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ONSTAGE & BACKSTAGE: [title of column]
By Seth Rudetsky
07 Jul 2008
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Seth and James on two of the four chairs used in [title of show].
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A week in the life of actor, musician and Chatterbox host Seth Rudetsky.
*****
Hi, everyone! I just woke up from a nap. No, not the kind of rejuvenating "power nap" that corporate people take to focus their minds. I'm talking about a full night's sleep that morphed into a devastating three-and-a-half-hour disempowered nap.
James and I literally went to bed at 2 AM and woke up at 5:30! What the-?!?!?! It's because we are now on a plane headed down to Dallas, and the only flight we could get left at 7:40 A.M. Our Texas jaunt is on account of I'm going to be performing with Betty Buckley at her all-Broadway request show at Lyric Stage in Dallas, as well as giving an audition master class (info at ye olde website, SethRudetsky.com). Oh yeah, today is also James' birthday! The good part is he gets to go to Dallas where he's from; the bad part is the lack of sleep is making us both look a year older.
All right, let me give you updates. First of all, last week on the Legally Blonde reality show, the coming attraction said that "the pressure becomes too much for Autumn" and then they showed her throwing up in the bathroom. She got sick right after she was critiqued by the judges, and the implication is that the criticism overwhelmed her. Well, the real story is, the yogurt she ate that was out of the fridge forever overwhelmed her. That's right, she didn't realize that the parfait she had for breakfast had been sitting out since Newt Gingrich's "Contract With America." And, it was just as rancid. That bit of creative editing totally annoyed me, but not as much as seeing how little I was on that episode! Rude! Then to top it off, the only time you see me is when Autumn feebly makes her way back to the stage after being sick, and I'm hunched over, ignoring her and rifling through my bag! It totally looks like I'm searching for my well-worn copy of a Jackie Collins book, but in truth I was searching for a piece of gum for Autumn because I felt bad that she was sick and had no Listerine nearby. I have more of a feature on this week's episode, and the vomiting is kept to a minimum. Actually, not to give too much away, but this week I give Autumn some audition advice that she totally takes to, and I based that advice on the teachings of my friend Jack Plotnick, who just happens to be in New York teaching acting/auditioning for the next two weeks! Go to his website for details: www.JackPlotnick.com.
Tuesday night James and I saw The 39 Steps and, quite frankly, it took 39 steps to get to our seats. I've gotten really spoiled because I always can get house seats because of my Sirius radio show, and when I arrived at the theatre and was told my seats were in the balcony, I thought of hauling out the ol' "Don't you know who I am?" routine. When I realized that the most common answer when I ask that question is a firm and decisive "no," I went to the balcony asap. The seats were actually fine, and I was impressed because that show has so much creativity in it. There are only four cast members, and they play all the characters in the movie, but the lead (who's wonderful) stays the same character throughout, so it's really three people playing everybody else. Brava!
Speaking of seats, tell me if you think I was wrong in this situation: I was dying to see In the Heights again, and I bought one of the few seats left, which happened to be in the boxes. It was a $100 seat, but I couldn't see everything because I was over on one side of the stage. So, of course, during Act One, I eyed the orchestra seats and saw two open in the fourth row. They stayed that way the whole act. During intermission I came downstairs and put my bag on one of the seats. Right before Act Two began, I saw some women standing there discussing the seat. I walked over and said, "Hi! I was sitting over on the side, saw that seat and decided to snag it during intermission!" One of the women said, "Well, it wasn't yours to snag!" I was mortified. "Oh, I'm sorry!" I said, "Is it your seat?" She continued, "No. We're sitting next to it. These are premium priced seats." I realized she was annoyed that she paid a lot for her seat and preferred that the unsold seat next to her stay empty for the principal of it! It's not my fault nobody bought the seat next to her. I said something to effect of, "I don't think I need your permission to sit there," sauntered past her and planted it. So, my question is: Was I wrong? In myday of buying standing-room tickets, the ushers would always come over once Act One began and move us down if there were empty seats. Isn't that theatre protocol? It's one thing if someone else told me that they snagged the seat first, or if the ticket holder showed up just for Act Two, but this woman just wanted to keep it empty… and felt she could tell me where I was allowed to sit. I wound up watching all of Act Two with an enormous smile on my face directed out front and an angry glare directed to my side, which took incredible facial flexibility. Hmm…maybe I should be in The 39 Steps.
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Laura Benanti
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| photo by Aubrey Reuben |
This week at the Chatterbox I interviewed recent Tony Award winner, Laura Benanti. I've worked with her so many times, and I simply adore her. She's such a great musician, such a funny performer and so nice! She also has a great sense of humor. When she came onstage, she told everyone that after the Tony Awards, you have to send in your Tony to get it engraved, so she happened to have it with her. Laura said she really wanted to attach a chain to it and make it into a necklace for her entrance. She thought it would be hilarious to walk out on stage casually, but with her neck jutting down from the weight of it and just be like, "Hey, everyone. What's up?"
I asked her about her first Broadway audition, and she told us that when she was 17, she went to the open call for The Sound of Music Broadway revival. She wanted to play Liesl, but when the casting people looked at her resume, they told her that she needed to update it because it only had high school credits. She told them that's because she was still in high school, and they were shocked. Or as she put it, they looked at her and said, "High school? You're 40." The most devastating part of the whole day was that Laura assumed because it was an audition, she had to get dressed up. And to her, "dressed up," literally meant… her prom dress. But she had stayed in the city the night before and forgot her shoes in Jersey, so she showed up at the audition in her prom dress…and clogs. Shockingly, she got a callback. As a matter of fact, she got four of them, and they finally made her an offer to play one of the nuns and understudy the lead role of Maria. She had just started NYU on scholarship but decided to quit (and, PS, lose her scholarship) to take the gig. She got to go on for Maria, and contrary to Autumn, she actually was so nervous that she threw up right before she made her first entrance. She stayed terrified as she ran down the ramp (aka the Alps) to sing the title song, and she remembers that as she raised her arms to start singing, "The hills are alive," they were both shaking uncontrollably. She obviously did well, though, because she was asked to audition to replace Rebecca Luker (who was leaving) and star opposite Richard Chamberlain. Unfortunately, it was raining the day of her audition, and she was doing a reading all the way downtown that went on longer than expected, so she ran into the audition late and soaking wet. But, instead of Richard being angry he said, "Wow…she really is Maria." She got the gig and was starring on Broadway at age 18! Opposite Richard Chamberlain, who was 65. I'm sure the audience wasn't at all uncomfortable when they got together at the end of the show. Hmm….maybe that's what Autumn saw before last week's episode. Continued...
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