By Seth Rudetsky
09 Mar 2009

At my Wednesday Sirius/XM Live on Broadway show, I had the lovely Nina Hennessey, who's about to do her act at The Metropolitan Room on March 16 (www.metropolitanroom.com). Nina is one of those rare people who can dance and sing at the same level. She was a ballet dancer in The Washington Ballet and a singer in Les Miz! You usually never see a Les Miz alum at a dance call, and most ballet dancers subscribe to this equation: the thinness of their body = the thinness of their voice. Nina was also in Cats for a few years, but I was mystified when she told me her role: The Opera Cat. Then I remembered taking a delicious nap halfway through Cats and remembered that it was prefaced by someone singing soprano. I quickly moved on to my next guest: John Treacy Egan. John originated the role of the chef ("Les Poissons") in The Little Mermaid and he has a great voice (go to www.JohnTreacyEgan.com for some samples…especially his crazy high Jekyll and Hyde solos). What I find inspiring about his career is that he went to an open call for The Producers. That means that you don't have an audition through an agent. You just show up, sign up and sing 16 bars. He did just that, got called back and fast forward: He was the final Max Bialystock on Broadway! So, for all of you struggling actors: Don't think you have to have an agent to get a big, fat lead on Broadway! Speaking of agents, I asked Will Chase to do my Chatterbox, and he couldn't because "my agents are amazing and I have two TV show auditions today!" Hmm. We have the same agents. And my day was wide open.

Last week at the Chatterbox, I had three cast members from the Off-Broadway hit, Enter Laughing, directed by Stuart Ross, which was just extended at the York Theatre Company. First, I had TV couple, Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry. Michael told me that he went to school with Steven Bochco, and one day Steven called and asked Jill and Michael to make a guest appearance on "Hill Street Blues," which Steven had created. They had to fly themselves out to California (!), but they did it because they thought it would be fun. Little did they know, it was actually their audition for "L.A. Law." Steven called them back after their appearance and said that he was writing a new TV show and wanted to create roles for them. Jill took the call and told him…"No, thank you." (What the-!?!?) She said that she was a theatre actress and wasn't interested in doing a long-running series. Steven then asked her if she would mind if he based the character on her, and she graciously agreed. Once he finished writing the pilot, he sent the script to her as a courtesy and, after she read it, she couldn't resist the role… and Michael and Jill were on the show for eight years! Their favorite episode is the "Venus Butterfly" where Michael talks to a man in jail who has multiple wives. Michael asks the man why none of the wives is angry at him for betraying them and he tells Michael of his special technique: The Venus Butterfly. Later on, we see Michael and Jill in bed after he uses the technique on her. She asks right away if they can do it again and he agrees… by calling room service. It's all left very mysterious on the show, but both Jill and Michael admitted that they know what is and since they've been married for 35 years, it must be working!

Michael told me that he saw Gypsy on Broadway with Ethel Merman (!) but an understudy was on. Of course, I had to know who. I started rattling them off: Alice Playten replaced Baby Louise; Anita Gillette understudied Dainty June; Merle Louise, the original Beggar Woman in Sweeney Todd, was bumped up to June during the run, etc. but Michael couldn't remember. I moved on and started talking to my final guest, Josh Grisetti, who's gotten great reviews for playing the lead in Enter Laughing. He told me that he grew up singing in church and he was Baptist. I was so excited and asked him if was hauling out some sassy gospel when he was a kid, and he said that white Baptist is very different and started demonstrating. Oy. I asked him if the word "nerd" meant anything to him and he said, "Um…the person who was just listing all of the understudies in the original Gypsy is calling me a nerd??" Touche!! For tix to Enter Laughing, go to yorktheatre.org.

Okay, I'm running to a tech rehearsal of my mini-version of Broadway 101 that I'm doing tonight with Andrea Burns, Andrea McArdle, Norm Lewis and Lillias White at Cipriani's. It's a benefit for the National Foundation for Facial Reconstruction, and you can check out the info at NFFR.org. Then, I'm hightailing it to New Orleans to do my deconstruction show and a master class (details at http://sethrudetsky.com/blog/see-me-live/). Peace out!!!

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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.sethrudetsky.com.)