ONSTAGE & BACKSTAGE: Neil Sedaka Talks About His Hits

By Seth Rudetsky
05 Dec 2011

Andrea Martin
Andrea Martin

A week in the life of actor, radio host, music director and writer Seth Rudetsky.

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Greetings from Logan Airport. I just did the Sunday matinee of Andrea Martin's show in Provincetown and I was planning on flying out Monday morning. However, I made the flight plans before I knew I was hosting Gypsy of the Year Dec. 5-6. I decided that it was too nerve-wracking, even for me, to fly to New York on the morning of the event so I decided to try to get a flight home Sunday night. I found one through United that leaves at 8 PM, but I still had to find a way to get from P-town to Boston. This is where "social networking" is fabulous. I went to my Facebook and Twitter account and asked if anyone was driving from P-town to Boston on Sunday. Within minutes, someone from my fan site volunteered! It was so easy. This never would have happened before the internet. I guess I would have had to put a note on the Equity board and told them to call my "service." I would then "call them in the morning, or my service would explain." Pam Myers? Anybody? Nobody.

I told Andrea that I had never met the person picking me up and she texted me frantically during my drive to Boston because she was afraid, she admitted in a text, that I was being driven by Jeffrey Dahmer. I then texted back that my driver, Amy, was a woman over 50 accompanied by her Labrador retriever. Andrea was immensely relieved. And then, of course, I began to think of Stephen King's "Misery." Regardless, she was a great driving companion and I made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. But speaking of Andrea, she's been doing her shows in Canada with another pianist because I told her I didn't want to travel so much this year. At the end of the show in P-town, she introduced me and told the audience, "I could not do this show without Seth." I then gave her an incredulous look and she added, "Although I have…and it's actually gone pretty well." Brava on the honesty.

LuPone and Mandy Patinkin in An Evening With Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin.
photo by Joan Marcus

This week I saw Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin's show on Broadway. They've both completely kept their ranges and Patti's voice especially sounds exactly the same. The next version of The Picture of Dorian Gray should star her larynx. It was so enjoyable to see such solid actors do not just songs, but classic scenes from shows together (they do sections of South Pacific and Carousel). Of course, during the Evita segment I had to hold myself back from crying. The tears were because I was so moved seeing them recreate something I was completely obsessed with when I was a little boy. The tears were also because of unresolved anger toward my mother for relentlessly getting me tickets to a show right after all the original leads had left. Annie, A Chorus Line, Ain't Misbehavin' — no matter what, she waited 'til every contract expired before calling for tickets. Speaking of my mother, I took her to the Patti/Mandy show, and while she was flipping through the Playbill she commented that she couldn't understand why there was a new show starring Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior. I looked over her shoulder and told her that she was looking at an ad for Bloomingdales. The woman next to my mother didn't even try to conceal her laughter.

Mandy mentioned that it was his 59th birthday, and a gaggle of leggy ladies dressed in black came out during the curtain call. They proceeded to sing and dance a sexy version of "Happy Birthday" that obviously took Mandy completely by surprise. They were all adorable. After they ran off, Patti told them to come back and do it again! This time, Mandy joined them in a kick line. Let's just say that when he searches through Backstage, he should skip the "singers who dance" auditions and focus only on those for "singers who move." Regardless, it was a very special thing to witness from the audience and Mandy remarked, "I can't wait to see what happens when I turn 60!"

 Continued...