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ONSTAGE & BACKSTAGE: "Bravas" for Kristin and Matthew
By Seth Rudetsky
14 Apr 2008
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Matthew Broderick and Seth Rudetsky.
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| photo by Christie Ford | Hi! This week began for me at The Zipper Theater where I saw my old stand-up comedy compatriot, Britt Swenson.
Britt and I not only did stand-up together in the past, but like me, she's played in many-a Broadway pit. The difference is she's a violinist and I play the piano. As a matter of fact, for a while she was my violin teacher but then she moved to LA. I'm not saying it was my devastating violin playing that made her flee across the country, but you do the math. After she studied and performed with The Groundlings (the L.A. improv group), she moved to Colorado. She brought her one-woman show, So Many Ladies, to the Zipper, and the audience ate it up. One of my favorite characters was a substitute teacher that began class with, "I have a wicked hangover, so don't push me." She also angrily tells the class, "Teacher means talker." I was literally laughing more than anyone in the theatre at that sketch. I'm sure it can't be related to the fact that I haven't emotionally moved on from high school where I hated most of my teachers. Take a gander at the highlights of Britt's show at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQTlOfbuMgI.
I've spent the last week in rehearsal for Broadway 101, which is the show I'm doing for the Actors Fund tonight (April 14)! I posted some great rehearsal footage of me and Jonathan Groff, Andrea McArdle and Andrea Burns, Julia Murney and Norm Lewis…and my amazing full orchestra! (go to www.sethrudetsky.com to watch). Julia's singing "Buenos Aires" in the show, which is appropriate because this summer she's playing Evita in Sacramento!
This week Kristin Chenoweth did a benefit to help find a cure for ACD, which is a terrible fatal disease that affects babies like SIDS. (For more info on ACD, go to 3AngelsFund.org.) NiCole Robinson, whom Kristin worked with on "The West Wing," lost a baby to ACD and asked if Kristin would help. Of course, Kristin said yes right away and gave a solo concert (with the amazing Andrew Lippa at the piano) on Saturday. Celebrities always have riders in their contracts for stuff they need in their dressing rooms. Apparently, Kristin was a total diva and requested...cranberry juice. She also hilariously referred to her portrayal of Marian in the film of "The Music Man" as having received "mediocre acclaim" and also said that she hasn't been singing lately so doing the concert was like crack for her. Thankfully, James' seven-year-old daughter was there, and I've always felt that the sooner she learns about Kristin's crack addiction, the better. When I was interviewing Kristin on my SIRIUS radio show about the benefit, I brought up Thoroughly Modern Millie. Did you know that Kristin was cast as Miss Dorothy in one of the workshops of the show and then bumped up to the role of Millie! But before it came to Broadway, she got her own TV show so she had to drop out. Then the keys got dropped so Sutton could belt it all. Then Kristin's TV show got dropped after a few episodes. And before that all happened, I was the music director of the early Millie workshop and afterwards I got dropped.
Speaking of dropping, the good news is that Kristin's TV show "Pushing Daisies" was renewed. The bad news is, she had to drop out of doing Candide in London. So, if any of you were planning on flying the Concord to go see her, cancel your tickets ASAP. That's right, I'm stuck in the seventies and still think people fly the Concord, or shall I say the SST. Does anyone remember it being called that? Quick, look it up on Netscape. That's right, I'm also stuck in the late nineties.
I also interviewed the hi-larious Matthew Broderick. Matthew grew up in the Village and I was immediately jealous. Listen to the difference:
PERSON # 1: I grew up on Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue.
PERSON # 2: I grew up on Rosedale Road on Long Island.
Who would you rather hang out with? The only thing that paid off for me is that it helped my supposed drag name. There's a theory that your drag name is your childhood pet plus the name of your street, so mine is Shoshana Rosedale. I love it because it indicated the high riffing of Shoshana Bean mixed with the hotness of Gwen Stefani's husband, Gavin Rossdale. By the time I got to Oberlin College, I hated being from Long Island and whenever anyone asked me where I was from, I would say with Manhattan-like attitude "New York." Which was true…New York State, that is. If someone would follow up the question with "Where in New York?," I'd go into immediate vocal rest.
Matthew still lives in the Village, and I asked him if he ever thinks about moving to the suburbs. He said that it might be lonely out there…and imagined himself spending his time saying, "Hey…look at that tree. It's coming in nicely...look at that tree." When he was a little kid, he got a library card and wrote as his profession "actor," but it wasn't until he was in high school that he really thought about it. Right after high school, he got the lead in a movie opposite Sally Field! It was called "No Small Affair," and two weeks into shooting he showed up and they told him that the director was ill and that he should stay in his trailer till they needed him. Hours went by, and they said they told him to go home and that they'd call the next day. A week later his agent called and said, "Are you sitting down? It's over." They canceled the whole movie! He said he was in a full depression having to go back to auditioning after just having a lead in a film. It also makes you sound like a crazy person.
"OK, number 53…any recent jobs?"
"I just did a film opposite Sally Field!"
"Wow! When does it come out?"
"Um…never."
"OK. And that's when we'll offer you this job."
A year passed and Matthew was finally offered his next job: the Off-Broadway version of Torch Song Trilogy. He played the son that Harvey Fierstein adopts in Act Three, and at that point the show lasted five hours! Wow! That's the length of three Xanadus! Or one of Jackie Hoffman's ad libs. Since the show was so long, he didn't have to get to the theatre 'til Act Two began, but of course, he would wait 'til the last minute to arrive. And, it was the kind of theatre where he could only get backstage by walking through the audience then across the stage. He was supposed to arrive during intermission, but he said he would often time it "dangerously," and one time the lights were literally going down to begin Act Two and Matthew flew across the stage in the dark as Harvey was getting set onstage to begin the act. Matthew remembers hearing Harvey laugh and ask, in the dark, (à la Harvey), "Is that my son?" The producers, though, didn't laugh and said they were going to fine Matthew for getting there so late. But, Matthew said, since they weren't getting paid, it didn't matter!
Matthew said that although there weren't a lot of people coming to the show at first, they all stayed to the end. And, then when the show got great reviews, Harvey cut it down a tad, and people were flocking. Matthew's dressing roommate was every gay man's dream dressing roommate….Estelle Getty! How fun is that?! I would have asked her for non-stop Sicily stories. Oh, wait…she's not really Sophia in real life? Thanks for devastating me. Matthew said that Estelle wasn't friendly at first because she really liked the boy who played the part before Matthew did.
ME: How did you know?
HIM: She told me.
Ouch on the directness. She would actually haul out the old "He did it like this." Maybe Matthew should have threatened her with "the home," à la Bea Arthur — although he'd have to drop his voice an octave, get taller and figure out where camera three is so he can stare at it.
Matthew tried out for the Broadway production of Brighton Beach Memoirs and the director, Herb Ross, handed him another script at the audition. It was the film "Max Dugan Returns." Matthew wound up trying out for both at the same time. On his way out of the theatre, the casting agent told him that he got both parts! Can you imagine? Getting a feature film and a Broadway show at the same moment? I asked Matthew if that's ever happened to anybody else and he said simply, "No." He then said he thought it would always be like that. I asked him if it was and again he said simply, "No." Continued...
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