Seth's Broadway Diary, Volume 1: Part 2 (25 page)

Hitting New
Heights

October 20, 2008

Ooh, mid-October!

It's finally cold out and that means that the heat is not only on in Saigon, but also in my apartment. It also means that since I can't control the radiators, it's not only 110 in the shade, but also in my bedroom.
And
just to keep the musical references going, if
I
received a "little lamb" for my birthday and sang a song to it, it would be completely roasted by the last verse.

Monday is usually benefit night in New York City and I love it! Last Monday, I did
Kickin' It
, which was put together by Lorin Latarro, who has the nerve to have done ten Broadway shows in the last ten years. She literally gets a new Broadway show every time I get my teeth cleaned. Not cool. Anyhoo, this was to help out Natasha "Nabba" Steinhagen, a Broadway dresser who's done tons of shows and is now struggling with ovarian cancer. The show was
fantastic
. Jim Newman (from
Curtains
) was the host and told people that he never likes people who host shows just to push their own agendas. He then complained it was hot, took off his jacket and revealed his boldly lettered T-shirt that read "McCain is 'Insain.'" Subtle, but blunt. Lorin directed the whole show and choreographed many of the numbers and I love that her choreography always has such humor.

On Wednesday, I did my Sirius
Live on Broadway
show where I interviewed the always funny Jackie Hoffman. She has a CD coming out called
Jackie Hoffman Live
and it's going to be hilarious. She sang one of the songs from the CD called "Please… Won't You Get Away With Your Children?" My favorite lyric: "Your double strollers on the street leaves no room for my feet. And you're leaving me no room to let me be what I wanna be. You think it makes me feel alone and makes me want one of my own… but all it's making me want… is a hysterectomy!" Jackie talked about how she would sass the onstage audience at
Xanadu
with her signature improvs and that they got longer and longer. Finally, on the last night, she did the whole ending scene from
West Side Story
(
"How many bullets are left in this gun, Chino?"
). Her co-star Mary Testa knew she was in for a long one and simply left the stage so Jackie could finish.

At the
Chatterbox
, I had Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tony-winning composer/lyricist and star of
In the Heights
. He went to Hunter (public school for smart NY kids) and, turns out,
didn't
grow up "in the heights" but rather in Inwood. I asked him why he didn't write
In the 'Wood
, and he said because Sondheim wrote it better. Quick answer! At Hunter, sixth grade pretty much just focuses on doing the big end-of-the-year musical. When he was in sixth grade, instead of one big show, they did six 20-minute musicals! He was a munchkin, an Oklahoma farmer, a son from Anatevka, Conrad Birdie, Bernardo and Capt. Hook.

One of the first shows he saw was
Les Miz
and he and his mother would listen to the cast album all the time, specifically "Bring Him Home." My mother loves that song too, but she has the Jewish gene that turns everything negative. How? Well, once I was putting on the
Les Miz
CD, and she (seriously) said, "Play my favorite song… ‘He's Not Coming Home.’" It doesn’t even scan lyrically! It was a wonderful childhood.

The first show that Lin-Manuel really identified with was
Phantom of the Opera
. He said, "It knocked me out. It was about an ugly songwriter who can't get girls. That was me!" I asked Lin-Manuel who was playing the Phantom when he saw it and he didn't know! I was outraged that he didn't keep his
Playbill
and pore over it every night like I did when I was a kid. However, he countered me by saying that he
did
keep the program from when he saw
Lion King
, and he recently checked it. Turns out the Simba he saw was… Chris Jackson (!), who's now starring in
In the Heights
! P.S. Chris was first cast to play Benny because he's so light-skinned he can look Latin. At that point, the character was a Latin heartbreaker and the plot was about whether he was good enough for Nina, but producer Jeffrey Seller told Lin one day that Chris in real life is so well-spoken and charming, he's actually more interesting than the character he's playing. So, instead of Benny being a lothario, Lin changed the character to someone who's an outsider, made him black, and the character of Benny essentially became the real Chris.

