ONSTAGE & BACKSTAGE: Gypsy, The Ritz and P-Town

By Seth Rudetsky
30 Jul 2007

Laura Benanti and Patti LuPone in Gypsy.
Laura Benanti and Patti LuPone in Gypsy.
Photo by Joan Marcus

Greetings from Provincetown, or as it's also called, P-town (tip o' the hat to Urinetown?). I'm here because a gay parenting organization called "Family Pride" and the Rosie cruise people are running Family Week. There's a circus night, a Luau, great lectures and I'm doing my deconstructing show on Thursday at the Provincetown Playhouse.

Speaking of deconstructing, people are always writing to me and saying that they watched my "Deconstructing Barbra Streisand" on youtube (which makes me happy), but I still don't know whether Barbra has seen it. I assume she logs on at least once a day (FannyBrice1@yahoo? MainEvent@ Mac? EstherHoffmanHoward@Verizon?) and immediately Googles herself and I'm dying to know whether my clip with her and Bea Arthur has come up on her screen. I'm gonna assume it hasn't since I'm not writing this from court.

All right, let's go back a week. Last Sunday night I saw Frost/Nixon. My boyfriend and I sat right behind Charles Busch director Carl Andres in the upper right box seats and we all felt like a combination of Glenn Close from "Les Liasons Dangereuses," Raoul from Phantom and the "Let's go flying" guest star spot from Will Rogers Follies. By the way, the night I saw Will Rogers, the guest star was David Dinkins. and the star was Marla Maples. I'm still devastated that they both got into Equity before I did.

After seeing Frost/Nixon, all I dream about is being a swinger in the '70s. I don't even smoke, but all I want to do is book a flight on TWA or Pan Am and light up a Newport. The performance was an Actors Fund Special Performance and if you don't know what that is, it's an added ninth show where the all the ticket money goes to the Actors Fund of America. It's on a dark night for most shows, so the audience is filled with Broadway performers. They're always so exciting because, even though they take place in the middle of a run, having all those Gypsies in the audience gives the actors so much energy it's like seeing an Opening Night performance.

Monday night I played piano in the pit of Phantom and had one of my signature debacles. During "The Music of the Night," I was counting the measures I had to rest until I played, and suddenly the bass player in front of me turned around and scared me because she was wearing a crazy mask that covered three quarters of her face. Musicians are often trying to lighten up the repetition of playing in a pit by doing something "wacky," so I assumed she was trying to parallel the Phantom's mask with her own version. I sort of laughed and was still counting measures and noticed that she refused to turn around. I sort of indicated that I got her Phantom mask reference by covering my face with my hand and pointing to her mask. Still, she continued playing while facing me. Finally, I looked beyond her and saw the conductor also looking at me. I suddenly realized that we were at the bridge of the song and I hadn't yet played note one. I later found out that the bass player was wearing the mask because she doesn't want to breathe in the Phantom fog that flows down from the stage. Turns out, I had miscounted and missed my first cue and she turned around to try to get me to play. Unfortunately, because she was wearing a mask, I couldn't hear what she was saying, which was essentially, "PLAY!" So the whole time I was supposed to be playing my beautiful piano arpeggios, the conductor was watching me stare at the bass player and imitate the Phantom's mask by putting my hand over my face. For therapeutic reasons, I recreated the whole thing on my video blog (www.sethsbroadwaychatterbox.com). Not to worry, I'm sure I'll be at Phantom again…in the audience.

Wednesday I saw Gypsy. First of all, it was phenomenal to hear that delicious Overture with a full Broadway orchestra! Nowadays, the overture is often when people read their Playbills and chat up their neighbors. But because it was an actual full orchestra, and not four synthesizers with a drummer, the audience was riveted. The difference in sound changes the whole attitude of the crowd. I actually saw a harp player! I thought they had been outlawed from Broadway in '97.

 Continued...