ONSTAGE & BACKSTAGE: Aziza, Breaker, Russell and Strouse
By Seth Rudetsky
de'Adre Aziza in Passing Strange. photo by Joan Marcus
One week ago tonight was the premiere of the reality show with the longest title in history: "Legally Blonde the Musical : The Search for Elle Woods."
Or, as internet message boards probably refer to it, according to the new, annoying trend: LBTMTSFEW. Please stop making up show-title codes that are more complicated and annoying than Sudoku.
There was a little premiere party thrown for the producer, Amanda Brown Lipitz, at the W Hotel. It was great to see Amanda finally get to see her show on TV. Yes, reality shows are headaches, but I still say brava to Amanda for bringing Broadway to MTV. And, unlike other musical theatre reality shows (here and in Britain), the contestants don't spend each week singing pop songs. You'll only see the Elle candidates auditioning with material from the show — plus, of course, a healthy smattering of the requisite reality-show backstage bitchery. It's hilarious how the editors take something that's not a big deal (this week one of the girls says "too many cooks in the kitchen") and make it scandalous by putting in a close-up of someone looking mildly shocked and then adding the sound of a timpani. Something bland becomes an immediate nail-biter.
During the premiere, within ten minutes of the show being on, my cell phone started ringing. It was Jen Cody. I picked up. "Oh My God. I have to watch every week now. I have so much material." I guess she meant material to bust me on...and I say brava! Bring it! As a matter of fact, I did a whole deconstruction on the first episode, ending with the mortifying close up of me talking to the girls while I was standing in a pageant girl bevel. http://remotecontrol.mtv.com/category/shows/legally-blonde/.
PS, let it buffer first before you watch it, or else all of my comedy is interrupted right on the punch lines, not unlike what happens to me in restaurants. Seriously, whenever I'm out and I'm telling a story, it's always, "And then Laura Bell Bundy looked down and said, 'Legally Blonde ? More like Legally- " "More water, sir ?"
Constantly! And always on the punch line, never on the set up. Anyhoo, I'm very excited for the next episodes, although, full disclosure, I'm not on tonight's episode because it's all about acting, and anybody who saw The Ritz knows I have no right to be on an episode dedicated to that.
On Wednesday I went to a matinee with my mom. I informed her that it was the same theatre where she first took me to see Hair when I was a toddler. I pointed out the seats I remembered sitting in (house left) and felt so moved being in the same theatre where I saw my first show. My mom was mind boggled that I remembered so much, but I reminded her that I've always had a flawless memory…especially for something that meant so much to me. It wasn't until around five minutes later that I realized we were sitting in the Belasco, and Hair played at the Biltmore. I decided to not tell my mother who was sitting with a wistful smile, tinged with yesteryear. Anyhoo, the thing I loved the most about Passing Strange is that my mother loved it. She's 76! Brava on reaching across the generations. As I was leaving the theatre, I heard the tale end of a conversation between the woman in back of me and her friend:
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"I loved what the guy on stage said."
"Which one?"
"The black one."
(Knowingly) "O-o-o-o-oh."
Huh? All the guys in the show are black. At this point, I still can't figure out which woman is the bigger idiot.
On Thursday I interviewed two of the Passing Strange stars, who I thought were fantastic: de'Adre Aziza and Daniel Breaker. Just for symmetry, he told me to call him de'aniel Breaker. They are both super nice, talented and funny. De'Adre told me that after college, she was working as an intern at The Public and wanted to start auditioning for shows at The Public, but they said she couldn't do both, so she quit. Years later , they finally called her in for the reading of Passing Strange . She told me that it was her first reading, first workshop, first out-of-town show and first Broadway show! And, I added, her first Tony nomination! Brava! They were so cute talking about their Tony nominations. Daniel said his parents didn't really know when the Tony nominations happened, so it was a lot of phone calls for days, "Hey, it's us. Were you nominated?" Then the night before the nominations, he couldn't get to sleep 'til 5 AM … and then woke up at 7! Because the Tony nominations were released online first, he read it there…but thought it was a mistake. I thought that was very sweet. De'Adre took her son to school around 7:30 and was too tired to stay up. She got up at 11 and read on Playbill.com that the show got a ton of nominations. She didn't think of herself, though. Then she saw her name, and à la Daniel, kept thinking it was a mistake. She finally called her mother who broke down crying on the phone while at work. Unfortunately, her mom is a teacher, so her students were probably a little traumatized seeing their teacher sobbing on the phone…but that's what school psychiatrists are for.
Friday night, James (BF) and I saw Sunday in the Park With George or as cockney Dot pronounces it, Soonday in the Park With George . I am so obsessed with Jenna Russell. She has so many great comic moments, but they totally seem in the moment and not pre-planned. And, it was so great to see my old Ritz friend David Turner in the role of the German servant and my buddy Anne L. Nathan as the Nurse. They still got it! Backstage, I asked Jenna to regale me and James with another Les Miz story, and she said that in London the Eponine dressing room had a window that was on the exact same level as the top of a double-decker bus. Jenna said that the Eponine would put on her end-of-show death makeup early and have nothing to do. So, she'd stand at the window with her death mask on and when a bus would go by, she'd stare blank-faced, hold out her index finger and slowly do the "come with me" motion. Can you imagine how terrifying it was to be on a fun sightseeing tour and suddenly see a specter beckoning you to the netherworld? Wearing a mic pack?
This week on Sirius radio I interviewed Broadway composer Charles Strouse. As he described his childhood, I kept piping up and saying it was exactly like mine, but upon further reflection, realized they were polar opposites. He's from the cool Upper West Side, I'm from a town on Long Island I couldn't wait to get the hell out of. As a child, he went to PS 87 with Mike Nichols (although they didn't know each other…but ironically, Mike wound up being the big producer of Annie years later), I went to Hewlett High School with a theatre teacher who banned me from doing plays my senior year and said to my face that I'd never make it in theatre. Charles graduated high school early and went to the Eastman School of music when he was just 15. I also graduated early, but only by one year (not impressive), and, yes, I also went to a prestigious music conservatory (Oberlin) but while he was spending his time composing serious music (a la Hindemith, Bartok), I was having unrequited crushes and failing my music history midterm as soon as I got there. Hence, his many Tony Awards, hence my many nights watching from home. Continued...
