By Seth Rudetsky
25 Feb 2008

A few months ago I got an email at Sirius radio from a Mr. Mark Martins who told me that he loves my radio show and owns a bed and breakfast in Vermont. He said that he'd love to have me, James and Juli come and stay for a free vacation. I looked at the website (Www.williamsriverhouse.com) and immediately said Yes! When I told my friend Tim that I was going to vacation in a small town in Vermont with a fan, he asked if I was filming "Misery Part 2" and warned me to avoid being hobbled. Suffice it to say, Kathy Bates was not present, and we had a great time! Vermont was so beautiful and, despite global warming, was covered in snow. We went snow tubing, and unfortunately I didn't know you're supposed to hold on to the sides of the inner tube and wound up putting out my hand to avoid a snow bank and bending back my thumb. I was terrified it was broken, but it was just sprained, and the doctor said to ice it and it would heal. So, ha ha, Tim, I only got half-hobbled.

This week I also had the thrill of interviewing Andrea Martin on my Sirius radio show, and, of course, she was hilarious. She told me that her childhood inspiration to become a performer was Chita Rivera. Her parents had a condo in San Juan, and they would go see Chita perform and Andrea (who's Armenian) thought that if Chita could make it and not be blonde and all-American looking, then so could she. Right after Andrea moved to New York in her early twenties, she got her Equity card playing Lucy in the Canadian tour of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (fyi, Judy Kaye played the role in the American tour). Andrea stayed in Canada and decided to try out for the Toronto production of Godspell. She thought she was right for it because, although she didn't consider herself a great singer or even actress, she knew the main requirement for the show was personality. She got up to sing and belted the song "Somebody" from Celebration. After 20 measures she got the dreaded "thank you" and was not asked to stay for the call back. She said that perhaps she tried too hard…and by "perhaps," she means she was pushing more than a mother whose baby has crowned. Andrea was traumatized and felt that if she couldn't get Godspell, then she had no hope for ever getting a show. She started a daily depressive regimen of eating large quantities of donuts and then going to the gym to work it off and sit in the steam room. One day, while literally in the steam room, she got paged for a phone call. It was Eugene Levy, who had recently starred opposite her in the film "Cannibal Girls" (seriously…directed by Ivan Reitman). He said that the woman that was cast to sing "Day By Day" was being let go and that there was going to be a big party that night. He told Andrea to show up and be as funny as she could be. She did… and got the gig. And, listen to some of this cast: Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Paul Shaffer as music director and Victor Garber as Jesus and Gilda Radner singing "Learn Your Lessons Well." Andrea said that Gilda auditioned skipping around the stage singing "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah." Can you imagine all that brilliance in one cast? Andrea then joined Toronto Second City after a lot of the first cast left to start "Saturday Night Live." They then created "SCTV" as a Canadian version of "SNL." I grew up watching that show every Friday night with my friends Kenny, Sheira, Leora and Eric. I asked her about the origin of some of her characters. She said that Edith Prickley was developed at the Second City improv show. Cast members would bring in old clothes to be used to create on-the-spot characters. Andrea was told by the audience to be a mother of a delinquent and quickly put on Catherine O'Hara's mother's leopard coat and hat. She walked in and said, "Hello, Dear! I'm…" Catherine said, "Mrs. Prickley?" And Andrea said, "That's right, dear. Edith Prickley."

Andrea based Libby Wolfson on a real talk-show host in Canada who was always discussing women's issues. I'm obsessed with the episode where Libby stars in the feminist musical I'm Getting My Own Head, Screwing It on Right, and No Guy's Gonna Tell Me That It Ain't! Libby is completely insecure and always smelling her armpits asking, "Is there a cat in here? I'm smelling some male cat urination." Then, she'll blow into her own hand, sniff it and say, "No. You know what, it's Tabouli. I had Middle Eastern food for lunch." Libby is always completely obsessed with weight loss and whenever a doctor is on and will be discussing a medication who's side effect is diarrhea, she'll interrupt with "I'd kill for diarrhea." Watch some episodes in youtube…hilarious.

Andrea didn't get to Broadway until the early nineties with My Favorite Year and remembers giving an awful audition for it initially, and asking to come back a second time. She said the same thing happened with the "Hedwig" movie. She really wanted to play Hedwig's agent, Phyllis Stein. She read with John Cameron Mitchell (who wrote and directed it) and told him in the middle of the audition that she knew she wasn't nailing it. She asked him if she could go back to L.A, work with her acting coach and fly back on her own dime to try one more time in a week. He said yes, and she got it! She wants actors out there to do that if they feel they're not performing at their best. Take control of the situation. But she also wanted to caution that she's asked casting people if she can come back and then been equally terrible, so it doesn't always work out!

My Favorite Year closed in the winter, and months later when she was in L.A., Andrea found out she was nominated for a Tony! She didn't really know anything about the Tony Awards and hadn't been thinking about it. Now, of course, she says she does non-stop obsessing about it. She won the Tony Award, and a few years later was offered the role of "The Old Lady" in Candide. I remember her telling me back then when she got it that she had played the part in her twenties and it was cute…but now that she actually is an old lady…not so cute. Of course, fyi, anyone who's seen her on the street knows that she always looks amazing. She wanted to play Aunt Eller in Oklahoma! but found that it was very difficult to get anybody to consider her for roles that weren't sketch-like. Also, the Aunt Eller that Trevor Nunn used in London is much taller than Andrea. But she campaigned, auditioned up a storm, got the role and a Tony nomination! After that she played the Cat in the Hat in the workshops of Seussical. When it came time to take it to Broadway, she couldn't decide what to do because her son was in his senior year of high school in California, and she'd miss most of it by being in New York. She knew he'd want her to come see him do sports and his jazz ensemble, etc. She was incredibly torn until she spoke to her agents (Richie Jackson and Gary Gersh at Innovative Artists) who, as opposed to agents that are obsessed with how much money a client can make, asked her, "Would you rather be remembered as a good Cat in the Hat or a good mother?" Brava! Even though she loved that show, and especially its score, she turned down the role. Now, thankfully, she's back on Broadway in Young Frankenstein and is as brilliant as ever.

And, now, finally, here's the reason I'm surrounded by so many ladies as I type this. I got a gig on the new reality series about Legally Blonde! It's been very exciting to film so far, but let me remind all at-home viewers that the camera adds ten pounds . . . and my trip to Vermont added 20. Peace out til next week!

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

"Mark and his partner Geoff hobbling me!"

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