By Seth Rudetsky
19 Nov 2007

Even though BC/EFA is losing a tremendous amount of money due to the strike, the good news is that The Ritz is working super hard to fund raise due to the amazing leadership of our stage manager, Tripp Phillips. Tripp was the stage manager for The Jersey Boys national tour last year — that was the first national tour to actually win the Easter Bonnet fundraising over all the Broadway shows! Brava! Anyhoo, many nights we not only collect money in buckets, sell autographed posters/programs and the "Carols for a Cure" CD, but we also auction items. Young hunk Justin Clynes and ex-porn star Ryan Idol have been auctioning off their towels (seriously! Once for $700!) and the dedicated Rosie Perez also auctions off her earrings. One night, however, someone said they'd pay $2,000 for her bra! She literally wriggled out of it onstage, autographed and forked it over!

After the show one night, I was collecting, and a woman approached me and said that she had seen the original production. I asked her how she liked this one, and she said that the time period was not consistent with today. "I mean," she shook her head, "I saw the Pan Am bag that the lead carries." I looked at her, confused. "Well, it takes place in the seventies." Pause. "Oh…I didn't know that." What? The stage is filled with seventies pantsuits, afros and disco music. The whole bows are choreographed to Donna Summer's "Last Dance." Maybe we should be more presentational and have a character stand center stage and say, "I love living in the 1970's. One day it will be 2007, but not for many more years."

My sister came in from Virginia to see The Ritz, and she was telling the woman next to her that I was in the show. The woman looked in the program and asked, "So…he plays Us?" Nancy was confused until she looked down and saw my credit (Sheldon Farnethold, u/s Chris). She politely explained the u/s means understudy. My questions are: 1. Why is u/s the only "character" she focused on when there are two proper names surrounding it? 2. Who spells "us" with a slash in the middle? 3. How can I play a pronoun?

Saturday night my BF (James) and I went to see Chita Rivera's late-night show at Feinstein's. Apparently we also traveled back in time because she looked and sounded faboo. The good news for theatre fans is that she does some of her classic songs including "Kiss of the Spider Woman," "A Boy Like That" and (for you Rink fans) "Chief Cook and Bottle Washer"! I have to say though that the most thrilling moment for me was watching her do "All That Jazz." I was obsessed with Chicago as a child, and it was the first show that I knew by heart and then saw on Broadway. She was such an important part of what made me love Broadway, and to see her so brilliantly do the song I saw her do 31 years ago had me full out crying in the audience.

Speaking of which, Sunday night I had my book release party/show/Actors Fund benefit for my new novel "Broadway Nights." I read scenes with the brilliant cast of [title of show], the hi-larious Mary Testa and the comic genius, Andrea Martin. I literally had to stop myself from crying because I grew up obsessively watching SCTV every Friday night, and to be standing onstage reading a scene with my comedy idol was such a dream come true. Heidi Blickenstaff sang the song "A Way Back to Then" from [title of show], which is about recapturing the joy and hope you had as a kid obsessed with theatre, and the song references little-girl-Heidi listening to Andrea McArdle on the record player. Well, Andrea was one of the performers at my book event, so Heidi got to sing it in front of her which was obviously so moving to Heidi. Then, after the chapter in my book where the lead character sees Annie and decides to ixnay opera and become Broadway obsessed, Andrea McArdle got up to sing. She thought she was gonna do "Everybody Says Don't" but realized she wasn't when I started playing the vamp to "Maybe." Sorry! I needed to make Heidi's dream come true, and it was amazing to watch Heidi weeping while Andrea sang.

This week James, his daughter Juli, James' mom and I are going over to my mom's house for Thanksgiving. I've already asked William Ivey Long if he can upgrade my Ritz robe to an extra-fat. Bring on the stuffing!

(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 he can be contacted by visiting www.sethsbroadwaychatterbox.com. His first novel is titled "Broadway Nights.")

Laura Osnes, Seth Rudetsky and Max Crumm at Seth's Chatterbox.

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