Seth's Broadway Diary, Volume 1: Part 2 (6 page)

Signature Tunes

May 19, 2008

All right, here we go. I began the week interviewing the lovely Christine Ebersole who, with Billy Stritch on the piano, just came out with a new CD called
Sunday in New York
. I asked her about "Around the World," which is my favorite song from
Grey Gardens
. Turns out, she saw my deconstruction of it on YouTube and told me that she gave it five stars, which she told me stood for "awesome." Brava! I asked her about the song and why she begins it sounding almost shrill, but suddenly adds vibrato on the lyric "…which is mother's way…" She said that she feels it's the voice Little Edie has inside her. Little Edie wanted to be a singer and this is the voice Little Edie thought she sounded like. I kept asking Christine what she sang at auditions for all of her classic roles and she couldn't remember. She could only remember what she wore. She is a big believer in showing up to the audition looking like the character, but not literally in costume. Speaking of which, I have a friend who had a commercial audition where they asked him to look like a pirate. He showed up with an eye patch and swashbuckling outfit and was the only who looked like that. Turns out, they told him to show up looking like a
pilot
. He did not book it.

On Thursday, James and I went to see
Spring Awakening
. Me, for the second time, him, for the first. It was Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele's final week, and I wanted James to see it before they left. Thankfully, it was still as fresh as the first time I saw it and I was particularly impressed with the sound. The band and singers sounded great, and also I love Lea's E at the end of the reprise of "Mama Who Bore Me," and I love how Jonathan does old-school focus: he's constantly looking to the balcony and box seats. I guess it's his vaudeville training, even though he was born 60 years after vaudeville died. After the show, James and I went backstage to Jonathan's dressing room. I was dying of thirst, and Jonathan offered me some Diet Coke. It was super fizzy, and he asked me if it was gross that he was putting his finger in my glass to stop the fizzing. I said it was fine because I was sure he took a shower after his exhausting, long and sweaty two-act show. There was silence… then he removed his finger.

After we all chatted for a while, Lea and Jonathan gigglingly told us they were planning on doing something not allowed. "Hmm… use vibrato during the show?" I thought. No, it turns out it was something even more scandalous. They decided to spend the night in the theatre! Apparently, they had slept over with John Gallagher, Jr. before he left the show, and now that they were leaving, they wanted to do it again. It was their way to say goodbye to "their theatre." Jonathan started scotch-taping up large tapestries underneath the shelves in his dressing room so they could hide behind it when the stage doorman did his final look before he locked up. After he taped, Jonathan asked us if we'd be accomplices. Accomplices? How dare he? To a crime no one really cared about? How could I lower my moral rectitude? But… looking into that Tony-nominated face, I had no choice but to say yes. James quickly agreed, too, and the next thing we knew we were walking down the stairs and loudly saying (so the doorman could hear us), "Boy! I guess everyone left while we were in the bathroom!" The stage doorman was very sweet and asked if Jonathan was still upstairs. I very awkwardly/loudly said (I also come from the vaudevillian school of no mics), "No! He left the building." Awkward pause while I remembered my line. "And Lea. Lea Michele has also left." The doorman looked miffed. James piped up. "Yep. They have left. Both." As we walked out of the stage door, we saw a long line of folks waiting to get autographs, and then the doorman had to tell them that Jonathan and Lea left already. James and I felt so bad for the fans as they dispersed, but we knew that Jonathan and Lea always signed autographs and tonight was a special occasion for them.

Of course, I think sleeping over in the theatre is probably one of those things that sounds like it's so much fun, but winds up with you getting a neck-ache from sleeping on an Equity cot in a cold, dark theatre and then waking up at 4 AM and realizing you forgot your toothbrush. Suffice it to say, I didn't want to be in the theatre for their "Spring Awakening" without an emergency supply of Listerine strips.

The next day, James and I caught an Amtrak train and comfortably traveled down to Washington, D.C. Maya Weil, a board member at the Signature Theatre who works at the Kennedy Center, wrote me an email saying that she loved my Sirius radio show and invited me to the Signature Theatre Gala in Arlington, VA. The theatre has been doing a Kander and Ebb salute all year (
Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Happy Time
), and the gala was for the premiere of their new show,
The Visit
, with book by Terrence McNally and direction by Frank Galati. I said
Yes
, Liza-style (AKA "Say yes." "Liza With a Z?" Anybody?). It was black tie so James borrowed a suit from Norm Lewis and I wore the tux I bought for the time I played Carnegie Hall with Audra McDonald. That was in 1999 and my waist is now in a different time zone. Hoo boy, was it tight.

I must praise Miss Chita Rivera, who is so commanding on stage and made the audience go crazy by simply doing one syncopated contraction (choreographed by Ann Reinking, sitting a few rows back). Chita just exudes theatre and it was thrilling to see her give a full Broadway performance from only a few feet away.

Before the show, I was in the lobby and ran into John Kander, who is one of the nicest men ever. I met him at my graduation from Oberlin. He had graduated years earlier and was getting a special degree. When I moved to New York, he got me some fabulous jobs playing piano for his TV film scores, and he's always been incredibly supportive and sweet to me. I got to interview him for Sirius radio and my favorite story involved the title song from the movie,
New York, New York
. He and Fred Ebb performed all the songs they had written for the film for director Martin Scorsese and the film's star, Robert De Niro. Scorsese and De Niro had a little convo after they heard everything, and Scorsese told the songwriting team that De Niro felt that one of the other songs, "The World Goes ‘Round," was so good it was outshining "New York, New York," which should be the best song in the film. Kander and Ebb were totally irritated they were being given notes by the star, but because they're pros, they didn't argue. John said that they went home with big chips on their shoulders and wrote their "(expletive) you" version of the song. Cut to:
that's
the song that Minnelli and Sinatra then made world famous and John can't even remember the first version. Viva De Niro!

