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My summer traveling officially begins this week. Starting Thursday I'll be in Provincetown at The Art House doing my Deconstructing Broadway show which I'm calling Seth's Big Fat Broadway. It sounds new, but it's really just the exact same show with a different title. Just like "Buffy" and "Charmed." This weekend begins my Broadway At The Art House series. First guest: Jackie Hoffman. I went to The Addams Family's theatre to rehearse with her, and her stuff is, as usual, hilarious. She has a song that anyone who rides the subway will identify with. The main part goes "Stop making out in front of me/You trash skank boy and girl/Stop making out in front of me,/You're both gonna make me hurl."
If you missed my Playbill Obsessed! video with her, take [AUDIO-LEFT]a gander! And come see us in P-town!
On Monday I flew down to North Carolina to do a master class and my show at Lauren Kennedy's theatre in Raleigh. I had such a great time and the audience was super savvy. They totally knew Eve Plumb's big TV movie in the mid-70's was "Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway." Brava '70s knowledge! Because I was in such a travel rush, I didn't have time to write about the Tony Awards last week. First of all, brava for having such a Broadway-themed show, instead of a "Broadway isn't important, so let's bring on the vaguely-related pop/movie stars and let them awkwardly perform" show. Neil Patrick Harris is a great host. I was trying to describe why he's funny, and Christine Pedi said that he's so good at being charmingly wry and sarcastic. That made me remember when I was in an elevator with him and his partner David Burtka, and we were talking about kids. James (my partner) mentioned that he wanted another kid and the subject of in-vitro fertilization came up. I laughed and said it was so crazily expensive and who had thousands of dollars to spend on it?? Neil softly responded/sang: "I do." His honesty was refreshing, hilarious…and devastating.
photo by Joan Marcus |
photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN |
I was excited for my friend Stephen Oremus, who won the Tony for orchestration and is yet again involved with the hottest show on Broadway. If you recall, back in 2004, he was also the music director for Avenue Q and Wicked. That's like living in the 1970s and getting to date Paul Newman and Robert Redford. What's hilarious to me is that he and Julia Murney still call me "Asssss." Why? It all started because years ago, literally in 2000, I was walking by Cosi on Broadway and 76th. Julia was sitting at an outside table with my friend Gordon Greenberg. Gordon introduced me to her and told me she was an amazing belter (something I later found out to be true). After we chatted for a while, I left and Julia claims I looked at her and slowly said, "Bye, asssssss." She was miffed…and obsessed. She immediately told her good friend Stephen Oremus and that's become my permanent nickname all of these years. Of course, she left out the part that I have a bad diction and I make up nicknames for people based on parts of words. What happened was, I thought Julia was sassy, so I actually said, "Bye, Sass…", but she refuses to give up the nickname I never asked for. And, to this day, whenever I run into to either one of them, I accept their "asssss."
On Sunday, James, Juli and I went out to our signature restaurant in the village that we always go to on Father's Day. The wait for the food was only an hour. Don't get me started. Then we went bowling and here's a good lesson for parents: You know how there are now bumpers for kids when they bowl? It's essentially a wall that comes up and prevents a ball from ever going in the gutter. In my day, we just bowled. Well, Juli asked (and by "asked" I mean "begged") to use the bumpers and we told her she had to try to bowl without them. We said if she went three turns without getting any pins, she could use the bumpers. She complained but tried it without the bumpers, and by the third game she got a spare and a strike! She beat James! That's right! She wanted the easy way and we made her try. That do-it-yourself/pioneer attitude lasted until we got out of Chelsea Piers and I realized we'd have to walk a few blocks to the subway. Who has the energy? Taxi!
On that note, peace out and come visit Provincetown! (Seth Rudetsky has played piano in the pits of many Broadway shows including Ragtime, Grease and The Phantom of the Opera. He was the artistic producer/conductor for the first five Actors Fund concerts including Dreamgirls and Hair, which were both recorded. As a performer, he appeared on Broadway in The Ritz and on TV in "All My Children," "Law and Order C.I." and on MTV's "Made" and "Legally Blonde: The Search for the Next Elle Woods." He has written the books "The Q Guide to Broadway" and "Broadway Nights," which was recorded as an audio book on Audible.com. He is currently the afternoon Broadway host on Sirius/XM radio and tours the country doing his comedy show, "Deconstructing Broadway." He can be contacted at his website SethRudetsky.com, where he has posted many video deconstructions.)