Seth's Broadway Diary, Volume 1: Part 2 (28 page)

The
13
CD is played in my apartment non-stop by Juli, so I pretty much know every song. There are some songs on the CD that aren't in the show and I asked Elizabeth Gillies (who plays Lucy and has a
great
voice) what happened to the amazing song "Opportunity." She said that it was her big song and it opened Act Two. Cut to: she showed up at the theatre and the creative staff said that there were some changes… the show is now only one act and "Opportunity" is cut. I asked her if she cried up a storm, and she said no. Then I asked if she emotionally shut down instead and informed her that it would serve well as an adult.

I went to go see
13
again last Saturday matinee and, turns out, they only let Graham do six shows a week so he can preserve his voice and perhaps star in
14
. The matinee Evan is Corey Snide, and from just watching him walk out during the opening number, I knew he was an amazing dancer. I checked his credits and saw that he starred in the West End as Billy Elliot. I still got it! I feel like
Wicked
's Madame Morrible: "…and that's
my
talent. Recognizing talent."

Saturday night I stopped by Studio 54 because I knew
Pal Joey
would be teching and I wanted to say hi to my favorite Broadway director (AKA my only Broadway director), Joe Mantello. It was 9:30 and everybody was hard at work. I saw so many of the people whom I worked with on
The Ritz
that it was like a little reunion. Thankfully, I avoided my unitard. Joe was in the audience but didn't have the signature "God Mic" that so many directors use so they can angrily yell "CUT" when something goes wrong. Instead, he'd just hop up and walk over to the lighting designer or stage manager when something needed to be changed. I salute either his yoga regimen or his psycho-pharmacologist.

Scott Pask, who did the set for
The Ritz
, built an
amazing
set for
Pal Joey
. Wait 'til you see it! At one point during the rehearsal, a beautiful blonde came onstage and started singing "Zip." I nudged James and whispered knowingly, "That's Martha Plimpton." I had heard she has an amazing voice, but she sounded
clanky
! I put a frozen smile on my face, and after one minute, Joe leaned over and informed us, a) she's supposed to sound awful in this scene and b) that's not Martha Plimpton. Turns out, there's a moment in the show where someone else sings "Zip" and is supposed to stink. I went from a "know-it-all" to a "know-nothing" in four measures.

I asked Joe about
9 to 5
and if it's true that Dolly came up onstage during a performance. Turns out, when the show had to stop due to technical difficulties, she bounded up onstage and sang "9 to 5"
and
"I Will Always Love You." Brava! Unfortunately, the next time she did it, she sang "9 to 5" and then announced she was gonna sing "I Will Always Love You." Of course, the audience went crazy. Then, she found out that the set was fixed so she excitedly told everyone that she didn't need to sing and the show could go on. Crickets. The curtain came up and poor Stephanie J. Block had to sing her song. I'm sure it felt like when you're the understudy and the whole audience is mad they have to see you perform. The good news is, it was Stephanie J. Block, who has a phenomenal voice, so of course, she won the audience over with her brava belt.

Also at the tech rehearsal was everybody's favorite Latina dancer-turned-director/choreographer, Graciela Daniele. Every actor I've interviewed has said that they'd drop everything to work with her. I remembered one story she had told me when I interviewed her years ago. She was one half of Vincent and Vanessa, the tango couple in the original
Follies
. She told me about one night near the end of her run when she wasn't fully focusing because she was about to leave the show and her mind was on the future: she was in her dressing room and suddenly heard her entrance music! She panicked and flew down the staircase running into her dance partner in the wings. She started frantically explaining to him at what point in the music they could enter and still have their dance make sense. In the middle of her babbling, he cut her off with, "Graciela! Calm down! You're speaking in Spanish!"
Caramba
!

Thursday, I interviewed the Defarges from
Tale of Two Cities
. Natalie Toro (Madame Defarge) told us a great Broadway bitchery tale. When she graduated college, she was obsessed with
Les Miz
and desperate to get in it. She went to Japan to play Rosalia in
West Side Story
and was loving it (they would literally have a red carpet every night leading from the stage door). However, while she was there, they had auditions for the
Les Miz
national tour, back in New York. She was gonna try to fly back to audition for Eponine, but it takes so long to fly there that, by the time the plane landed, she'd be right for Madame Thenardier. Besides, she couldn't miss any
West Side Story
performances. She let it go.

When she got back, the casting director called her and asked her to audition. He told her it was for the "New York company" of
Les Miz
, and she was so naïve that she didn't know that meant Broadway! I guess she assumed there was a
Les Miz
company in Elmira. A few days before her audition, she tried out for a regional production of
Baby
and got it! She called the producer and told them that she had a big audition for Eponine coming up the next day (Saturday), and they said that she could postpone signing her contract until Monday at 5 PM. At the
Les Miz
audition, she ran into a woman who was at the
Baby
audition. Let's call her "Eve." Eve said, "I heard you got the role in
Baby
. Is that true? What are you gonna do if you get this?" Natalie explained that she had ‘til Monday at 5 to sign the contract. Then they both auditioned and went home to wait. The good news is that Vinnie Liff (the casting director) called Natalie later and said those amazing words to her: "Welcome to Broadway." Natalie doesn't think she'll ever experience the thrill that went through her body during that phone call. The annoying news is that Vinnie told her that, after she and "Eve" auditioned, "Eve" went back, knocked on the door and told the creative people that they shouldn't give the role to Natalie… because she already had another job!
Sabateuse
! Months later, Natalie was on the subway going home after the show. She was wearing her
Les Miz
jacket and her Eponine hat, and when she looked up… she saw "Eve" sitting across from her. They locked eyes and, as the poets say,
nary a word was spoken… but so much was said
.

