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ONSTAGE & BACKSTAGE: Kevin, Donna and a Unitard
By Seth Rudetsky
28 Aug 2007
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Kevin Chamberlin
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First, a clarification. The show I'm doing is called The Ritz. Like the cracker. The reason I'm clarifying the name is because I've been congratulated on being cast in The Rink. Three times! Hopefully, people think I'm the young sassy Liza Minnelli role and not the older Chita Rivera track.
Anyhoo, rehearsals began last Monday. It's very exciting starring in my first Broadway play. And by "starring," I mean that on the morning we were scheduled to start dissecting the script, our illustrious director Joe Mantello walked into rehearsal, looked at me and asked, "What are you doing here?" Now that I'm an actor, I guess I can use that moment for a sense memory of "mortification." Yes, people, I showed up by mistake. Apparently, my two lines did not need dissecting. We all laughed…one of us only on the outside.
I actually have been doing non-stop laughing at rehearsal. Turns out, Joe Mantello is so much fun. I first figured that because he was such a bigwig, he would be distant and unfriendly (father issues, anyone?), but instead he's like your best friend at theatre camp. We all spend breaks huddled around a laptop while he shows us his favorite YouTube videos. (Please watch the amazing entrance at the beginning of Tandi Iman Dupree's drag act — unbelievable!)
On Tuesday I got a call from my agent telling me that I had a callback for a commercial. Yes, it was for a department store I never heard of; yes, only on cable; and yes, it was never to run in any big cities, but I wanted it! I asked when it filmed and turns out it was during the three days I was supposed to go on a vacation, so The Ritz wasn't planning on scheduling me at rehearsal! I could do it! Excellent. All I had to do was go in and nail that callback. The first annoying part was that since the role was a piano player in a department store, they told us to wear a tux (to the first audition and the callback). I guess that if we came in wearing a regular outfit, it would be impossible to imagine what we looked like dressed up. Who says TV people have no imagination? Yay! It's fun hauling around a big, hot tuxedo on a subway in August.
The next stressful part was that if I got the commercial, I'd have to leave Thursday night for L.A. and miss the Chatterbox. The callback was on a Tuesday, early afternoon, so I assumed I'd know by the end of the day. No. Now, you know when you go to a commercial callback, you're agreeing to be put "on hold," and you have to keep yourself available on the shoot days until you're told that you're released. Since I'd have to fly to the West Coast on Thursday night, I knew they would make a decision by Wednesday morning.
No.
It was now Wednesday afternoon, and I didn't know whether to book my Chatterbox or not because I didn't want to have some Broadway star agree and then have to ixnay them to film a rickety-rackety cable commercial. My agent called the commercial people and told them my predicament. They said they understood and would notify us as soon as possible. Well, suddenly it's Wednesday at 6 PM, and I'm still on hold for Thursday night through Sunday. Since my agency would be closed overnight, I wouldn't know till Thursday morning. Dare I book someone that last minute? I finally placed an emergency phone call to Kevin Chamberlin late Wednesday night, and he said he'd do the Chatterbox and wouldn't care if I canceled.
Well, as I write this, it's Sunday night, and I still haven't been officially released, so I guess there's a chance I'll have to go back in time and film last Thursday through this morning. Yay. It's fun to be disrespected.
All right, speaking of Kevin, he was such a fun guest. He's one of the few actors who's done Chatterbox three times! He talked about his first Broadway show, which was also my first Broadway show as a piano sub. It was Lincoln Center's short-lived My Favorite Year, which I re-named My Favorite Week. I only got to play it three times, but it was a great piano part. Kevin said that he was so excited to be in it and could not wait for his parents to see him on Broadway. Unfortunately, on opening night he was a little too excited and forgot to put on his suspenders during the big "Manhattan" dance number. He literally spent the whole number knowing his parents were watching him dance with one hand while holding up his pants with the other. He also said that Lainie Kazan had so many electronic appliances in her dressing room that she blew the lights in a hallway of dressing rooms! I wanted to know what she had plugged in, and he speculated multiple curling irons and The Fry Daddy.
He then talked about doing Abe Lincoln in Illinois. Y-A-W-N! Doesn't that title imply the most boring show in the world? "Abe Lincoln" = I'm drowsy, "In Illinois" = and I'm out. It had an enormous cast, and he only appeared at 8:15 and then again at 11:15. He said that on some nights, he would do his first scene then hop on the subway at Lincoln Center and go down to the Village and hang. One night, his friend had a show at the Duplex on Christopher Street at 9 PM, and Kevin was able to do his first scene, take the subway from Lincoln Center to the Village, see his friend's act, congratulate him after, and easily make it back for his last scene. I asked if he was nervous about the subway breaking down, and he said he could have walked and made it back in time.
He also said he loved it when Rosie O'Donnell played The Cat in the Hat during Seussical. She would take questions from the audience, and one night a little kid asked how long Horton the Elephant's trunk was. Rosie told him, "He says it's seven feet but, actually, it's really five." Continued...
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