By Seth Rudetsky
12 Oct 2009

	Julie Andrews in Putting It Together

The most hilarious Julie Andrews story was recounted by both Chris and Michael. She has a house in Switzerland and that's where the creative team of Putting It Together went to talk to her about being a part of the show. She agreed to do it and the next morning took one of her exercise walks around the mountains that bordered her house. Julie hadn't been on a New York stage in 35 years and she thought that she'd better start getting her voice in shape. She was vocalizing and singing different songs from her past and decided to test her soprano by singing something from The Sound of Music. She began the song while nearing the peak of a mountain and right when she got to "The Hills are alive…with the sound of music" she was coming down the other side of the mountain. Well, that moment coincided with an entirely filled tour bus coming down the road! Julie was horrified that a bunch of tourists saw her literally coming over the Swiss Alps while singing, "The hills are alive with the sound of music." Julie said their faces had the subtext of "How sad. She still thinks she's still in The Sound of Music. Poor Julie Andrews."

Last Monday, I went to a fantastic benefit for an organization called Broadway in South Africa featuring the belting of Deborah Cox, Kate Shindle and Shoshana Bean. My friend Frankie Grande is one of the founders of it and what they do is bring Broadway performers to South Africa and give kids a theatre intensive program. The stories the Broadway performers/teachers told about their last trip were amazing. There's still a lot of prejudice and ignorance in South Africa and, at first, certain kids wouldn't sit next to other kids from different townships. But by the end when they had to say goodbye, those same kids were crying and hugging each other. Then they showed a video of the dance class taught by Frankie and I was mortified to admit these kids who just started taking dance four days before looked better than I did in my fourth year of "Modern Dance 3" at Oberlin. Check out the videos on their fabulous website: BroadwayInSouthAfrica.org.

I also went to see Superior Donuts with my mom and loved it. It was literally one of those "it made you laugh, it made you cry"-type shows and the actors were excellent.

Annoyingly, we're still looking for an apartment. I was excited to see a four bedroom advertised that I could afford and when I went to see it, there were actually just two bedrooms and then a large downstairs. I asked the broker why it was advertised falsely and he said, "Well, it used to be a four bedroom." I'd had it. I glared and said, "AND I USED TO BE 20!" and stormed out.

And finally, on Nov. 2, I'm performing in the Only Make Believe benefit I do every year. The exciting news is that it's the tenth anniversary benefit this year and it's going to be on Broadway at the Shubert Theater with appearances by Jude Law, Alan Cumming, Nellie McKay, the cast of Hair and Memphis and I'm going to do a section from Broadway 101! I put together a Broadway quiz that can win you two $100 tickets! Go to www.sethrudetsky.com for the link.

All right, this week I have Rebecca Luker at my "Sirius/XM Live on Broadway" show and I'm seeing Love, Loss and What I Wore. Peace out and get out your fall jackets!

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.