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ONSTAGE & BACKSTAGE: Weekend in the Country
By Seth Rudetsky
03 Sep 2008
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Tommar Wilson and Will Swenson in Hair.
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| photo by Michal Daniel | A week in the life of actor, musician and Chatterbox host Seth Rudetsky.
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Happy post–Labor Day! Labor Day has always been bittersweet for me. Sweet because it's a holiday, bitter because the next day meant I had to re-enter Hell and see those horrible people (aka school and my peers). But now, thankfully, the only "school" I have to go to is Grease's Rydell High or Wicked's Shizz University and the only "horrible People" is any version not sung by Barbra Streisand ! Ha ha ha!!!! That's right, my point is not that I work on Broadway, but that I'm a hack comic. Anybody? Nobody.
Last Wednesday I finally saw Hair! I've mentioned this before, but, if you don't know, Hairwas the first Broadway show my parents took me to. No, I'm not in my sixties, people. It was during the final year of its run and I was barely out of diapers. But the cast sure was! To this day I remember that nude scene. And by "nude scene" I mean seeing people onstage naked for two seconds and then seeing the inside of my mother's palm that she placed over my eyes. She did the same thing during some choice scenes in "Taxi Driver" which we went to see when I was in second grade! I know some of you may think, Oh she probably thought it was a kids movie because it had Jodie Foster from "Bugsy Malone." Perhaps, but why that same year did we see "One Flew Over the Cukoos Next" and "Death Wish"? Silence. And the sound of a phone dialing The Children Services Hotline.
Nonetheless, I grew up obsessed with Hair and I'm very thankful I got to see it as my first show. I am, however, still raging that my parents took me to see The Three Penny Opera with Raul Julia when I was nine. What were they thinking? That show still gives me a headache even as an adult! Back to Hair. I wanted to give a link to the Tony Award performance from Hair and I went to Youtube and put in the search word Hair and Tony Awards and it led me to a clip of Laura Bell Bundy getting her hair done for the Tonys. I guess that's comparable…
Hair is one of those show where it's fun to be a lead and it's fun to be in the ensemble. There are so many group numbers so no matter who you are, you're always singing something fabulous. FYI I thought the ensemble sounded terrific! It's also one of those shows where every song is fantastic. Galt MacDermott has such a brilliant gift for songwriting. Most shows have around 15 songs, but Hair has more than 25 and they're all amazing! I especially love the weird ones like "Don't Put It Down", "Initials" and "Going Down". (To watch me deconstruct Gavin Creel singing "Going Down," get thee to www.SethRudetsky.com). Even though I know Hair really well I was still sobbing up a storm at the end. Bring that music back to Broadway where it belongs!
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Seth and James in front of Bushkill waterfall.
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For the last few weeks James, Juli and I were thinking about going away for Labor Day weekend. It looked like we were going to vacation with Andrea Burns (from In the Heights) and her husband Peter Flynn, but he's the new artistic director of the Hangar Theater in Ithaca, NY, and he had to work through the weekend. I was lamenting my fate to Susan Blackwell from [title of show] and she immediately volunteered her new vacation house near the Delaware Water Gap! How sweet is that? James, Juli, Maggie (my Lab/Dalmation/Whippet mutt) and I drove down on Friday and had an amazing time. Susan's husband, Steve, hung out with us and, on the last night, made us "campfire stew." We put carrots, potatoes, onions and fish in tin foil and he cooked it over an open fire in the forest behind their house. Delish! Maggie had the time of her life sniffing everywhere and going in the creek. However, Steve gave us a lift in his car at one point and when I got in it I thought, Hmm…that must be that "new car" smell. And by "new car" I meant, "dead rat rotting in a vent." I was slightly nauseated, but kept my airways closed and appreciated the lift. Later on, we were making ice cream in the ice cream maker that Hunter (from [title of show]) bought them as a housewarming gift. We were all talking about how easy it is to make ice cream now…no more rock salt and churning for two hours. Just milk, flavor and sugar. Steve said that the last time Hunter came, he thought he brought everything, but forgot the milk. A week later, Steve and Susan realized that Hunter didn't "forget the milk"…he left it under the passenger seat in their car! The carton expanded and leaked and that's what that amazing smell was! Steve said that they've yet to get rid of the aroma. Hunter Bell! You owe me the oxygen I was unable to take in for the 20 minutes I spent in that car trying not to breathe! Continued...
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