By Seth Rudetsky
24 Sep 2007
Anyhoo, after Les Miz, Lea got Ragtime, starting out of town in Toronto. She played the daughter of the immigrant played by the talented Peter Friedman. I asked her how annoying it was to be silent the whole show except for saying "My father speaks for both of us." She said she didn't mind. Then, I confronted her and asked that if her father spoke for both of them, how come she sings up a storm in the opening number. She said that she never thought of that. Maybe her father speaks for both of them, but she belts by herself.
She started working on Spring Awakening when she was 14! Before you go into shock, that wasn't like when we were 14 (when Alf was big) — it was only a couple of years ago. The cool thing is, she's been playing the role ever since the beginning of the formation of the show. The uncool thing is, she's had to audition every time another production happened! Before the Off-Broadway production, she was getting emails from her "friends" saying they were trying out for her role! She called the director (Michael Mayer) and told him that she still looked young enough and that she wanted to come in and audition…and, of course, she got it. I asked her about bearing her breast onstage, and she said that when the show was Off-Broadway, she got a handwritten note in her dressing room from Michael Mayer saying, "I think you should show your breast at the end of the act." Hello? Where's the build up? Where's the: "Tell me if you're comfortable with this" … "I know this may be shocking"… "Not since Janet Jackson," etc…. She said she ran into Jonathan Groff backstage before the show, and I asked if he was carrying a photocopy of the same note with the word "breast" scratched out and replaced with "butt."
Also, this week my Chatterbox is on TV again. It's Tuesdays at 12:30 in the afternoon on channel 56 and if you're not in NYC, you can watch it on mnn.org. But for some reason, instead of listing the title as "Seth's Broadway Chatterbox," they've been calling it "Let the Music do the Talking." Is that a spin on "My father speaks for both of us?" My guest this week is Kristin Chenoweth, and she's hi-larious. Speaking of hilarious, [title of show] is now doing episodes on youtube. Yay! It's like when the British "The Office" did another episode after their final one. A delicious treat you didn't expect.
Last weekend was my boyfriend's daughter's birthday. Juli turned seven, so we took her to Gazillion Bubble Show. If you haven't seen it, it's essentially a woman named Ana Yang onstage doing all these amazing things with bubbles and lights. I wouldn't say her character had much of a "journey," but it was totally super cool to watch. She chose some kid audience volunteers to come onstage, and Juli kept being not picked. I could tell Juli was disappointed, but I was thinking that it's important that she learn how to deal with that feeling. Then, Ana asked for an adult couple to come onstage, and when James and I weren't picked, I realized that it's important for me to learn how to deal with that feeling. I was in a rage, but it subsided after the show when we all took a picture inside a bubble.
All right, I'm off to do a photo shoot with the cast and Terrence McNally for Genre magazine! Hopefully, they'll spell my name right. (R-I-S-E-T-H)
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(Seth Rudetsky is the host of "Seth's Big Fat Broadway" on SIRIUS Satellite Radio and the author of "The Q Guide to Broadway." He has played piano in the orchestras of 15 Broadway musicals, and he can be contacted by visiting www.sethsbroadwaychatterbox.com. His first novel, "Broadway Nights," is due in the fall.)
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| Lea Michele and Seth Rudetsky at the Chatterbox.
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