Seth's Broadway Diary, Volume 1: Part 2 (23 page)

After the interview, I did a game show segment where people from the audience were contestants and Gerard and Emma played as a team for another audience member. Let me say that they may be on Broadway, but the fact that they are 19 and 17 has limited their knowledge of musical theatre. Ouch. They were clanking, and finally I decided to throw a question I knew they'd know. I played a phrase from
Les Miz
(when the locket crone sings, "Come here my dear… let's see this trinket you wear") and I asked, "Who sings this phrase?" Both Emma and Gerard stared blankly, and then one of the other contestants buzzed. Her answer: Anita. I thought it was so hilariously wrong that I awarded her the winner. I then gave Gerard and Emma a free copy of my book
The Q Guide to Broadway
and begged them to pass it around the cast. After that, they both sang a duet of "Suddenly Seymour" and then performed "I Don't Do Sadness/Blue Wind" from
Spring Awakening
, and I forgave them.

Every month I do a show at Cardinal Cooke Hospital that’s organized by Hearts and Voices. This month I had Alison Bender, Matthew Lutz and Lindsay Lavin (my intern!). Hearts and Voices (now run by Lifebeat) is a great organization that brings music to hospitalized people with AIDS. I've been doing shows for them for around 15 years, and I love it. So many times I've brought singers with me who are in a bad mood about something and by the end of the show, they're so happy. Why? Well, a lot of times, performers lose the joy of singing because it becomes about looking for a job or keeping their job and there's something so nice about performing for people who are there just to enjoy the music. They're not there to deny you a callback because you sound too pop. And what's great is that the patients don't care what's on your résumé, they just care if you connect with them and sound great. They gave the same reaction to my sassy intern as they gave Audra McDonald.

I just realized that I had so many interviews last week, I forgot to write about the wonderful Michele Lee, whom I had at the
Chatterbox
! Her first Broadway show was
Bravo Giovanni
, and her co-star was the opera singer, Cesare Siepi. Michele said that whenever he was playing a scene with her, Cesare would look only at her forehead. Finally, Michele asked him why he said all of his lines while looking at her forehead. He said, "If I looked in your eyes… I'd forget my lines." It sounded charming ‘til I remembered that he was 20 years older than her. She got to replace the role of Rosemary in
How to Succeed in Business
… because the original Rosemary got pregnant with twins. Everyone said that it was going to be difficult to play opposite Robert Morse because he was so unpredictable, but she loved it. Michele said that he'd run all around the stage and change his blocking constantly, but all she mainly had to do was sit in a chair and look on adoringly, which was easy because that's what she was feeling! She remembered filming the movie, but told us that, at the time, Europeans didn't like musicals. So they filmed one version with the songs, and then they'd film the exact same scene again but leave out the music! How the hell would the scene end?

SMITTY: Rosemary, what are you thinking about?

ROSEMARY: How happy I’d be keeping his dinner warm.


SMITTY: Oh. OK, see ya.

ROSEMARY: See ya.


Fade to black

Finally, I brought up
Seesaw
. That's the show that was out-of-town in Detroit and in trouble. They fired the director and brought in Michael Bennett who fired
many
of the cast members, including the lead, Lainie Kazan. Michele got the lead and Ken Howard kept his role as her love interest. She said it was a nightmare for him because he would rehearse an all-new version of the show during the day, but at night he'd have to do the same show, but with the old lines and songs. What a headache. As for Lainie Kazan, Michele said that it was very difficult. They had been friends since they both did
Bravo Giovanni
together and they lived down the hall from one another! After
Seesaw
, they became estranged for many years, and then, ten years ago, they were both at a New Year's Eve party at Lee Grant's house. OK, get that old-school Hollywood image in your head. Michele said that she and Lainie were standing on opposite sides of a buffet table when "Auld Lang Syne" began to play. They both burst into tears and ran to hug each other. Now, they're best friends and, she suddenly remembered, Lainie's coming over to her house this Thursday to watch the vice-presidential debate! It sounded like such a fun girls' night and I wanted to be invited… especially since Michele said they'd be joined by Donna Mills!

