Seth's Broadway Diary, Volume 1: Part 1 (20 page)

I chatted up Norm Lewis, my favorite male Broadway singer. He's shirtless as King Triton in
The Little Mermaid
, so he had to get his body back into the shape it was when he did
Wild Party
on Broadway, AKA woof! He looks great! Also, I'm kvelling because he said he's halfway through his first CD. Finally! I've always said that he should have one of those Andrea Bocelli/Josh Groban careers. When I play the recording of him singing "We Live on Borrowed Time" by David Friedman on my Sirius radio show, I am always deluged with letters… more than for any other artist. I'm so excited because his CD will be a trip down memory lane for me. We first met when I cast him (non-Equity) in a production of
Joseph…
at the Candlewood Playhouse. His audition song was from
Hello, Dolly!
… and it was one sung by Dolly. Yes, he did "Before the Parade Passes By," and he was amazing! He told me it's going on the CD. Brava! Hopefully, he won't begin it with her monologue ("Ephram… lemme go")
.
OMG! Get his CD! He sounds amazing!

I also saw the gorgeous Sara Gettelfinger who made me laugh so hard a while ago. We were seeing a Broadway show together, and we were both outraged at one of the actors holding notes way too long. The song was supposed to be casual and chatty, yet all we heard were whole notes, vocal placement and vibrato. Sara said that his subtext was: "Time out from the show everyone. Just so you all know… I have an
amazing
voice." Sara gets a brava on nailing it!

Tuesday, I interviewed the brilliant composer/lyricist Maury Yeston for my Sirius radio show. First of all, I was shocked that he went to Yeshiva! Who knew he was Jewish? I guess "Maury" should have been a tip-off, but the Yeston threw me. He said that his grandparents' last name was Yes, and they emigrated through England. The English knew that they would get whiplash from constantly swerving their heads every time someone said "Yes," so they added an English suffix (i.e. Wellington, Harrington etc.).

He was a Professor at Yale, and some of his students are now part of what's called "The Yale Mafia": David Loud (who left Yale mid-term to be in
Merrily We Roll Along
), Scott Frankel (composer of
Grey Gardens
) and Ted Sperling (Tony Award-winner for orchestrating
The Light in the Piazza
).

In the beginning of the ‘80s, Maury had written a musical version of one of his favorite Fellini movies
8 1/2
and, because he added music, he upped the number in the title to
Nine
. He did a reading at Yale but didn't have the rights to the film. Someone who saw it loved it and thought Fellini should give Maury the rights, so she wrote Fellini a letter. That "someone" was Katharine Hepburn! I love that she had his address (Fellini, Villa #5, Italy).

Maury won an award that gave him money to do it Off-Broadway and someone who knew Tommy Tune gave Tommy a copy of the show. Tommy called Maury and said that he should give back the award money. "What?" said Maury,
The Simpsons
-style. Tommy felt the show shouldn't play Off-Broadway, but should go right to Broadway!

During auditions, Maury said that all the women had such a European look/attitude, but all the guys had an "I just got back from dinner theatre in Indiana" look. They couldn't find any men who had the right look for the show (besides the lead, Raul Julia). Tommy asked Maury if he could write out all the male roles except for the lead, and Maury loved the idea! First of all, it made Raul seem much more like a powerful movie director because he was the only man on that stage, and secondly, Maury loved the vocal stuff he could do with so many women. That's how he decided to have them all sing the overture. I asked about the song "A Call From the Vatican" where one of Guido's girlfriends says very suggestive things on the phone. Maury said that people think that he invented phone sex! Hmm… I've never had phone sex where the person on the other end hits a high C. Then again, Beverly Sills never returned my calls.

After
Nine
won the Tony Award for Best Musical, a producer suggested that Maury do a musical version of
The Phantom of the Opera
. He did and it was headed for Broadway… Then there was a little announcement in the paper saying that Andrew Lloyd Webber was considering doing a musical about
The Phantom
. Maury said that even though it wasn't definite, just a possibility,
all
the funding dried up immediately. People knew that Lloyd Webber's show would be a hit in London (if it happened) and then come to Broadway.
P.S. Where it's now the longest-running sho
w
.
So, Maury's show lives on regionally and in Europe but ne’er Broadway.

Tommy Tune called him in the late ‘80s and said that
Grand Hotel
(a musical composed by Wright/Forrest, who wrote
Kismet
) had opened in Boston, and the review said, "They might have saved
My One and Only
, but they can't save this one." Tommy asked Maury to come and help. Maury went out to eat with Wright and Forrest and said that he was mortified to be there because he knew that it was every composer's nightmare. Turns out, Wright and Forrest couldn't have been more gracious and said that they wanted him to help because they knew the show could close and wouldn't dream of putting all these people out of work. They just wanted credit given for whatever song they wrote and vice versa. Maury realized that Wright/Forrest wrote a very old-school linear show, and Tommy was doing a non-linear/no-set show that needed a different type of music. Maury wrote an opening number (there wasn't one when the show started in Boston!) and many other songs, and
Grand Hotel
wound up being nominated for many Tony Awards (including Best Musical and Score). It also wound up running for more than 1,000 performances. Take that, Boston critic! Unfortunately, it also gave us that commercial where we found out that woman's husband "worked in the area." Anybody remember that?

