By Seth Rudetsky
04 Aug 2008

At the Chatterbox, I interviewed three former contestants from the Legally Blonde reality show: Autumn Hurlbert, Celina Carvajal and Lauren Zakrin. We discussed the mortifying Autumn throwing-up episode. As I stated before, the show tried to make it look like Autumn couldn't take the judges' criticism and that's what made her sick, but in reality, it was yogurt that had been left out all day, put in the fridge and then put out again. I told her that I couldn't believe they followed her into the bathroom and filmed her throwing up in the stall, but she said that the shot of her legs in the stall was a fake! They actually got a producer to crouch in the stall over a toilet and hoped the audience would think it was Autumn's gams. Tricky! Lauren said that she was actually relieved when they ixnayed her from the competition because the whole thing was such a difficult experience. So, when they did her farewell interview, she was totally at peace throughout it. Of course, that looked too boring for TV, so they began to ask her questions about missing her family, etc. (she's 18) and when she finally started crying, then re-asked her the same questions they had asked before — she gave the same answers, but this time she had tears in her eyes. Why couldn't they have tried that tactic on me before my Coen Brothers movie audition?!?! Celina "regaled" us with the horrifying story that happened to her during Cats. She was still a teenager on tour with the show and was promoted from swing to the role of Demeter. To celebrate, she got fake nails put on. While she was onstage, she had to grab the hands of another dancer and wound up pulling off two of her fake nails…andthe real ones underneath!!!!!!! BUT she kept going with the show! What is it with dancers being able to endure crazy pain!? Hmm…although the audience for Cats has to endure that endless opera scene on the boat in the second half of the show… so I guess both performer and audience members can push their pain threshold to the limit during that show.

On Sirius, I interviewed Peter Gallagher, who is one of the nicest guys I've ever worked with (he was Nicky Arnstein in my Actors Fund version of Funny Girl) and one of the cutest! He grew up in Yonkers, and his first high school musical was The Pajama Game with Babe played by his classmate… Laura Branigan! He was so intimidated by her that he couldn't get any sound out during his one little solo. The theatre teacher made someone else sing it with him because he sounded so timid. His solo became a unison duet. Then, while still in high school, he saw his first Broadway show, which was Hello, Dolly! starring Pearl Bailey, and in the chorus was…Morgan Freeman! Ironically, Morgan was just starring with him in The Country Girl! As they say, "what goes around comes around." Actually, that saying makes no sense in this case. How about a new one: "What was in the audience is then onstage….with ensemble members graduating to leads." It's sorta catchy, isn't it? Silence.

Peter majored in economics but finally after doing summer stock and loving it and realizing that economics is as interesting as that opera scene in Cats, he decided to pursue theatre and gave himself six years to make it. He remembers going to the open call for Grease in 1977 and being number two-thousand- and-something. They asked for something from the fifties, and he sang "Put Your Head on My Shoulder." The late, sweet Vinnie Liff was the casting director, and after Peter sang, he looked up and said, "That was beautiful." Peter said that his knees buckled, his eyes filled with tears and he thought "Thank you God. That's all I need to keep going for the next six years." He wound up not having to test his resolve, because he then tried out for the Hair revival and got called back six times along with a bunch of newcomers: Ellen Foley, Charlayne Woodard and Annie Golden! He finally got the offer to be the understudy for Claude and to be a singer/dancer in the ensemble. After a few days of rehearsal, he was still the understudy for Claude, but the slash was removed and he was just a singer. Peter told me that he comes from a long line of coal miners (seriously!), not dancers.

He also sang the solo in "Electric Blues" …in a sequined unitard. I was horrified at that image, but was immediately interested again when he informed me that he took it all off for the nude scene. Nude scene? Now we're talking. I know cameras existed in the seventies, so please forward all photos to www.SethRudetsky.com. While Hair was in previews, he got offered the role of Danny Zuko in the bus and truck of Grease. He told Vinnie Liff that he already had a job on Broadway and Vinnie asked him if he had ever seen the country. Peter thought about how fun that would be, and about how he had never played a lead. He finally approached the director, Tom O'Horgan, and asked if he could leave to do Danny Zuko. Tom looked at him and said, "You want to go on the road? In a bus and truck? And leave a Broadway show? Before it's even opened?" Peter responded with a resounding, "Yes!" He told me that none of it would have happened if he had an agent at the time. The agent would have told him not to take Grease, or the agent would have asked the Hair people and been told no way. But because Peter asked himself, Tom listened and said he'd speak to the "guys" (Galt MacDermott, Michael Butler and Jim Rado), who all said it was fine. Tom then offered him a chance to go on for Claude, and Peter said no way. They had never rehearsed the understudies, and he thought he would die of a heart attack if he had to go on. He wound up doing Grease on the road and then on Broadway. PS, Broadway's Greaseat one time also sported Richard Gere as an understudy! Walter Bobbie (the original Roger) told me that even when Richard went on for the nerd (Eugene) he got crazy fan letters. S-E-X-Y.

Peter then got cast as the young lover in A Doll's Life, (the musical version of A Doll's House) where, at one point, he had to play a little phrase on the violin in a scene. He practiced and practiced and when he finally tried it out during rehearsal, he realized practice didn't make perfect. Right after Peter played, the conductor, Paul Gemignani, snatched the bow out of his hand and left the room. He returned and gave the bow back to Peter who tried the phrase again and this time produced the soothing sound of silence. Paul had put soap on the bow, so Peter could mime playing and not ruin the show. Ironically, the show wound up being one of the biggest flops on Broadway, so Peter could have played his screechy solo, and it probably wouldn't have made the run any shorter (one weekend).

Peter's back in LA, but hopefully he'll come back to Broadway soon in a musical. Till then, you can hear his sultry voice on his solo CD: http://www.amazon.com/7-Days-Memphis-Peter-Gallagher/dp/B000BHNLXA.

All right everyone, I'm signing off. I'm gearing up for my big Obama benefit that's coming up Aug. 11: (e-mail sparesomechangenyc@gmail.com. for tickets). Hopefully, I'll return next week, writing to you from my new apartment with my new slender fingers madly typing on my iPhone. If not, I'll see you omtahe!

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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" and the novel "Broadway Nights." He has played piano in the orchestras of 15 Broadway musicals and hosts the BC/EFA benefit weekly interview show Seth's Broadway Chatterbox at Don't Tell Mama every Thursday at 6 PM. He can be contacted by visiting www.sethsbroadwaychatterbox.com.)

"Broadway Artist Alliance kids with me and Laura Benanti acting 'wacky.'"

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