Seth's Broadway Diary, Volume 1: Part 1 (33 page)

Later in the week, I interviewed Nathan Lane for my Sirius radio show. He told me that he grew up in Jersey and, shockingly, only did one musical in high school. It was
No, No, Nanette
for a neighboring all-girls school. I assumed it was like being an Equity Guest Artist that's jobbed in… and by "Equity Guest Artist," I mean "Catholic High School closeted Senior" and by "jobbed in" I mean "driven by your mother."

Nathan went to college for literally one day (FYI, Chip Zien went to law school for one day and dropped out) and left when they told him that, although he had a scholarship, he still owed more money. He went back to New Jersey and got his Equity card doing two local shows. One was a tribute to all things New Jersey called
Jerz
(seriously) and the other was called
One for Good Measure
and, ‘70s style, was a tribute to the metric system. It never caught on (the show or the system).

Once he moved to New York, he enrolled in a summer program at The Stella Adler Acting Institute. Unfortunately, Stella was not the teacher. Nathan did not disguise his disappointment when his teacher asked the class to do an exercise where they were to look out the window and describe what they saw. One student said, "I saw a homeless man… crying." One said, "I saw a secretary through a window as she was drinking coffee and daydreaming." Nathan said, "I saw $400 going down the drain." Acting is honesty.

His Broadway debut was with George C. Scott in
Present Laughter
. George was a notorious drinker and told Nathan that the producers bet him that he couldn't stay sober throughout the whole preview period. Well, opening night happened, and George proudly told Nathan that he won the bet and he could finally drink again. Then he was out the whole next week!

Nathan was also in the musical
Merlin
starring Doug Henning as Merlin and Chita Rivera as the Evil Queen. Nathan played her son, and if you were in New York in the ‘80s, you probably remember Chita on the commercial. There was a close-up of Chita where she said, "Wonder," but she Chita-ized it by saying "Won-dah!" Anybody?

Nathan said he remembered a trick where an actual tiger was in a cage, a sheet was put over the cage, and when the sheet was removed, there sat a sexy lady. Because he was backstage, Nathan could see how the trick was done: there were two tunnels. The lady crawled through one, and the tiger was tempted out of the other with horse meat (P.S., gross). Nathan asked the trainer, "What about when the tiger gets sick of horse meat eight times a week? Is the cage going to be revealed with the tiger still sitting there but part of a Theoni Aldredge sequined red costume hanging out of his mouth?"

I asked him about
Guys and Dolls
… specifically the song "Sue Me." He and Faith Prince argued in the song and at one point would hold one of the notes forever:

FAITH: The best years of my life I was a fool to give to yo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ou! 


NATHAN (Simultaneously) All ri-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-iight already!"

He couldn't remember who came up with it, but he was very proud that Liza Minnelli came backstage and told them that she'd seen the show many times, and that particular moment was very original and fresh.

While he was doing
Laughter on the 23rd Floor
, Mike Nichols came backstage and told him that he was interested in him playing Zsa Zsa in the film
The Birdcage
. Nathan had already committed to playing Pseudolus in the Broadway revival of
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To The Forum
and asked the producer, Scott Rudin, if the dates could be changed. Scott said no, and Nathan told Mike Nichols that he felt it would be unethical to leave them in a lurch. Every once in a while Mike Nichols would call Nathan's dressing room and say, "I've been seeing other actors, and I don't like them." Finally, Nathan told him, "You're Mike Nichols! Maybe you should call Scott…" Mike did,
Forum
got postponed, and
The Birdcage
, starring Nathan Lane, was on! Originally, it was supposed to be Robin Williams in Nathan's part and Steve Martin as Georges, but Steve Martin had to drop out. Robin's wife suggested that because Robin had just played Mrs. Doubtfire, perhaps he should take a non-drag role. I asked Nathan what Robin was like and Nathan said that even though Robin told him that sometimes it was hard to be the "straight man" while Nathan got to go to town, Robin was the most saintly, sweetest, giving and supportive co-star, and the whole thing was the happiest movie experience Nathan's ever had.
Nanu!

