By Seth Rudetsky
Attention tele-prompters! I am now in a panic to memorize Rhapsody in Seth, which I have to do next week for the first time in years. Trying to learn that show again is bringing back memories of what it was like when it ran at the Actors Playhouse in the Village. I remember one time when I got up to the section of how kids in my junior high school would say my name when they wanted to make fun of me for being gay. It was essentially a sing-song "Se-eth." I would then tell the audience that it was always those notes and ask, "Why does adding that melody to someone's name make them gay?" I'd follow that by asking a woman in the front row her name; let's say it's "Susan," then I'd sing-song "Su-san" and say, "Now, you're a gay man! How does it feel?" Anyhoo, that particular performance, I asked a random woman in the front her name and she said, in a crazy Hungarian accent, "Ursheviad." Of course, I had to keep going so I sing-song'd "Ursheviad," said "Now you're a gay man," and the joke clanked because the audience was completely thrown by her name, accent and my version of both. For the whole rest of that show I was thinking, "Why did I have to pick the one woman in the whole audience with a cra-za-zy name?" After the show, I was collecting money for BC/EFA and the woman approached. I looked closer and realized that I actually knew her. She was an older woman who took piano lessons with my boyfriend. She smiled at me and said, with no accent whatsoever, except perhaps one from the Upper West Side, "Sorry! I was thrown when you asked me my name, so I said the first one I could think of." What? Why was "Ursheviad" the first name she could think of???? Why not Janet? Or Linda? Or her actual name, Barbara?!?!?!
Anyhoo, I'm doing Rhapsody in Seth next Monday, October 11 at the Triad (under the title Seth's Big Fat Broadway Show, info/tix at www.triadnyc.com) and then Thursday-Saturday in Red Deer, Canada. (info/tix at http://ignitiontheatre.ca/rhapsodyinseth.html).
And, finally, I also just got a really fun job! Sony Masterworks Broadway has a ton of Broadway CDs, and they hired me to do a deconstruction each week! I've already put two "in the can" as we say, and they start this Wednesday! It's very exciting because they actually have a real cameraman there and a sound person to edit, so the production values are so much better than my kitchen with a laptop. The Sony press release is here: http://www.masterworksbroadway.com/news/seth-rudetsky-joins-masterworksbroadwaycom. And, don't forget to watch the video I just did with Mandy Gonzales. Not only do we re-create a song from the short-lived Dance of the Vampires, but I force her to take the end of Wicked's "I'm Not That Girl" up two octaves. It's about time! http://www.playbill.com/multimedia/video/4367.html Have a great (finally feels like the) beginning of fall!
04 Oct 2010
Seth Rudetsky
Seth Rudetsky has played piano in the pits of many Broadway shows including Ragtime, Grease and The Phantom of the Opera. He was the artistic producer/conductor for the first five Actors Fund concerts including Dreamgirls and Hair, which were both recorded. As a performer, he appeared on Broadway in The Ritz and on TV in "All My Children," "Law and Order C.I." and on MTV's "Made" and "Legally Blonde: The Search for the Next Elle Woods." He has written the books "The Q Guide to Broadway" and "Broadway Nights," which was recorded as an audio book on Audible.com. He is currently the afternoon Broadway host on Sirius/XM radio and tours the country doing his comedy show, "Deconstructing Broadway." He can be contacted at his website SethRudetsky.com, where he has posted many video deconstructions.)
