By Seth Rudetsky
29 Oct 2007

We then segued to Bye, Bye Birdie.The creative team was interested in her for the role of Rosie, and she told her agent that she would listen to the score, be polite and then her agent would say, "We'll think about it." It was the "play it cool" approach, so there'd be room to negotiate. Well, as soon as she heard the first act, she jumped and said, "I have to do this musical!" And by "cool," she meant "obsessed," By the way, so many great Chita stories are in the brilliant book "Supporting Player" by Richard Seff. He was her agent (and Ethel Merman's and Rex Harrison's and introduced Kander to Ebb etc…). It's an amazing read!

She also said Paul Lynde was hilarious. Mean sometimes, but hilarious. He played Mr. MacAfee and originally only had 13 lines. "But then Gower put that kid in front of him (the son, Randolph MacAfee), and the ad libs started flowing! Lee Adams just started adding them to the script!" She loved working with Dick Van Dyke so much, and they just did an Actors Fund benefit out in L.A. They did the song "Rosie," and Chita got tears in her eyes talking about how she told him how lucky they are to have done what they love to do...and to still be doing it so many years later. On that note, she said that when she and Shirley MacLaine did a benefit together recently, they began by looking at each other across the stage and screaming with glee, "We're alive!!!!"

She mentioned doing some choreography with her back to the audience and, when I balked at a star turning upstage, she said that was an incredibly powerful position. She would come up the elevator at the beginning of "All That Jazz" in Chicago with her back to the house and then slowly turn around. She said she remembers doing it one night and when she turned, two guys in the front row freaked out yelling, "Oh, my God! That's Chita Rivera!"

After more than 50 years in the business, of course, she's finally retiring. NOT AT ALL!! Her next project is at The Signature Theater, starring in Kander and Ebb's The Visit. Brava, theatre royalty!

	Seth in the front row.

Now, let's discuss my lack of professionalism. One night at The Ritz last week, Patrick Kerr walked by me onstage and whispered "You're in the audience." Huh? I had to remain onstage for a while in a group scene so I couldn't question him, but then Brooks Ashmanskas whispered, "You're in the first row." There were a bunch of cute guys in the center front seats, but I couldn't figure out who was supposed to be me. The dark-haired muscle guy? The geeky, but super-hot hunk? How flattering! Then Brooks softly said, "Front row, house right, last seat." I looked past the cute Chelsea boys and let my eyes settle on an older white-haired woman, dressed completely in black with orthopedic shoes aka the opening outfit I wear as the aging Italian Grandmother. She captured my look so completely we could have toured in Side Show. I was at first mortified and then thought it was hilarious and did my signature turn-upstage-to-laugh routine. And, if my stage manager is reading this, I did that new move because my character thought of something very funny at that moment. I guess "Sheldon" thinks that seeing a man threatened by a mob hit man with a gun is a laugh riot. Note to self: Investigate how many times you need to be written up before you can be fired.

Finally, on Sunday night, my boyfriend James and his seven-year old daughter Juli and I saw The Drowsy Chaperone. Bob Saget is the new Man in Chair, and he was great! During the first scene he talks of the plot of The Drowsy Chaperone and mentions a "gay wedding." Juli looked at us excited and said, "Gay wedding?!" Then Bob Saget explained what "gay" meant in the twenties. Later on, during the song where Janet sings "I Put a Monkey On a Pedestal," Julie asked me what a pedestal was. I told James that I love that she doesn't know what a pedestal is, but she knows what a gay wedding is! We're raising her with an open mind!

Okay, this week is a salon for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Lea Michele, John Gallagher, Jr. and Jonathan Groff on my TV Chatterbox show (Channel 56, Tuesdays at 12:30 PM), and I'm also going with Juli's class to the Bronx Zoo. Peace out!

(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 is titled "Broadway Nights.")

Chita Rivera and Seth Rudetsky at the Chatterbox.
photo by Christie Ford

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