I sat with John at the bar and asked him what he thinks will happen with
The Visit
. Of course, he said he didn't know yet. I suddenly felt so awed to be with him at that moment. It wasn't opening night, but because it was the big gala, it had the same vibe, and I thought about all the shows he's been in the lobby of before they opened —
Cabaret
,
Chicago
,
The Rink
, etc. — and I couldn't believe I was sitting there with him. I'm used to doing one-night concerts of shows that have already worked, or limited runs of past hit shows. I can't even comprehend what it's like to be him. He's on a level very few are because he's literally created musical theatre history. After John and I chatted, I went into the theatre, and James asked me if I really take in the fact that my life is such where I can go to events and be surrounded by Broadway celebrities and actually know them well enough to say hello etc., and I thought back to the time I was nine years old, seeing
Chicago
from the balcony. Here I was in a theatre with the composer and the original star. The thought made my eyes fill with tears. Well, it was that thought plus the waist size of my pants versus my actual waist.

In conclusion, anyone in the Washington, D.C. area better hightail it to the Signature and see
The Visit
ASAP (P.S. Wear stretch pants)
.
THE VISIT
just played again with Chita in the summer of 2014. Still waiting to come to Broadway!

Now, let us discuss nominations. Perhaps some of you remember that I was in
The Ritz
. Perhaps you also remember that I had four lines:

1. We're busy.

2. I said we're busy.

3. Thanks a lot.

4. Careful, Googie.

Plus a tight 16-measure performance of the song "Magic to Do." Well, imagine my surprise and joy when I discovered that I was nominated for a
Broadway.com
audience award! And not for "best walk-on," but for "best featured actor in a play"! First of all, I can't believe I was actually
in
a Broadway play, let alone nominated for anything. And apparently, neither can anyone else. The always-hilarious Joe Mantello wrote me:
Not since Pia Zadora won a Golden Globe for BUTTERFLY has there been such a scandal
. Brava! I wish I could see F. Murray Abraham's face when he read the list of his competition:

F. MURRAY: Let's see here… Raúl Esparza, wonderful. David Morse, wow! Stiff competition. Brooks Ashmanskas, yes, yes… well-deserved. And finally… what the-? Seth Rudetsky? Who the hell is he?

F. MURRAY’S ASSISTANT: He was in The Ritz.

F. MURRAY: I don't remember him. 


ASSISTANT: Neither did I. I looked him up on
ibdb.com
and he played "Fire drill patron" in Act One and "Sheldon" in Act Two.

F. MURRAY: I still don't remember him.

ASSISTANT: Neither do I.


*Silence.* 


BOTH: So….yeah.

OK, everyone, I'm signing off to go obsessively listen to my copy of the
In the Heights
CD
.
I still listen at the gym. Especially CARNAVAL DEL BARRIO
!
This week I'm going to see the fabulous Nina Hennessey at the Metropolitan Room and finally see
Sunday in the Park With George
— and either get a new tux or call Star Jones' doctor.

A Tale of Two Seths

May 28, 2008

Here's the deal: Thursday night, I began to feel sick. When I woke up Friday, I assumed I had gotten strep from Juli, who had it a week-and-a-half ago. I had a fever and hightailed it to the doctor. Of course, Murphy's law-style, the strep test came back negative and I had no fever. It was literally the only five-minute period in the last four days where I haven't had a fever! I don't know why it happened right at that moment, but it made me look like a crazy person. He said not to worry and whatever I had would go away. I guess it did, if by "go away," he meant get progressively worse where I'm now on Tylenol with Codeine so I can sleep… and it's not even working!

The next morning, James checked my throat with a flashlight and let me just say that the only thing in recent memory whiter than my left tonsil is Hugh Jackman's 2004 Tony Awards performance of "One Night Only." I called my doctor and said that I must have strep and since I'm allergic to penicillin, he gave me a Z-pack. He assured me, though, that I wasn't contagious anymore. But I felt terrible, so I had to cancel my afternoon tickets to
Sunday in the Park With George
. Devastating. Well, at least I could nap the whole afternoon. Really? Keep reading.

Since James' mother is in town, I forced myself to go out for a quick lunch and then they all went to the South Street Seaport. I crawled back to my apartment to discover that James had my keys! Yay! It's fun to be locked out of your apartment with a fever and a white sweater on your tonsil. I had keys to James' apartment and slept there all day. By Sunday, I was determined not to cancel any more tickets, so I forced myself onto the subway and saw the amazing
Gypsy
. I'm so glad the show came to Broadway. People are always commenting, "Why do we need another revival of
Gypsy
?" My comment is, "Why did it ever close?" It should have stayed running since 1959. It was so fantastic to see and hear a full orchestra again after having to suffer through various revivals with orchestra reductions, yet ticket inflations. And I loved that the audience was completely silent during the overture because it wasn't used as a section of music to settle the audience so the show could then begin — it
was
the beginning of the show. The cast is fantastic. How great to have Patti LuPone back in an old-school musical. I remember thinking what a long wait it was between
Evita
and then
Anything Goes
, but that was less than ten years! This has been 20! I know she did her own show on Broadway, as well as plays and
Sweeney Todd
, but I'm talking old-school, high belt, stand center stage on zero and tear-it-up musical comedy.