Onto
The Producers
. Jerry Zaks was first attached to the show and mentioned the role of Max to Nathan. Then Nathan heard nothing… ‘til he was on vacation at the Paris Ritz. He went down to the pool and saw only two other people… Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft. Mel asked him to play Max Bialystock, and Nathan readily agreed. Martin Short was slated to play Leo, but because of his family in L.A, decided he couldn't be in New York for so long. At this point, Susan Stroman was directing/choreographing, and they did a reading with most of the leads who later did it on Broadway. Nathan said that when he first watched Gary Beach during rehearsal, he commented that Gary was going to win a Tony Award. Brava on the Jeanne Dixon psychic-ness! During intermission of the reading, investors offered Mel all of the capital needed to mount the show!

During the reading, Nathan didn't have a big 11 o'clock number, and before it came to Broadway, he was presented with one. It was a sentimental song that Nathan thinks was called "Farewell to Broadway." He told everyone that he felt if you were going to stop the show after "Springtime for Hitler," you really had to stop it or go straight to the courtroom scene. He felt that a sweet song wouldn't cut it… but in the middle of the song, there was a monologue about his anger towards Leo. Nathan told Mel that the monologue had the right theme for the song. Max was bitter and felt betrayed… and a new song was written called "Betrayed." And, let me verify that I played in the pit numerous times, and it did indeed stop the show!

Stay warm, everyone and I'll see ya next week!

Henchmen Aren't Forgotten

February 19, 2008

Wah. With only two months since
The Ritz
closed, I'm now dealing with the closing of another show. Yes,
Lend Me a Tenor
played its last performance.
And
I'm still coping with the final episode of
Crowned: The Mother of All Pageants
and the imminent ending of
Project Runway
. So much loss. I feel like Sally Field in the
Steel Magnolias
cemetery scene.

Anyhoo, last Sunday night I saw the Actors Fund performance of
Young Frankenstein
. First of all, it was delicious to hear an overture with a big, fat orchestra. The Hilton Theatre has a relatively large orchestra minimum (the size of the orchestra corresponds to the size of the theatre), but Mel Brooks wanted more strings (lots of the show is underscored like those old, gothic Hollywood movies), so the orchestra is actually
over
the minimum! Brava! That whole cast is so talented, it's mind-boggling.

First, I must give a shout out to Megan Mullally's high belt. I first met Megan when she played Marty in
Grease!
I was often in the pit for that show, and I'll never forget the story that circulated around the cast for years about the performance when one of Megan's understudies went on. In the opening scene, Marty takes out a pair of glasses and Frenchie comments, "Hey, Marty! Are those new glasses?" Marty responds, "Yeah! Do they make me look smarter?" Frenchie then sasses her with, "Nah. We can still see your face." Well, Megan's understudy forgot to pre-set the glasses in her pocket and spread the word surreptitiously.
No glasses!
Jessie Stone (who was playing Frenchie) whispered not to worry, she'd handle it. The big moment came, and Jessie said, trying to save the day, "Hey, Marty! I hear you're
going to get
new glasses!" We all expected to hear, "Yeah! Do you think they'll make me look smarter?" to which Jessie would reply, "Nah! We'll still be able to see your face." Instead, the understudy replied with a terse, "No."
Silence
. And I mean a lo-o-o-o-ong silence. Finally, Heather Stokes, who was playing Jan, desperately tried to help and said the next line she could think of. Unfortunately, it was a line from
three pages
later, which, more unfortunately, was dangerously near the cue line for "Summer Nights." Before anyone knew it, the cue was said, "Summer Nights" began… and Sonny hadn't even made his entrance yet! Carlos Lopez (Sonny) was forced to slink on during the opening vamp. Everyone was so obsessed with what happened that we decided to turn the understudy's acting method into a whole school to counteract the "Yes, and" approach to improve:

"Hey! Do you see the six-foot monster coming towards us?"


"No!"


Curtain.

