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ONSTAGE & BACKSTAGE: Brian, Lea and Bubbles
By Seth Rudetsky
24 Sep 2007
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Seth ("note my crazy 70's hair"), James and Juli caught in a bubble.
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I just finished the second week of previews for The Ritz. It's so fun!
I have a little feature that's at the end of Act Two, so it gives me something to look forward to during the whole show, besides acting out with food. I'm the king of eating a healthy Zone Bar before the show, and then by intermission scavenging in the wig room for Twix Bars.
Off Topic (as they say on the message boards): I got an email that I was so proud of deciphering. Some man asked me about a song I played on Sirius. He said, "It was about a guy who didn't want to get married, but his friends said it was okay, and there was something about a chair." I got a splitting headache 'til I realized he meant "Being Alive." Why are those the only references he remembered? How about the words "Being Alive" which are repeated a thousand times!!
Speaking of Sirius, I interviewed Brian d'Arcy James, and I busted him on the pretentious three names, but he said he had to add the d'Arcy because there was another Brian James in Equity. Hmm… it's one thing to add a middle name, but a middle name with an apostrophe? That's pushing it. Actually, he said he first tried to just use an initial, but since his middle name is spelled d'Arcy, it was Brian d. James and even he knew that only e.e. cummings could get away with that.
Brian's first big job was in the revival of Carousel, where he understudied Eddie Korbich. Even though he was in the ensemble, he managed to get out of dancing because his character always needed to run into the onstage fish shack whenever a number began. Hmm…maybe Britney should have visited the onstage fish shack during last weeks VMAs.
We talked about Harmony, the musical by Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman. Brian had the lead, and I was the vocal arranger. You may be shocked to know that I do vocal arrangements, but I think you'll be more shocked to know Brian's character name was Rabbi. I guess Alfred Molina wasn't available. We both thought the show has a ton of potential — great story and score. It's about an actual close harmony group called The Comedian Harmonists who were German but internationally known in the thirties. They were disbanded by the Nazis because there were Jewish members in the group and faded into obscurity.
I first worked on it at the La Jolla Playhouse back in '97, and it finally came here a few years later to get ready for a Broadway production. We rehearsed up a storm and were preparing to leave for our out-of-town tryout in Philadelphia. The day before the whole cast was leaving, they announced that it was all canceled. The producer didn't really have the money he said he did and, essentially, that was it. The show was totally blocked, ready to go, and, suddenly, everything was off! And, people had sublet their apartments, and it was all over before it began. The cool thing is, the guys who played the Harmonists got to perform with Barry in his concerts across the U.S., and they're on his DVD doing two songs from the show.
At the Chatterbox, I had Lea Michele, another name I had to bust. I've never heard a more obvious first and middle name since Ann-Margret. I asked her if her last name was Fleishberger or Schwartzbaum, and she 'fessed up it was tres Jewish. I don't know why people don't keep their real last names. Rudetsky is beautiful. Anybody? Nobody.
Lea said she got into theatre because when she was eight, her friend was auditioning for Young Cosette in Les Miz and needed Lea's parents to take her to the city from Jersey. Since Lea was there, she auditioned, too… and got it. I was mind boggled that her friend didn't realize this whole scenario was doomed from the start. The same thing happened when Vicki Clark brought Ted Sperling to play for her Sunday in the Park audition in the eighties, and he got a pit pianist job and she was ixnayed. Didn't they know it was right out of the opening scene of "Fame" when LeRoy "helps out" his friend auditioning for the Performing Arts High School? Keep those LeRoys away from your auditions or pay the consequences: a scene with you cursing while walking down the stairs.
Lea got to play Young Cosette, Young Eponine and understudy Gavroche. I wish I got to do drag as an eight year old. Also, what happens when one of the little girls goes on for Gavroche? After the barricade shoot-out scene, does someone discover Gavroche's body and scream, "Sacre bleu! He's a she!" Billy Tipton style? (Does anyone remember him/her? The trumpeter who was married with kids but was really a woman? Too obscure?) Continued...
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