By Seth Rudetsky
30 Apr 2007

Friday I saw Legally Blonde. First of all, shout out to Laura Bell Bundy for singing and dancing up a storm and doing it eight shows a week. I was winded from watching her by the "I want" song. Secondly, yay Orfeh! I was so obsessed with her in Saturday Night Fever. Whenever I played in the pit, I always turned my earphones way up whenever she was lending her signature riffs to "Jive Talking." Yes, I played keyboard for the song "Jive Talking." We all need rent money. Thirdly, so proud to see Jerry Mitchell graduate to directing. We used to create the production numbers on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" years back and I was always miffed that, after assisting Michael Bennett and Jerome Robbins, he hadn't yet directed a Broadway show. Finally! And lastly, brava to Kate Shindle. Because of my obsession with high belting, she told me that she hits some crazy notes in the show. I was psyched waiting for it and heard her belt some delicious E flats in Act Two. I was duly impressed, but I had heard her belt even higher before (an F) when she'd sing "See What I Wanna See" in various benefits. Suddenly, near the end of the song, she hit an E Flat, started sliding up and had the chutzpah to land on an A flat! And hold it! With vibrato! Unbelievable!

Saturday, I did Don't Quit Your Night Job, which is an improv show that has guests from Broadway during each performance. I hauled out my Barbra Streisand/Bea Arthur chestnut and prayed the audience hadn't seen it on youtube. The cast was so talented, and backstage they were going over the rules of improv before the show. One of the signature rules is to "yes and…" Meaning, if someone says, "There's a big monster," you shouldn't deny it, you should say "I see it! And it's wearing a wig and breathing fire!" That reminded of an incident during the run of the 1994 revival of Grease! Megan Mullally, who played Marty, was out and her understudy was on. Normally, Marty puts on a pair of glasses and then Jessie Stone (Frenchy) says, "Hey, Marty! I hear you got new glasses." Marty would follow with, "Yeah, do they make me look smarter?," and Rizzo would sass her with "Nah, we can still see your face."

Well, the understudy forgot to bring the glasses onstage, and everyone was in a tizzy leading up to that moment. How could it work without the glasses? Jessie whispered, "I'll handle it," and smartly changed the line to "Hey, Marty. I hear you're going to get new glasses!" To which the understudy replied, "No!"

Silence.

No one knew what to do. Finally, Heather Stokes, who was Jan and in a full panic, said the only line that came into her head, which was supposed to happen two pages later in the dialogue. Because of that, everything that was supposed to happen during those two pages was skipped, including Sonny's (Carlos Lopez) entrance, so "Summer Nights" suddenly began and he was still offstage. Carlos heard the music and thought, "Aren't I in this number? I guess I should awkwardly walk onstage for no reason and join in." I'm not saying that Tony voters were there that night, but you'll remember that Carousel won Best Revival that year.

Suffice it to say, Megan came back and eventually won two Emmy Awards.

All right, this week I'm one of the judges in the Mr. Broadway pageant, and I'm then going to Albany for lobbying day! I love long car rides because I can blast all my favorite CDs — Closer Than Ever, Ain't Misbehavin' and Evita(with Patti! How dare you even ask!)

See 'ya next week and 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." He has played piano in the orchestras of 15 Broadway musicals and his show, Seth's Broadway 101, will be presented April 16. He can be contacted by visiting www.sethsbroadwaychatterbox.com.)