By Seth Rudetsky
13 Jul 2009

Regardless, Lauren Graham was my Chatterbox guest and is so smart and funny. She grew up doing theatre and singing and told us that she was the high school prom song singer. Of course, looking back, she realizes how inappropriate their theme song, "We've Got Tonight," was for teenagers. She sang, "We've got tonight. Who needs tomorrow? and then added, "Um, actually, you do."

She did lots of theatre as a kid. Her big coup was playing Dolly in her high school production of Hello, Dolly! To this day, she thinks it's her dad's favorite performance of hers. He's constantly bragging to people about how she "got a standing ovation every show." She then reminds him that there were three performances.

Lauren went to college in New York and got her Equity card in summer stock. Of course, summer stock-style, she had the character track, and at age 20 was playing a theatre producer who was 50. In one scene, she was supposed to get stabbed in the back while facing the audience and then sit there, dead, with her eyes open throughout the rest of the scene. Throughout the entire run, she was never able to keep her eyes totally open, and every time she'd finally allow herself a quick blink, there'd be a devastatingly huge laugh from the audience. The Kalamazoo Gazette wrote that Lauren got killed at the end of Act One…and "one wishes it happened sooner." Well, at least she got mentioned.

She hardly got any work after getting her MFA and remembers often asking her commercial agent to borrow $20. Finally, he got her a job as a mascot that walked around a sports arena because it paid well for one day. She mainly got the gig because she was tall and told us that being inside the claustrophobic costume made you slowly go crazy, so there would always be two people switching off. In other words you'd spend a few hours sweating profusely in the suit and then give that sweat-infused outfit to someone else to sweat into. Her job was mainly posing for pictures, and every time she posed with someone for a photo, she put on a big smile. She then realized after a few hours that she was completely ensconced in an enormous animal costume and no one could see her face. AKA, the "slowly going crazy" had begun.

She got an MFA in theatre and moved to L.A. Lauren told us about an audition where she had to play a lawyer in a new TV show and, because she didn't get much information beforehand, she thought it was a drama. Unfortunately, after the audition, she found out it was a sitcom! Fortunately, because she was theatrically trained to play to the back row, she thinks her broad acting made it look like she was doing a comedic performance, and she got the TV show! She described it as a legal comedy where there's an uptight lawyer who plays by the rules and then her, who shows up to court trials in jeans and a leather jacket. Rita Moreno was the hard-boiled judge, and during one scene Rita yelled out, "Stop whining!"…and that line wasn't in the script! Ouch on getting a note from a fellow actor…but when it's from a Oscar/Tony/Grammy/Emmy winner, I guess you should take it. Lauren did, and said that Rita was right.

She said she learned so much from doing Guys and Dolls because she feels it's a special skill to do a show for an audience that doesn't love it. It's one thing to do Billy Elliot, where the crowd is throwing so much love at the stage, but Lauren said it's very different when you're onstage and know that lots of people read the New York Times review and are assuming the show is not good. Once she finally let a lot of her baggage go ("Who do I think I am? I'm from television. I'm playing a role many other actresses would love and I don't deserve to be here") and just played the show without trying to win over the audience, she feels her performance got so much better. I can't wait for her next Broadway show. She has a sassy belt and a great sense of humor. And, apparently, my cell phone number.

All right, I've already done the opening Broadway Belters show on the cruise as well as Cheyenne Jackson's act. Details on these, plus the upcoming cruise shows coming soon! Go to www.SethRudetsky.com for some video footage!

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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.