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Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm ruined my diet. There, I said it. I rehearsed Rebecca for a week and last Monday was the reading. Once I showed up I discovered that Kelly Gonda, one of the producers from East of Doheny loves homecooking, so instead of the food spread at the reading being a typical cheese and fruit platter (AKA stuff I'm not interested in), it featured everything I love. Cakes, brownies and, my personal obsession, cookies. I'm obsessed with cookies and I ingested about eight chocolate chip ones over the course of both acts. Then on my way out, I shoved more in my pocket, praying there wasn't an electronic tag attached that would start beeping as I left the rehearsal room.

The reading went great and the audience loved everything...including my broad comedy moments. There's nothing more devastating than doing a bit that gets big laughs in rehearsal and then getting crickets when you finally perform it. What was stressful was that all my comedy moments came near the end of the show so I had to be nervous the whole time, hence the eight cookies.

Henry Krieger was the composer and, as many of you know, I'm obsessed with Dreamgirls. Here's some fun trivia. I had heard that the first song he and Tom Eyen wrote for that show was "One Night Only." They first started talking about the show at a Manhattan diner and Henry wrote stuff down on a napkin. However, I was listening to a CD someone had of the pre-New York tryout of Dreamgirls and it had a totally different song where "One Night Only" normally went. I asked Henry if he really had written "One Night Only" first, or if he wrote it only when the show came to Broadway. Turns out, it was the first Dreamgirls song but it was cut in Boston by Michael Bennett. Why? Because he thought it sounded too Jewish!!!! I know that sounds crazy, but if you listen to it, especially the minor introduction with the oboe, it does have the essence of my Bar Mitzvah. However, people in the cast were so devastated when the song was cut that they begged Michael Bennett to put the song back in. When the ushers joined in with the begging, he knew that "One Night Only" was too good to cut. And now, some Dreamgirls movie trivia. I heard that certain executives didn't want the amazing through-sung fight scene (featuring the memorable "You're lyin', you're lyin', I never been so thin") that leads up to "And I Am Telling You" in the film, so Bill Condon filmed one version with the fight as dialogue and one version with the fight totally sung. Thankfully, the belting triumphed. I listen to that fight scene almost every day at the gym. I actually do a compare and contrast of all three recorded versions (The Broadway, The Actors Fund Concert with Lillias White, Audra MacDonald and Heather Headley, and the film) on my website. Listen to all three Effie's belting the "G" in "For SE-ven years I sung with you…". Brava! (www.SethRudetsky.com).

One of the Wonderettes, Farah Alvin (brilliant singer…check my website for her amazing rendition of "Solitaire"), said that she tried out for a small regional theatre a year ago and the director looked at her resume, and her four Broadway shows and asked her if she was in Actors' Equity. She laughed at his joke. He wasn't joking. She explained that since she had been on Broadway…four times…it meant that she was in the union. She didn't get the gig. What did he think the Broadway credits on her resume were? Shows she'd been called back for?

I also interviewed three of the stars of 13. The role of Evan, the Bar Mitzvah boy, is played by Graham Phillips. I told him that his name did not indicate "Bar Mitzvah" to me, but rather someone at a Country Club who is in charge of keeping it "restricted." He acknowledged that he is indeed not Jewish and I told him that the last time I was this outraged at a casting choice was when Michelle Pfeiffer got the lead in the film version of Frankie and Johnny…. He was blank-faced and I soon realized that the film was made in 1991…two years before he was born. Yowtch. I knew then that I had to throw out the next few bits I had planned featuring riffs on Agnes Moorehead, Erin Moran and Tab. Essentially, my frame of reference had to be limited to The Last Five Years…and not just the show. For my next interview I might as well get a microscopic camera and interview a triple-threat zygote.

The 13 CD is played in my apartment non-stop by Juli so I pretty much know every song. There are some songs on the CD that aren't in the show and I asked Elizbeth Gillies (who plays Lucy has a great voice) what happened to the amazing song "Opportunity." She said that it was her big song and it opened Act Two. Cut to: she showed up at the theatre and the creative staff said that there were some changes…the show is now only one act and "Opportunity" is cut. I asked her if she cried up a storm and she said no. Then I asked if she emotionally shut down instead and informed her that it would serve well as an adult.

I went to go see 13 again last Saturday matinee and, turns out, they only let Graham do six shows a week so he can preserve his voice and perhaps star in 14. The matinee Evan is Corey Snide and from just watching him walk out during the opening number I knew he was an amazing dancer. I checked his credits and saw that he starred in the West End as Billy Elliot. I still got it! I feel like Wicked's Madame Morrible: "…and that's my talent. Recognizing talent." Continued...