When Lin-Manuel was a teenager, he got a class assignment to teach a book to his fellow students. That assignment turned into the first musical he wrote. It was not a book by Latino authors Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Laura Esquivel. It was Chaim Potok's
The Chosen
. He had the class perform it, and by "perform" I mean that he recorded himself singing all the songs and had the class lip-synch to his voice. Some sample lyrics:

(This is after a character gets hit in the eye with a baseball)


That dirty Hasidim!

I don't really need 'em!

I know I could beat 'em... if my eye weren't in pain.

What show has ever rhymed Hasidim with a triple rhyme? Actually, what show has ever rhymed Hasidim? The first draft of
Yentl
?

While he was at Wesleyan, he started writing
In the Heights
. It wasn't a school project — it was just because he felt the need to write it. The first phrase he came up with was "…in Washington Heights," and that's pretty much the only thing musically from the original production that remains in the show. The original show was about a love triangle between Benny, Nina and Nina's brother Lincoln. Lincoln was closeted and in love with Benny. That character lasted a long time until Kevin McCollum and Jeffrey Seller came on as producers. Not because they told Lin to ixnay the character, but because they invited him to see
Avenue Q
. Lin said that he sat in the audience and watched this puppet onstage (Rod) who was closeted and in love with his best friend… and he realized it was much better than the storyline in his show! And the character of Lincoln was ixnayed.

Lin met Tommy Kail at Wesleyan and he became the director of the show. Lin said that Tommy was integral in the creation of the show because of his dramaturgy. For instance, the opening of Act Two happens after Nina and Benny spend their first night together. Lin said that every song he wrote for them sounded like an ‘80s Pat Benatar power ballad. One day, Tommy suggested that Lin make the song a Spanish lesson with Nina teaching Benny Spanish phrases… and suddenly "Sunrise" poured out.

I asked about the song "Breathe," which I love. He said that Andrew Lippa heard the score and told him he noticed that all of the songs were in 4/4 time. Lin was very defensive and thought, "I
love
how all the songs are in 4/4." An hour later he was like, "Wah! All of the songs are in 4/4," and that's when he decided to write "Breathe" in 3/4. I'm sure after Sondheim saw it, he was like, "Why aren't any of the songs in 7/16?" but hopefully Lin will continue to ignore him. Speaking of which, when Lin-Manuel was nominated for the Tony, he wrote a sassy rap but only practiced it in the shower. He got so thrown during his speech when he mentioned Chris Jackson and got applause that he totally forgot the rest of the speech. He wound up "free-styling," as we say in the hip-hop business, and he came up with the most memorable part of his speech. He suddenly said…

Mr. Sondheim, look! I made a hat! Where there never was a hat! It's a Latin hat at that!

So great!

Speaking of Sondheim, Lin is in charge of translating the
West Side Story
songs into Spanish for the upcoming revival! Not all of the lyrics, FYI. So far, just the Sharks’ part in the "Tonight" quintet, "I Feel Pretty" and "A Boy Like That." He got to go over to "Steve's" house to talk about how to do the lyrics! There are Spanish translations out there, but some parts are good and some are clanky, so they want Lin to do a new version. For instance, Sondheim said that some versions of "I Feel Pretty" translate as "I Am Pretty," which is not correct — especially if it features the Maria I saw do it in community theatre.

Finally, I saw the Barbara Cook/Audra McDonald benefit on Sunday night. It was for an organization that gets people out to vote, but just in case there was any doubt as to whom the two ladies were supporting, there was an Obama action figure doll on the piano, and Audra changed the lyrics in "Blue Skies" to "Blue States"! It was totally sold out, and they sang up a storm. At one point Barbara said about Audra, "It's not fair that she can sing like that… and
look
like that!" Then later on, Audra said, "Barbara, I'm gonna say in front of everyone what I was gonna tell you backstage. When you dance during your songs… you're so sexy." Finally, I thought, a Broadway benefit with some lesbian subtext!
And
a May/December romance angle.

