedian/dramatic material

combo with Denis Leary and “Rescue Me.”

Izzard’s grifter character has his share of hilarious moments – many of them

at the expense of what the travellers refer to as ‘buffers,’ or normal folks

– but he won’t be turning the show into a comedy showcase.

“I wish it to be a drama with a comedic counterpoint, if anything,” he says.

“It takes you out of the hellishness of any given situation, and then flips

you right back in.”