Speaking of phone calls, Natalie also told us that she originated the role of Madame Defarge on the
Tale of Two Cities
concept album and then played the role in the workshops and the out-of-town tryout. She was therefore super-psyched when she found out that it was going to Broadway. One day, however, she was driving on the Van Wyck expressway, and the casting director called saying, "This is the part of my job that I hate." He told her that because there was a new director, she'd have to audition for her role. She literally pulled over to the side of the road because she was so overwhelmed. Natalie decided to have a good attitude and went into the audition feeling positive. She sang her big number, "Out of Sight, Out of Mind," and then read. The only sass she gave was on her way out when she called over her shoulder, "Happy hunting." She left the audition wanting to get a drink (!), but none of her friends were around. Instead, she went shopping… and bought what she decided would be her opening night shoes. A few hours later, her phone rang. She saw from the caller ID that it was the director. She didn't want to pick up because there was a big chance it was a "You're so wonderful… we can't use you" phone call. She finally answered, and he was very polite. He asked her what she did after the audition. She told him that she bought her opening night shoes. He could have said, "Wonderful. We'll definitely invite you opening night so you'll get a chance to wear them," but instead he told her that she got the part! For those of you who think that it always works out this way, you should know that many people originate roles and then get ixnayed for the Broadway production (Matthew Broderick in
Parade
and Carolee Carmello in
Scarlett Pimpernel
, for example). Just know that I want credit if
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
goes to Broadway, and the guy playing Hamilton shoves eight chocolate chip cookies down his gullet backstage. I did it first!

Finally, I have to talk about election night. James and I went to turn on the news because we had a feeling there'd be a big announcement. We sat on the couch, anticipating history being made… and we couldn't get to a news channel! Why? Because DVR only lets you watch the shows you're taping and we were taping
The Daily Show
and
Clifford The Big Red Dog
. Son of a — !!!! By the time I figured out how to stop recording, Oprah had been crying for 20 minutes. I have to say that I, too, was crying during his acceptance speech. However, the elation we both felt about Obama being elected was monumentally depleted when we heard about Proposition 8 being passed outlawing marriage equality in California
.
Thankfully, marriage equality is in SO many more states now… including California!

This week, I'm off to L.A.! Details to follow!

Benefits with Friends

November 17, 2008

Hello from seat 3A.
I'm on a Virgin America flight to L.A. and this plane is so cool. The design is very Jetsons looking and all I want to do is watch all of the TV shows and movies that are available on my personal screen in front of my seat. Instead, I will forgo the new
Indiana Jones
movie and write about this past week.

On Monday, I took Juli to school and then hightailed it uptown where I was meeting Josh Henry (from
In the Heights
) and Julia Murney (recently from
Wicked
). We were all going up to Ithaca to do a benefit for The Hangar Theater, which is now run by Peter Flynn (who also directed me in
Rhapsody in Seth
and
Broadway 101
). I'm one of those "don't talk to me until I've had my coffee" people and I decided to put off breakfast on Monday because I love acting out with food in airports. Right after my bag goes through the scanner, you can find me at some kiosk treating myself to a delish bagel/cappuccino and devouring it right before boarding. The only downside is that the bagel and coffee usually costs more than the AIG bailout, but it's worth it. Anyhoo, we met the van on 96th and Broadway at 9 AM and were soon on our way.

While we got comfortable in the van, Julia told me and Josh that she has a great "road trip" car and, for a while, she had thought she'd be driving us up to Ithaca. I was without my soothing caffeine, so I was extra sassy. I rolled my eyes at her and said, "Why would you think you were driving? We've gotten so many emails about this trip! Don't you read them?" I shook my head at her and then leaned forward and asked the driver if we were going to LaGuardia Airport or JFK. Julia looked at me like I was an idiot and said, "Neither." I realized that Ithaca was a small city, so we were probably going to one of those tiny airports. "MacArthur?" I offered. "Seth!" Julia yelled. "We're not going to any airport." I was totally confused. She spelled it out for me. "We're
driving
!" she said, with a subtext of "You're a moron." That's right, people… one minute after I busted Julia for not reading her emails, I was boomerang busted for never actually reading mine. I had done my version of reading the entire email. I would read the first part saying that we were being picked up by a van at 9 and ignore the rest. I kept wondering why the email told us the name of our driver. Why would I need to connect with "Randy" for a 30-minute drive? I soon found out that the 30-minute drive to the airport was actually a four-hour drive upstate. How long before my long-awaited breakfast and coffee?? Randy said we'd stop in an hour and a half. That did it. I turned on the charm (AKA tears) and begged him to find a Starbucks. He kindly pulled over and I loaded up on carbs and a smattering of protein. Ahhhh.

We got up there around 1 PM and met up with Andréa Burns (from
In the Heights
and Peter's wife) and Jeremy Webb (whom I had just seen in
The Visit
down at the Signature Theatre). For the benefit, Andréa and Julia did a section from
Broadway 101
where I explain that the biggest war on Broadway happens every night… between belters and sopranos. We showed what belting is (Julia sang the end of "All That Jazz") and what head voice is (Andréa did the Julie Andrews ending of "Do Re Mi"). Then I allowed that sometimes both head voice and chest voice join peacefully… and they performed "A Boy Like That." The audience ate it up.