By Seth Rudetsky
01 Dec 2008
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| Rosie O'Donnell and Liza Minnelli rehearse |
A week in the life of actor, musician and Chatterbox host Seth Rudetsky.
*****
What a week! "Rosie Live," the Rosie O'Donnell variety show, had its ups and downs . . . and by "downs" I mean, it was universally reviled. But it was such an exciting experience! I will give details about the day of the broadcast, but let's start at the top of the week.
Sunday night I got tickets for the opening of White Christmas. Kevin McCollum felt so guilty for not getting me opening-night tickets to In the Heights that he vowed I'd always be invited to his openings. Of course, I immediately abused the privilege and begged for an extra ticket so James and my mom could come. It was a very star-studded event. As soon as I got off the escalator, I ran into Sutton Foster, whom I have not seen forever and she told me that she's loving doing Shrek. Once I sat down, I saw Bobby Lopez and his writing partner/wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez sitting in the row in front of me. James was chatting with them, and afterwards he said that they must know me well because when he mentioned we might move to Brooklyn, they both remarked that I would be even more late than I normally am. I resent their accurate comment. During intermission I heard a high-pitched midwestern twang say, "I know you!" and got a gander at Christine Ebersole pointing at me, looking gorgeous in an all-white outfit. I was, of course, buying coffee at the bar and panicking I was going to trip and stain her ensemble. I asked her how she felt about her upcoming stint in Blithe Spirit, and she said she was thrilled to be performing with Angela Lansbury and Rupert Everett. Before she could elaborate and/or I could permanently destroy her outfit, I skedaddled holding my coffee cradled in my bosom. Then I saw beautiful, blonde Melissa Dye, who played Christine in Phantom when I was subbing there and Sandy when I did Grease! back in the nineties. She went from high soprano to high belting in one theatrical season and I say, Brava!
Melody Hollis plays the little girl in White Christmas and sings a sassy reprise of "Let Me Sing and I'm Happy" and, after she belted it out, I was about to yell my signature, "She's still got it!" during the applause. Then I realized she was ten years old and modified it to, "She just got it."
Wednesday I interviewed the current cast of Altar Boyz: Michael Kadin Craig, Travis Nesbitt, Neil Haskell, Mauricio Perez and Ravi Roth. Ravi (who plays Abraham) told me that right before the end of a recent performance, a big fat fire alarm went off, ŕ la what happened at The Fantasticks mentioned in a previous column. But the cast of The Fantasticks just kept going, whereas everyone evacuated at Altar Boyz. (ps: it was caused by something at Rock of Ages, which is next door). Ravi said everyone (including the audience) went to Starbucks for a half-hour and then came back for the end of the show. It was supposed to be a devastating story, but it sounded fabulous! I have done many shows where I've desperately craved coffee halfway through and had no relief. Note to self: If Les Miz is ever revived again and I'm in the pit, a still-smoldering cigarette aimed at a hair-sprayed wig on a shelf is your ticket to a delicious latte break.
Michael (who plays Matthew) talked about what it's like bringing up a woman from the audience every show when he sings "Something About You." He revealed that, around two weeks ago, a woman out of the blue literally put her hands down his pants! Maybe the woman thought she was at Naked Boys Singing, which is at the same theatre complex? Or maybe she was trying to set off the fire alarm with some hot action. Regardless, I'm glad Michael mistook me for a woman that night. Anybody?
I went to go see Altar Boyz on Saturday night, and it's still in great shape. The cast is really tight, and I can't believe how much dancing they do while still sounding amazing. I was laughing to myself about a line reading Tyler Maynard changed once when he was "experimenting" (i.e. bored and wanted to sass things up). In the show, Abraham writes lyrics to a song, and when he shows them to Mark (originally played by Tyler), Mark says, "This is first-rate work!" However, one night for fun, Tyler said the same words but added RuPaul sassafras to the end of the line by changing the punctuation. He looked at the new lyrics and said, "This is first rate. Work!" Brava! Continued...
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