By Seth Rudetsky
26 May 2009

On Thursday at the Chatterbox, I interviewed Steve Rosen, who plays Benny Southstreet in Guys and Dolls and is one of the co-founders of Don't Quit your Night Job. You can watch all of those star-studded videos at www.dontquitnyc.com. Steve began his early life as an actor because his parents sent him to French Woods: a sleep-away theatre camp when he was seven! Seven! I'm too scared to go to sleep-away camp now. That's like having the mean kids at school around all day long, instead of getting to escape them at 3 PM. But then again, who are the mean kids at theatre camp? Elaine Stritch? Anyhoo, the first part he was cast in was as one of the children in The King and I. I guess the adult roles went to a 12-year-old. Steve said he was supposed to run out onstage in his costume which was essentially a grass skirt, kneel and then run off. Well, when he got up, his skirt got caught and wound up coming off, so he was standing in his underwear. He didn't run off the stage crying, but instead started doing a dance, becoming a seven-year-old version of a vaudevillian/Catskills entertainer. I asked him if he auditioned for anything while he was studying at NYU, and he said that he went in for Forbidden Broadway. Steve is so funny, and I told him he must have been hilarious at his audition. I asked him to tell me his audition song, knowing it must have been a brava. Steve said that he sang "Willkommen." I waited to hear the punch line. I finally asked him what his spin was on the song. Did he do it as four different Broadway stars? Did he change the lyrics to be about the musicals that were running at the time. No, turns out, he sang it as is. Suffice it to say, I wasn't the only one miffed by his choice. After he sang it at the audition, the director asked him to do it again…but make it funny. He didn't. That reminds me, I do volunteer shows for Lifebeat, which means that I bring singers to hospitalized patients with AIDS. For many years, I worked in the prison ward of a hospital where all the patients were prisoners. One week I promised them a couple of belters and a great comic singer. Cut to: The show began, and everyone was doing their best songs, and a certain actor whose name I won't reveal sang his big comic song. Halfway through the show, one of the prisoners raised his hand and innocently asked, "When do we get to hear the funny song?" Ouch. Then followed a quandary: Do I say, "Um….you've actually heard the funny song" or do I lie and say, "He couldn't be here this week."

Steve had a friend from camp named Mona, who worked for Tara Rubin Casting. She got him a job as a reader for the national tour of The Producers, which means that when actors come in and have to read a scene, Steve read all the other roles. He said it was amazing getting to act out all of these great scenes in front of Susan Stroman and Mel Brooks and getting to play opposite all of these actors that he'd only seen onstage. That led to him being the reader for the Spamalot auditions. At that point, he had already been cast as the role of Joe Pesci in Jersey Boys, which was just about to begin its out-of-town try out in La Jolla. At his first day reading for Spamalot, he was thrilled that he made Mike Nichols laugh a few times, and at the end of the day Mike walked up to him and told him that he was funny! After a few days, Tara told Steve to sing a song so Mike could hear him. That night, he got a hysterical phone call from Mona: "You are about to get a call from your agent because they're going to offer you Spamalot!!" His agent called and told Steve that he was offered ensemble but a while later, someone dropped out and Steve was moved up to Sir Bedevere. His role wasn't very big and when they were in Chicago, Steve was told that the one song he was featured in ("Burn Her") was being cut. He didn't have a diva fit, but his face/attitude made it known that he was devastated/angry etc... While he was in his dressing room, Michael McGrath came in and told him that he felt bad the song was cut, but Steve needed to do some damage control. Michael said that Steve's actions showed that he felt the size of his role onstage was more important than making sure the show was good. Michael indicated that if he didn't, he could be fired! PS, I was having a total anxiety attack hearing this story. Steve was mortified and apologized to everybody in the cast and then was told that Mike Nichols wanted to meet with him an hour before rehearsal. Steve was positive he was going to be fired, but instead Mike Nichols told him that Michael McGrath gave him great advice, and it's a good thing he apologized or things might not have turned out so well (my anxiety attack tripled at this point). Mike Nichols told Steve that his job from now on was "not to be funny." (Sounds like a job for my hospital-singing friend). Nichols said that Steve was there to set everybody else up to be funny. It sounds horrible, but Steve said that having that kind of role was actually a great learning experience in how comedy works. Another thing about Mike Nichols is that he doesn't like people to do the same comedy bits every night. After a while he wants you to get rid of your signature bits or, as he calls it, "kill your babies." It prevents the show from becoming stale and leads to finding new bits. New bits? Hmm…all I can say is "Brava," "A-mahzing" and "Anyhoo."

Okay, this week I start rehearsals for my second time doing the musical version of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, now entitled Radio Girl. I've been told that my part was expanded…aka from six lines to seven. And, this weekend I fly down to Charlotte, NC, to do my Deconstructing Broadway show and an audition Master Class at the Northwest School of the Arts. Get tickets at (704) 293-4423 or go to http://sethrudetsky.com/blog/see-me-live/ for deets. 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.)

Wesley Taylor, Lauren Molina, Mitchell Jarvis and Seth Rudetsky
photo by Robb Johnston

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