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ONSTAGE & BACKSTAGE: Sittin' Playin' Piano — With Andrea McArdle
By Seth Rudetsky
26 Jun 2007
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Andrea McArdle
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| photo by Aubrey Reuben | Andrea McArdle sings "Maybe." David Hyde Pierce muses about Spamalot. Alysha Umphress astounds — and not just because of her name.
Anyhoo, the week began with Annie rehearsal. Here's the deal. A few years ago, I had Andrea McArdle at the Chatterbox. Usually at the end of the show, I ask my guest to sing something. Well, I've heard Andrea sing "Tomorrow" live before, but I'd never heard her sing "Maybe." Why had I never heard her sing it? Well, when I was growing up, my mother was notorious for getting me tickets for all the shows I wanted to see….right after the original cast had left. Why see Andrea McArdle, when you can see Shelley Bruce? Why see Patti LuPone in Evita when you can see Patti's replacement? Actually, why stop there? Why not see the replacement's matinee cover? Now we're talking! Didn't my mother understand that I listened to those albums every day of my childhood and I wanted to hear Patti belt the "I'm their Savior!" modulation in "Rainbow High" and Andrea vibrato the last syllable on "together forever" in "I Don't Need Anything But You." But, alas, it was not to be. The only cool replacements I saw during my childhood Broadway forays were in Pippin. Priscilla Lopez as Fastrada and Betty Buckley as Catherine. But unfortunately I was six, so I fell asleep right after "…leave your fields to flower."
Anyway, I asked Andrea to sing "Maybe" at the end of the Chatterbox and she said she hadn't sung it since she did her last performance as Annie 25 years before. I looked at her with a "your point being?" expression and started playing the vamp. Of course, she sounded amazing. It made me realize that I wanted, nay, needed to hear her sing the whole score. I thought, why not do a special version of the show with her as Annie? I pitched the idea to Gregg Kaminsky from the Rosie Family cruise and it's actually gonna happen the last night on the boat! I got Harvey Evans to play Daddy Warbucks and Rosie to be Miss Hannigan. Who says you can't go home again? I'll finally heal those wounds from March 1978 and forgive Andrea for leaving the show. I'll even forgive Martin Charnin for not making one of the orphans a boy so I could have gone to an Annie cattle call, a right of passage for all high belting girls in the '70s. I will not forgive my mother, however. Why didn't she post something on TalkinBroadway to see when Andrea's last show was? What? It didn't exist in 1978? Well, what about Broadway World?
So, this week I started work on Annie and Andrea and I got together to go over keys. It was so thrilling to play the melody of "It's the Hard Knock life for us, it's the hard knock life for us" and hear her sing "'stead of treated!" She's still got it!
Thursday, I had David Hyde Pierce at the Chatterbox. He's hilarious. But after every funny comment, total blank face-ness. He's dryer than whatever Texan town Audra and John Cullum live in. He said he grew up obsessed with Monty Python and it was super weird doing the first reading of Spamalot because he was doing Eric Idle next to Eric Idle. He said he knew the show could be a blockbuster, but was nervous about his big number. He thought it would either be hilarious or get the show boycotted by B'nai B'rith. He remembers singing the phrase "you won't succeed on Broadway…" and then nervously singing "…if you don't have any Jews." The line got a big fat laugh and David knew the show was gonna be a hit. Ironically, the show closed out of town and never made it to Broadway. I mean, swept the Tonys. Continued...
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