Near the end, Audra announced that she wanted to sing a song about America that she's sung before and feels was prophetic when it was written by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. She then brought out Brian Stokes Mitchell, who joined her for a thrilling rendition of "Wheels of a Dream" from
Ragtime
. The audience went crazy, prompting my mother to ask me, "Why don't they bring back
Ragtime
?" I glared and told her to be quiet. But now I must ask, "Why don't they bring back
Ragtime
?" It's such a moving show with a fantastic score
.
They did bring it back! Yet again, my words are much more powerful than I ever imagined. Or my mother is.

OK, everyone. This coming Friday night, I'm doing a benefit for The Children of Armenia Fund (which helps bring education to Armenian children) with Andrea Martin, Bill Irwin and Cirque Du Soleil! And on Thursday at the
Chatterbox
, I'm going to have the great Karen Morrow! I've been trying to get her on my show for years, but she's always in L.A. Thankfully, she's in town because she just performed in Scott Siegel's
Broadway Originals
at Town Hall, and she'll be at my show Thursday. Whenever I have a party at my apartment, I pull out her Ed Sullivan performance of "I Had a Ball" and people become obsessed. It's one of the best-sung Broadway performances
ever
.
Go to
Youtube.com
and watch her old-school, stand center stage, specific arm movements, unbelievable tone/belt/vibrato performance!!!!

High on the Morrow

October 27, 2008

It was the best of weeks, it was the worst of weeks.

Not really, but I did see
A Tale of Two Cities
. There are some
great
voices in that cast! Essentially, every song ended with someone belting a soprano high note and it was usually a guy. I hope the water backstage is infused with Throat Coat.

Monday night, I did
Celebrity Autobiography
, which is a show where people read excerpts from real celebrity autobiographies. I always read Star Jones' bio,
You Have to Stand for Something, Or You'll Fall for Anything
. Hmm… I'm sure she agrees strongly with that title and it's not just witty, meaningless word play. Anyhoo, I was backstage with everyone before the show and I was so excited to see Alan Zweibel. He was a writer on
Saturday Night Live
when it first began and wrote a book called
Bunny Bunny
— about his friendship with Gilda Radner — that I loved when I first read it. When we were backstage on Monday, Alan walked over to Matthew Broderick, gave him a pat on the shoulder and said, "By the way, belated congratulations on
Ferris Bueller
." Brava!

Speaking of which, Matthew was late because he was coming from the dentist. He told us that he was on his motorized scooter rushing through Central Park and the 72nd Street exit was closed off. He was so late that he tried to sneak through it because it leads right to the venue… and he got stopped by a cop! The cop walked over to him and Matthew took off his helmet, waiting for the, "Oh, my God, you're Matthew Broderick!" moment. Matthew said that he wished he had long flowing hair to reveal as the helmet came off, but he didn't. Regardless, the cop saw his face and had no reaction. He then asked for his license, saw Matthew’s name and remained duly blank-faced. Matthew said, "I know I made a mistake, but I'm rushing to go do a play!" The cop said, "What play?" Uh-oh. Should Matthew say
Celebrity Autobiography
? Hmm… he realized that it wasn't actually a play. But then what is it? An act? Performance art? He remained silent as the cop glared. Matthew finally stammered, "Uh… I do a lot of plays." That cop asked, "Like what?" Matthew offered, "
The Producers
?" The cop shrugged and said he never heard of it. What the-? This was in New York, people! Surely, the cop heard about the Inner Circle Tickets that cost $450. If that wasn't a crime, what was? Finally, Matthew told him that he also does movies. Matthew said he wasn't trying to get out of it because he's famous, but he was trying to prove he really was rushing to do a show and not because he was totally reckless. The cop asked, "What movies?" Matthew decided to go for the big guns and said with trepidation, "Uh…
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
?" Phew!
That
he had heard of, and the cop let Matthew off without a ticket. If you reenact this story, remember that Matthew just came from dental surgery, so he said that half his face was "Novocained" and therefore immobilized, adding to him sounding desperate and crazy.