I brought up the brilliant performance by David Carroll, who played the Baron. I was so blown away by his performance and was so frustrated that he didn't sing the Baron on the CD. Turns out, Wright/Forrest were holding out on allowing a CD because they wanted a recording of the show they originally wrote, and not the Broadway version (!). So, it took a long time for them to come around and agree to a CD with a combo of Forrest/Wright and Yeston music. Well, by that point, David Carroll was very sick with AIDS, but the powers-that-be were going to record him singing to just a piano track and then add the orchestra later. David apparently was much sicker than anyone thought because he arrived at the studio, told everyone he needed to go to the bathroom and, sadly, died while he was in there. The beautiful part is that there's an added track at the end of the CD, which is David singing "Love Can't Happen" during his cabaret act at Steve McGraw's. The ending of that song is one of the most thrilling moments I remember experiencing in the theatre. He got to the end of the song and sang, "When love comes, you'll know…" on an E flat. I remember thinking, "Surely, he's not going to go any higher," and then he sang "And… I… kno-o-o-o-o-o-ow!" on an A flat, and I almost fell out of my seat. It was unbelievable. And even though he had to physically climb all around the set because his character was also a thief, he said that hitting that last note was the hardest thing he ever had to do onstage. You must listen to it and hear that man's voice!

This week, during a performance of
The Ritz
, shockingly, I started laughing onstage yet again. But this time, I will not take the blame for it! I blame All Hallows Eve. Two guys showed up to see
The Ritz
and thought that it was a Broadway tradition to dress up in the audience. It isn't. They were the
only
ones in costume and they were dressed as bacon and eggs. Yes, one was bacon and one was eggs. They looked adorable, but they were sitting in the front row! How can I pretend to be scared of Carmine Vespucci brandishing a gun when I see a delicious breakfast order inches away? And it was even more bizarre because they weren't commenting on their costumes… they were just sitting there watching the show. An enormous fried egg and a side of bacon with
Playbill
s in their laps. Normally, at the end of Act One, Rosie Perez shakes hands with someone in the front row, and during intermission we told her that we loved that she shook the hands of the bacon. She was shocked when we told her that he was bacon. She assumed he was a Rabbi! Hilariously, she thought the strips were his tallis. I politely informed her that there's a
big
difference between a Rabbi and bacon.

I’m very excited that my book
Broadway Nights
has been released
and, of course, I keep obsessively checking my Amazon reviews. They've been great… every customer reviewer gave me five stars!
Until
… I checked last night and saw that I got two stars (!) from a woman who flat out admitted to just skimming it! I was devastated! It pulled my whole ranking down. I decided to investigate and see what other books she's reviewed. Suffice it to say, she gave five stars to a book about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome because she's had it for 15 years… and she's also 82! An 82-year-old with chronic fatigue? "I’m elderly and so, so fatigued… but I’ll use what little strength I have to pull down Seth Rudetsky’s ranking. Did it. Zzzzzzz."

All right, I'm excited because this is a Joe's Pub week. I'm going Monday night to see the sweet-voiced and hilarious Andréa Burns (
In the Heights
) celebrate her newly released CD (
A Darker Shade of Red
), and then next Sunday, I'm seeing another Diva whose hair is a lighter shade of red: Miss Coco. If you don't know who that is, rent the film
Girls Will Be Girls
. She's hysterical! Oh, and if you come to the show, please don’t wear your breakfast.

Burns, Jenkins, Shindle and the Strike

November 12, 2007

Oy! The strike!
Referring, of course,to the strike that closed all Broadway shows for a few weeks
!
It's so bizarre that I'm in one of the few shows running. It's not like I chose to do
The Ritz
because I knew it would be immune from the strike, it just worked out that way because Roundabout Theatre Company is under a different contract.
I'm hoping by the time you read this, all the Broadway shows will be back on. Actually, why don't I add more to that wish: I hope all the Broadway shows will be back on, including some that have closed. That's right. Not only the current
Rent, Hairspray
and
Drowsy Chaperone
, I want to see
Evita
with Patti LuPone and
Drood
with Betty Buckley ASAP. Local One, that's what you need to focus on while negotiating.

This week began with a benefit for
Only Make Believe
, a great organization founded by Dena Hammerstein (Jamie's widow) that brings theatre to hospitalized children. It was great to see Julia Murney again, fresh off of
Wicked
. She sang "Life of the Party" from
Wild Party
, which was Idina Menzel's song in the final version of the show, but was Julia's song at one point. Most people associate "Raise the Roof" with Julia's character, but when I first saw it, Idina's character sang it and she was played by Sara Ramirez. That show had more swapping than the movie "The Ice Storm."
Capathia Jenkins sang "(Let a Big, Black Lady) Stop the Show" from
Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me
. If you haven't downloaded that song from iTunes, stop reading now and get thee! It is so hilarious, and she sounds
amazing
! She hits an amazing F sharp (with vibrato) and holds it forever! No wonder she almost got Effie in the film. She told me that when she went in for her screen test, they had her do the entire fight scene into "And I Am Telling You." And not lip-synched, totally live. She said that she gave it
all
she had, and when she finished, she was completely exhausted. Then Bill Condon (the director) came over to her and congratulated her. Following that with "Okay, we're gonna take it again from the top and this time try to blah, blah, blah." Again!?! Long story short: Jennifer Hudson won the Oscar.

At the benefit, Capathia's backup was sung by the hilarious Jill Abramovitz, Mary Ann Hu (who just got the Bloody Mary understudy in
South Pacific
!) and Jason Michael Snow. I recently sent him a congratulatory text message because I saw his name on
The Little Mermaid
cast list. He sadly informed me that I was mixing him up with Jason (no middle name) Snow. He's Jason
Michael
Snow. Ouch. There are two Snows on Broadway? Wait, what about Jessica Snow Wilson? How does she feel about all of this? And what if she got married to Jason? Would she be Jessica Snow Snow? And didn't this kind of humor go out in the ‘70s?