This week, I also saw the new Off-Broadway show called
The Marvelous Wonderettes
, which is about a close harmony girl group in the late '50s and then ten years later. I can't wait for the CD because the singing is great. One of my favorite singers, Farah Alvin, is in the show, and she goes from singing crazy high soprano to belting up a storm. A few years ago, I did a salute to Neil Sedaka with the Actors Fund and Farah sang "Solitaire." She totally brought down the house, and Neil thought she was incredible. I put the video on my website! Pay special attention to the final note (an F!), and spot how the camera view gets obscured at the end because the crowd is giving her a standing ovation.

All right, that's it for me. For you fellow Jews out there, it's the New Year… L'shana Tovah! And for you fellow Jewish Broadway lovers, L'Shoshana Bean Tovah Feldshuh!

The Sweet Smell of Success

October 6, 2008

Greetings from Amtrak train 155!

I'm on my way down to Baltimore because I was beckoned by Amanda Brown Lipitz for a fundraiser that consists of the matinee of the
Legally Blonde
national tour followed by a talk back with some of the reality TV show folk. The trip began in a totally bizarre and random way. I got on the train and, of course, immediately hightailed it to the dining car. Annoyingly, it wasn't open yet. I glared and then started walking back to my seat. I passed a man reading a newspaper and, typical of me, glanced down at what he was reading. I'm one of those people on the subway who sit next to you and not only read the page of the book you’re reading, but I also completely bend and contort my body to try to see the cover. If it's a book I like, I always give the ol' "Brava! Great book!" and am usually met with a seat change.

Anyhoo, after I glanced at his paper and started to walk away, he turned and looked over his shoulder at me. I thought he was going to bust me for disturbing his reading, but I didn't scurry away. Instead, I walked back to face the reprimand and, instead of telling me how rude I was, he told me that he recognized me from a video deconstruction I did of Christine Ebersole singing
Grey Gardens
on my website! He then said he was from
Grey Gardens
. He didn't look like anybody in the cast, but he had a beard and was stocky, so I assumed he was a backstage crew member. Instead, I found out he
really
meant he was from
Grey Gardens
. He said, "I'm Jerry… the marble faun!" I couldn't believe it! Jerry is the handyman in the documentary who comes over and helps out the Beale women. He was so sweet and I was super excited to meet him. Wow! Jerry likes my corn!
And
my video! Now I'm constantly scanning all my surrounding Amtrak seats, hoping that on my way to the bathroom, someone will glance at me and say, "I enjoyed your Patti LuPone deconstruction of
Evita
. I'm Juan Perón."

Last weekend I went to the East Side and saw the York Theater's production of
Enter Laughing
. It was so well directed by my friend Stuart Ross, who created
Forever Plaid
and with whom I did countless productions as the onstage pianist/upstager of the actors. The cast was fantastic, including George S. Irving, who was in the original production of
Oklahoma
! In 1944! That's like Jonathan Groff doing a sassy musical in 2072. Josh Grisetti was so charming in the lead (and had a great voice) and, as usual, I loved Janine LaManna. She was
hilarious
in her big torch number, telling us all the requirements that the man she will love
must
have. Essentially, her list includes a nose, a chin and a working respiratory system. Janine told one of my favorite stories in my
Chatterbox
show that I recounted in my book
Broadway Nights
. She was Chita Rivera's standby on the tour of
Kiss of the Spider Woman
even though Chita was known for
never
missing performances. Well, cut to opening night. Janine is relaxing in her hotel room, and she suddenly gets a call: Chita injured herself in the middle of Act One and Janine has to take over ASAP. Janine races out of her room, hails a cab, gives the driver the theatre address and frantically starts putting on her makeup for the show. She tells the driver to step on it because it was an
emergency
! She now realizes how crazy the dichotomy must have looked to the driver as Janine applied eyeliner, lipstick and false eyelashes yet screamed, "
Please
! It's an
emergency
!"

