Seth's Broadway Diary, Volume 1: Part 1 (36 page)

After
Night Music,
Len went back to Canada and became the artistic director of the Manitoba Theater Center (the original MTC, as he likes to say) and while he was there, Hal told him that Sondheim had written a show for him! Len was thrilled… 'til he read the script. He thought
Sweeney Todd
was
really
bizarre. He read it again, and although he couldn't figure out how they were going to do all the killings, etc., he knew that if the score was very romantic, it could work. It obviously did and Len wound up winning the Tony Award! I asked him if he ever missed a show when he played Sweeney Todd, and he said an emphatic "No." I asked why and he said, "It was my part." He's old school! My favorite Len story was told to me by his former voice teacher, Paul Gavert. During previews, Hal asked the sound designer to turn down Len's body mic because he sounded so much louder than the other singers onstage. Hal was told that Len was the only one
not
wearing a body mic! Brava!

All right, I have tons to tell you about the
Legally Blonde
reality show on MTV but the network told me I can't reveal anything until the episodes start airing, so my trap is now officially shut. But it’s soon going to be wide open, so stay tuned!

Freeman, Burgess and Hitting the
Heights

March 10, 2008



Ossining matters. No, literally, that's the name of the organization: "Ossining Matters." It raises money for the town of Ossining's school district and I'm here playing a fundraising concert with Kerry Butler. She's so much fun to play piano for because she's super-nice, super-funny, always sounds great
and
I get to sing a duet from
Bat Boy
with her! I love that show so much. I saw it four times... tying with
In the Heights
, which I saw for the fourth time last week
.
P.S.Final IN THE HEIGHTS tally: 8 times
!
I feel like that show is my child. I went to see the
In the Heights
workshop around two years ago because my good friend Andréa Burns was in it and I flipped out. Then, I saw the Off-Broadway run twice last year and finally, last Friday night, I got to see it on Broadway!

As soon as the opening song began, I literally had tears in my eyes because I was so happy and proud of everybody in it. Watching
In the Heights
made me feel like I did when I was a kid obsessed with Broadway. Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the show and also stars in it, and I was so impressed by his performance because, two years later, it's still so natural, real and not pushed. I was also loving watching him because I knew he was living his dream. He started writing this show in college, and now it's on Broadway!! What I love about
In the Heights
is that there are lots of shows that have really talented casts, but sometimes they're doing material that doesn't fully show them off.
In the Heights
not only has an amazing cast but they're all given material that makes each one look amazing. And the ensemble is given choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler that is so creative but doesn't take me, as an audience member, out of the moment. A lot of times I see something on Broadway that's innovative, but I feel a sense of "Aren't we amazing," and I stop focusing on the stage and start thinking about the choreographer making it up thinking, "I'm so cool," and the cast learning it for the first time high-fiving each other saying, "Nobody's ever seen this before," and the stage managers giving notes about it so it remains the
amazing
moment everyone's talking about… and by the time I finish my timeline, it's intermission. But not
In the Heights
. It’s joyous and thrilling and I want it to run forever
.
Sadly, it didn’t. But it won the Best Musical Tony Award and I got to be in the audience at the closing night years later. Still fantastic!

This week I interviewed Jonathan Freeman on my Sirius radio show. First of all, the coolest thing is that, when he was a kid, he was obsessed with Disney villains and always wanted to be one… and he wound up originating the role of the voice of Jafar in the movie
Aladdin
! And when
I
was a kid, I always wanted to be a Broadway star, and when I became an adult I... got to meet some
.
P.S. He not only originated Jafar in the movie, he got to originate the same role in the Broadway show, which opened in 2014!

Jonathan did a lot of performing as a child when he lived in Cleveland, but never the cute kid parts because, as he told me drily, "When I was 10, I was 40." He said that the character he's playing now in
The Little Mermaid
is the exact same one he played in
Snow White
when he was ten! The only difference is the name. Now: Grimsby, then: Sir Casper Cupcake. Which reminds me of what Bebe Neuwirth told me recently in an interview. When she turned 40, she said, "Finally. I'm the age I was always meant to be."

In college Jonathan was told he wouldn't work much until he got older because he was such a character actor, but he ignored that and "starved himself" so he could stay really skinny and play juveniles. He did
George Washington Slept Here
with Jimmy Coco, Marilyn Cooper and Dodie Goodman. Talk about people who needed to turn 40! And speaking of Dodie, I remembered that she played Miss Lynch for a while when I did
Grease!
in the ‘90s. I just googled her and saw that she was born in 1915! Zoinks! I hope I'm sassy enough to get a gig when I'm 80… Brava, Dodie!

I asked Jonathan who else started out with him in New York and he said he became friends with Nathan Lane because they were always auditioning for commercials at the same time. Those were the days when big celebrities didn't do commercials, so Jonathan remembers auditioning for five a day. He and Nathan did a commercial together where they played soldiers and Nathan’s character has Sara Lee cake sent to him from home. Yet, the last shot was Jonathan eating the cake. Jonathan asked why him and not Nathan and was told, "You have a cake-eating face." Is that a special skill? "Good with children, driver's license, cake-eating face, easily plays 40 years old."

His first Broadway musical was
Platinum
, which I saw when I was kid. First of all, I just IBDB'd it and discovered that it ran for one month. I can't believe my school happened to get tickets within that little window of time…
and
I don't understand who in my school chose it. It seems a bit mature for Long Island young'uns. Although, this
was
the late ‘70s when there weren't Broadway shows created specifically for school groups, so probably the choices were
Platinum
,
Oh! Calcutta!
and
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
. No matter what, I was bound to go home with several boundaries broken. I remembered that there was a nude hot-tub scene and Jonathan said that it was a completely see-through Lucite hot tub and while Richard Cox was in it, Jonathan and other cast members would go downstairs, stand underneath it and tap and wave at him while Richard was playing the scene. I'm not saying that Jonathan's unprofessionalism closed the show, but need I remind you again how long it ran.

