By Seth Rudetsky
08 Sep 2008

In the late seventies, he was living in California with the lyricist Carole Bayer Sager. Their next-door neighbor was Neil Simon (how amazing is that?), and Marvin was working with him on turning "The Gingerbread Lady" into a musical. While they would work, Marvin would chitty chat with him about the ups and downs of living with a woman who was also in the songwriting business. One day, Marvin opened his front door and saw a package. It was a script from Neil Simon that he wanted to turn into a musical. Neil had taken the conversations with Marvin about living with Carole and turned them into the characters Vernon and Sonia in They're Playing Our Song. Hopefully, Neil won't take my private conversations with him and turn them into "The Man Who Was Co-dependant With His Mother." Marvin said that one day Neil wrote a scene where Vernon and Sonia are dancing at a discotheque (old-school seventies word). Marvin complained that the scene wasn't realistic because a. he doesn't dance well and b. he'd feel annoyed dancing to someone else's music! However, Marvin said, if one of his songs started playing he'd be like (and then he ran to the piano): "Oh ho they're playing my song/ Oh, yeah, they're playing my song!" And that's how the song was written!

	Seth and Marvin Hamlisch

Marvin told us that he adores Broadway, and that's why he lives in New York. And the reason he does what he does has two answers. One day he was going to rehearse for a Pittsburgh Symphony date with Bernadette Peters. The limo driver asked him, if Marvin originally trained at Juilliard, why did he leave classical music for popular music? Marvin gave him what he thought was a very thorough and proper answer. He talked about the freedom popular music has in form and style and how it can reach so many people etc… He arrived at the concert and met Bernadette Peters onstage. He said that she was in a pair of tight jeans and she had just showered so her hair was still wet, or as he described it, "Everything I've ever wanted…and more." As he gave her a hug, saw her stunning face and felt her wet hair, he told us that he realized, "This is why I'm popular music." Or as I translate it, no one wants to hug a soprano in a Valkyrie helmut.

I'm now back in New York, and the last thing I want to write about is seeing the final performance of Rent. The producers, Jeffrey Seller and Kevin McCollum, invited me. First of all, you had to pick up your tickets in advance. That was the first headache. I'm used to showing up at 8 PM, running to the box-office window and planting it ASAP. I, of course, thought I could beg one of my interns to pick it up for me, but I received an email that we'd have to show ID. And, they said not to show up before or after the matinees because the crowd would be crazy. So, I hauled it down mid-afternoon and got our tickets/party passes. I was told to be there by 6 for a 6:30 show. James and I planned to leave the apartment at 5:30. Of course, we wound up leaving at 6 and rushed down. James had a splitting headache because he didn't have any coffee, so I demanded that he get some caffeine at the Starbucks on 42nd Street (secretly wanting to get an iced latte for myself). James was panicking that we'd be shut out of seeing the show because it was getting so late. The first sign that things weren't so fast-moving was me seeing Randy Graff at the Starbucks, slowly sipping her coffee. "Are you going to Rent?" I asked her. She said she was. "Uh…are we going to be late?" She looked at her watch. "It's 6:20…the show's at 6:30." I glared at James. She sauntered out, and, after we waited breathlessly for five minutes, we got our coffees and ran like lunatics to 41st Street. We ran right into the theatre, waving our tickets at the usher like crazy people. We were told to join the ticket holder line. We walked outside and saw the line. It went down 41st Street…across Broadway…and down 40th Street! Son of a-! I could have gotten a Venti instead of a Grande. The good news is, the cast was amazing.

Special shout-outs to my friend Michael McElroy, who played Collins and sounded gorgeous on the reprise of "I'll Cover You." And Will Chase, who went to my alma mater Oberlin (as a percussion major!), had great star quality…and vibratoed all the top notes! And brava Eden Espinosa and Tracie Thoms for it being the eighth show of the week, yet adding ca-razy high notes to "Take Me Or Leave Me." And, I'm obsessed with Renée Elise Goldsberry! I saw her in Two Gentlemen of Verona and thought she was fantastic. She not only sounded great as Mimi, but she's beautiful and fun-nee! Get that lady a brilliant comedic lead ASAP!

I ran into Lin-Manuel Miranda at the after party at Chelsea Piers and I praised him on the hilarious trailer for his parody "Legally Brown: The Search for the Next Piragua Guy." Hi-la-ri-ous. I have a link at my website (www.SethRudetsky.com). I also hung out with David Saint (artistic director of The George Street Playhouse) who was great friends with Jonathan Larson. He said that he and Jonathan would drive around with Roger Bart (whom the character Roger was named after!) and Jonathan would sing songs from the show and teach them different vocal parts so he could hear how it sounded with three parts. It was very bittersweet for David and for so many others who knew Jonathan to see this performance. It was such a triumph to Jonathan's genius, but also marked the end of this show that was his legacy. However, for any of you that are dying to see this brilliant cast and performance, just remember it's going to be released as a film.

On a shallow note, I'm incredibly proud of the fact that James and I are both on diets and we didn't eat any dessert at the after party! I still got it! (and by "it," I mean love handles…therefore no dessert).

Enjoy the end-of-summer weather and 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" and the novel "Broadway Nights." He has played piano in the orchestras of 15 Broadway musicals and hosts the BC/EFA benefit weekly interview show Seth's Broadway Chatterbox at Don't Tell Mama every Thursday at 6 PM. He can be contacted by visiting www.sethrudetsky.com.)

Seth Rudetsky, Jesse L. Martin and James

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