I had three guests at my Wednesday Sirius show. The first was Josh Strickland (he was cutie Tarzan on Broadway), who sang a song from the NYMF show he's starring in called
Play It Cool
. He sounded amazing. His co-star is Sally Mayes, and I told him how Sally and I almost worked together on Broadway. She made her Broadway debut in a show by Cy Coleman called
Welcome to the Club
. David Pogue (who now writes for
The New York
Times
) was the conductor and told me to come watch the piano part in the pit so I could start subbing. I hadn't yet played a Broadway show and was so excited. I showed up the very next show and felt very cool bypassing the lobby entrance and walking straight to the stage door. Unfortunately, it was locked. I jiggled the handle repeatedly and then figured out that I showed up on the show's "dark day" (the day of the week when Broadway shows are closed… in those days, Mondays). Then I remembered that it was Tuesday. Huh? Why was Tuesday a dark day? I soon realized that it was the ultimate dark day. The show had closed and nobody told me. Son of a-!

Josh talked about all of his callbacks for
Tarzan
(16!) and how they involved getting harnessed, climbing to the top of a high-ceilinged rehearsal room and jumping down a gazillion feet holding onto a vine. He said that many people would get called back, climb to the top and then say, "Forget it. I'm out!" After Josh, I had Constantine Rousouli and Marissa Perry, who play Link and Tracy in
Hairspray
. Constantine "fondly" reminisced about doing the non-equity
Hairspray
tour where they traveled by a Greyhound bus that had 45 seats and 40 cast/musician/crew members. I'm sure the bathroom was amazing. He also told me that the wigs in that production were a hazard to wear. Once, during "You Can't Stop the Beat," Penny did her line, "I am now a checkerboard chick" and hugged Tracy. Unfortunately, their wigs also hugged, got stuck together and came off — perhaps leading the Weisslers to produce a
Hairspray
tour starring Yul Brynner and Telly Savalas? We shall see.

Marissa said that she auditioned in New York and got sent to "Tracy Camp." That meant she went up to Canada to learn the role with the Toronto company, but she was told she would never play the role in that company. They just wanted her to really know the role so they could put her in a company later on. It sounds a little passive/aggressive at first; i.e., "Learn this great role in a big production debuting in a fabulous city… and make sure you know that you're
never
going on!" But after she learned it, they did put her in a company…Broadway! So it totally paid off.

On an unrelated note, James and I were walking home Tuesday night when he suddenly looked up and whispered, "Marni Nixon is walking towards us." I, of course, waited 'til she was just past us and then started singing, "I could have dahnced all night…" She stopped in her tracks and turned around. I said, "You were great in the movie," and she smiled and walked away. Some might say "scurried away." Some might even add the modifier "frantically," but my point is, we parted company.

This week, I also interviewed Kelli O'Hara, who's starring as Nellie Forbush in
South Pacific
. Kelli grew up in Oklahoma (like Kristin Chenoweth) and went to Oklahoma City University and majored in opera (like Kristin Chenoweth!). She was essentially following in Kristin's footsteps, and I thought maybe I'd get some great catfight competition story about Kelli moving to New York and confronting Kristin at an audition, but, turns out, Kristin was amazing to Kelli! Kristin got Kelli an audition with her agent, and the agent signed her! Her first big break was the tour and then the Broadway company of
Jekyll and Hyde
as the understudy for Emma, played by the sassy Andrea Rivette. Kelli used that show to learn how to change her way of singing from operatic legit to more Broadway/pop. She then became an understudy in the Broadway revival of
Follies
. She played Young Hattie (Hattie played by Betty Garrett) and then took over the role of Young Phyllis (Phyllis played by Blythe Danner). In the opening scene, Kelli was in charge of leading Joan Roberts to the stage. Joan was the original Laurey in
Oklahoma!
and Kelli played her assistant in the opening scene. But Joan also seemed to think that Kelli was her actual assistant in real life! Kelli said that Joan didn't really know her name and would call out to her at the end of rehearsal, "Hey, you! Go get me a taxi!" Kelli would rush out and hail a cab for the first two weeks of rehearsal until a stage manager told her that she didn't actually have to do that.