By Seth Rudetsky
22 Sep 2008
Thursday was the big press conference, and we had Bebe Neuwirth and Brenda Braxton. I asked Bebe about her childhood and, turns out, she started out as a ballerina. But when she was 13 she saw Ben Vereen in Pippin on Broadway and suddenly knew she was going to grow up and do that style of choreography… aka Fosse. What's amazing is that her first Tony Award was for the Fosse show Sweet Charity…and it was presented to her by Ben Vereen! Clytemnestra? (Didn't she predict the future? It's the one thing I remember from AP English, besides being yelled at daily.) Bebe talked about doing the national tour of A Chorus Line very soon after the show opened on Broadway. She understudied and then took over the role of Sheila. Sheila is the one who is "gonna be 30 real soon…and I'm real glad." And, after the "kids" get a break, she asks if the adults can smoke. When Bebe played the role, she was 19! She's like Jonathan Freeman who said, "I was 40 when I was 10." Bebe said that she had the attitude of Sheila down, but she was so young she still had baby fat. When Michael Bennett came to see the show, he wanted her to start wearing a belt as Sheila because he couldn't see her waist! Then, she took over the role of Cassie! You know, the one who's been in the business forever? The one Zack doesn't want to go back to chorus? I'm sure the audience was like, Go back to chorus? Does he mean high school chorus?
Brenda Braxton, the current Velma in Chicago, joined me after Bebe. I asked her about doing Smokey Joe's Café. Turns out, she didn't have an audition for it originally, but heard they were looking for a "Brenda Braxton type." What the-? Isn't she a "Brenda Braxton type?" She happened to be in the rehearsal building where they were having auditions, and her friend who was working on the show got her in. She got the role and did the entire five-year-run of the show. You may ponder how someone does that without getting bored. If you're Brenda Braxton, you'd answer that query in the beautiful brownstone you own. Next question. I asked her about the morning of the Tony nominations. She said that she was sleeping but kept hearing her answering machine clicking, so she knew something was up. She decided to call her mother to find out if she was nominated, but her mom wasn't home. However, the outgoing message was "You have reached the mother of Tony-nominated Brenda Braxton." Her mom works fast!
Friday, I had Ashley Spencer and Derek Keeling, who play Sandy and Danny in Grease, and that night I went to go see it. That theatre was packed! They both sounded and looked great. Ashley began as a ballet dancer and during the finale she did a crazy high battement and then went right into a split! Brava! I was also impressed by Ace Young from "American Idol." He plays Kenickie, and I thought he had a great stage presence. Apparently, so did everyone else because anytime he did anything (sang, danced, blinked), the audience reacted like Paula Abdul at an open bar.
This week I'm doing Project Shaw for my second time. The show is Caesar and Cleopatra (by George Bernard Shaw), and there are some amazing actors in it including Madeleine Martin, Brian Murray and Daphne Rubin-Vega. I'm going to try not to be intimidated by everyone around and hope that Shaw requires my signatures: bad diction and extensive mugging. Get tickets at ProjectShaw.com.
Finally, If you're in NYC this week, come by the Times Square Information Center on Wednesday at noon to see an interview/performance with some of the kids of Spring Awakening. And, I do mean kids… they're all like 19 (aka perfect for Cassie). 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" 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.sethrudetsky.com.)
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| Bebe Neuwirth and Seth
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| photo by Lindsay Lavin |
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