The first time I remember seeing Jonathan on Broadway was in
She Loves Me
. It was a small role (the Headwaiter), so naturally he had six callbacks. What!?! The final one was a work session, which, incidentally, was the first time he had heard that phrase. Let's think about all the new annoying Broadway phrases that have cropped up since the ‘80s: a) "Track," as in "whose track are you covering?" Remember when they were called "roles"?; b) "Jukebox musical." Remember when they were called "revues"?; c) "American Airlines Theater," etc. Remember when it wasn't awkward to say the name of a theatre?

Anyhoo, Jonathan got the gig and during rehearsals, they wanted him to not only do the role, but to be in some group numbers later on. He felt that doing ensemble in other numbers would diminish the impact of the restaurant scene because, even if they costumed him differently, some of the audience would recognize him and wonder if it was supposed to be the waiter coming on again to shop in the parfumerie, etc. so he only wound up appearing in the one scene. Apparently his instincts were right, because his 20 minutes onstage earned him a Tony nomination! He remembered that when Marilyn Cooper won the Tony for
Woman of the Year
someone said, "Wow. Aren't you only onstage for thirteen minutes?" and she said, "Twelve." Brava!

Jonathan told me about his audition for the
Aladdin
movie. What's bizarre about animation auditions is that, when you walk in the room, everyone auditioning you has their eyes covered because they don't want the way you look in real life to influence them. He said that what helped his audition was that he asked for a drawing of Jafar before he came in, and that's how he found his voice. His initial contract only offered him around four days, so if Disney didn't like him, they could can him ASAP. Ouch. "You got the gig! And by 'getting the gig,' I mean we're offering you a contract shorter than the run of
Platinum
."

We then talked about the revival of
42nd Street
and he said that he doesn't like the term "revival" and wants to instead call it a "new production." I glared, and he reminded me that no one says that they're doing a revival of
Hamlet
. Hmph.
Hamlet
is from the 1600s. If
42nd Street
is revived in the year 2588, I'll then allow it to be called a "new production."

Jonathan was telling me about his audition for
The Little Mermaid
and I was outraged that he even had to audition. He told me a) he was, too and b) he's the oldest person involved, not only amongst the actors, but in all aspects of the production! He said he's older than the cast, the director and the producer. And Dodie Goodman.

Speaking of
The Little Mermaid
, I had Tituss Burgess (who plays the crab) on the
Chatterbox
this week. He said he first came to New York in the late ‘90s and stayed with a friend in Queens. Unfortunately, he got on the N train instead of the R and exited at the wrong stop in Queens. He didn't have a cell phone, was too scared to ask anybody for directions and didn't write down the address of where the person lived! I was in shock. How can you possibly find a random apartment in an entire borough? He said he decided to walk up and down different streets in Queens until he recognized the apartment building. I could walk up and down the Upper West Side and probably not recognize my own apartment building. Actually, he shockingly found it by 3 AM.

His first Broadway gig was in
Good Vibrations
. I asked him about the out-of-town tryout. He said, "Out of town? We were in Poughkeepsie." Doesn't that sound like an old Vaudeville punchline? After the Poughkeepsie run (seriously!), but before Broadway, he got cast in the La Jolla production of
Jersey Boys
. He said he was originally supposed to be Bob Crewe, but then they wanted to keep it historically accurate and keep the character white. I asked Tituss about the crazy high note he does in "Oh, What a Night," and he said that, in rehearsal for that number, he was on the side of the stage with the rest of the cast, and he was pretending to smoke a cigarette. Des McAnuff walked over, and Tituss thought he was in trouble. Des said, "Wouldn't it be funny if Tituss came onstage and offered up a joint?" The music director, Ron Melrose, asked if Tituss could sing something sassy while he did it, and that's how Tituss got his solo. Hmph. Whenever I joke around offstage, I always get a stern look from the ASM and then hear a loud "focus up" from the stage manager. Where's my high solo? Come to think of it, where's my high range? I think my money note has topped at middle C.

Tituss left
Jersey Boys
after just a few weeks in La Jolla to do
Good Vibrations
, and I asked if the producers had a fit. Turns out, they were the same producers! Speaking of
Good Vibrations,
does anyone remember the beach ball finale? The cast would hit them all over the stage as well as into the audience. I remember writing the Easter Bonnet Competition opening a few years ago, and there was a section in rhyme, talking about new shows: "
Good Vibrations
is such fun!/You'll have a ball, or be hit by one."

When he tried out for
The Little Mermaid
, Tituss sang
Under the Sea
fairly straight, but on the first day of rehearsal they had a read-thru. It was the whole cast, the producers, the music team with composer Alan Menken, etc… The cast was about to read through the script and were told that they could sing if they knew the song. Tituss decided that he wanted to use that moment to show everybody how he wanted to sing the song, AKA with some added notes and sass. In the film version, it's sung straight and there are a lot of camera cuts that sass everything up. Tituss felt that since there's no camera to cut away to shots, he could add that same excitement with his interpretation. He sang it, reworking some melodies on the spot and taking other things up the octave. When he finished, he was nervous he'd be busted for changing the way it's always been done, but everybody applauded. Yay! He got permission to sing it his way! Now, however, it's one of those "be careful what you wish for" things because every night before the number he's a nervous wreck because it's so difficult to sing. What's easy in a read-thru ain't so easy eight times a week!