Back to
Young Frankenstein
. Andrea Martin was fan-tas-tic as Frau Blucher. Just opening the door to the castle and glaring, she got an enormous laugh. I've been obsessed with her ever since my friends and I would gather on Friday nights to watch her on
SCTV
, and I feel that she's literally a comic genius.
And
she's so great in her big number, which is all centered around a chair à la "Mein Herr." While watching
Young Frankenstein
, I was also obsessed with Sutton. Not only her brilliant singing/comedy/high kicks, but this weird comic bit she did; both times after she gave the monster a shot in the butt, she would run around blowing on the spot of the "injection." Why would that make it feel better? Is it hot? I thought it was hilarious.

And it was great to finally see Chris Fitzgerald get to play a big comic role. I remember him auditioning to play The Cat in The Hat in Broadway's
Seussical
years ago… and not getting it! If anyone can give me an answer as to why that happened, use your superior brain power to find a cure for cancer. And finally, brava to Roger Bart, whom I first realized was a great comedian when I saw him in
Triumph of Love
singing "Henchmen are Forgotten." P.S. That song is so great. Why doesn't anyone sing it? In other words, why is "Henchmen are Forgotten" forgotten?

This week on Sirius Radio I interviewed Raúl Esparza. Turns out, he first wanted to be a lawyer (!) but then got into NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and got his acting degree. He wasn't the best student (a lot of not showing up for class) and was told by his acting teacher that, with his terrible attendance, how dare he think he can do a Pinter monologue?! Raúl told me that when he was in rehearsal recently for
The Homecoming
(by Pinter), he remembered that reprimand and finally felt vindicated.

After he graduated, he got two simultaneous offers: Randy Newman's musical
Faust
(starring Sherie Rene Scott) and a play at Chicago's Steppenwolf. He chose to move to Chicago and lived there for years, doing just straight plays. Naturally, I skipped over that part of his life and segued to his stint in the national tour of
Evita
. At first, his family forbad (the past tense of forbid) him from playing Che because they actually knew him and said he was crazy. Not Mandy Patinkin, the real Che! Raúl's family is from Cuba and his grandfather had always told them that Che was a decidedly not great guy. So, Raúl decided to not play him as a hero. He said that because Che is the narrator, the audience automatically trusts him, but what if the show ends and they think that
nobody
on the stage is trustworthy? I was looking at him slightly askew, and he admitted that the text of
Evita
didn't support his interpretation, but he still loved doing the show… and it got great reviews, so I guess brava on the re-interpretation! Because of those good reviews, he felt like he could actually come to New York, which had always terrified him.

The first Broadway musical he got was
The Rocky Horror Show
, where he played Riff Raff. The audiences were always yelling and throwing things (like a movie audience), but director Chris Ashley decided that only Tom Hewitt, who played Dr. Frank N Furter, could respond. Besides the loud, rude comments, the cast also had to deal with the audience throwing rice, pieces of toast and firing water pistols! I assume it was "fun" to constantly worry about being electrocuted (body mic + non-stop water = unintentional perm/death).

While he was doing
Rocky Horror
, he auditioned for
tick, tick… BOOM!
but wasn't particularly interested in doing it. He thought it was just going to be a literal biography and he wasn't looking forward to switching his Broadway production contract money for Off-Broadway wages. When he went to the audition, he did a monologue as Jonathan Larson and, in the middle, looked up to see Jonathan's parents looking back at him with tears in their eyes. He was so moved when he realized he could be playing an actual real person. He got home that night and listened to a CD of Jonathan singing music that would be in the show. Halfway through he had to stop because he was crying and then decided that he didn't care about the money or the cache of Broadway; he knew he had to do the show because it spoke to him. He felt the theme of the show was, "it's easy to stay an artist when you get praise, but what do you do when everybody tells you that you suck?" He said
tick, tick… BOOM!
is about weathering on no matter how bad things get… and being able to say, "This is who I am and who I'm meant to be." I think a lot of people forget that when Jonathan Larson died,
Rent
was nothing but a little Off-Broadway show about to open at a relatively small theatre. He always had all that talent inside of him that allowed him to write
Rent
, but he never knew in his lifetime how successful his work would eventually become. Like in
tick, tick… BOOM!
, he really was able to weather on without ever getting recognition and praise from the public.