Seth's Broadway Diary, Volume 1: Part 1 (18 page)

Stephen got the idea to do
Wicked
because he was in Hawaii with John Bucchino, who was playing a Womyn's Music Festival. They were in a boat and Holly Near was describing a book she was reading by Gregory Maguire, which happened to be
Wicked
. Stephen immediately thought that it was "so him" and soon asked his lawyers to get the rights. It took a year to finally get them but the show never got the rights from
The Wizard of Oz
movie. That's why they can only mention things in the original
Oz
books, but not the movie. They couldn't say "Toto," so one day Kristin improvised "Dodo," and they kept it. They also can't say "ruby slippers," so it's become the tripping-off-the-tongue "jeweled shoes." Stephen did put some Harold Arlen tips of the hat in the score. The "Unlimited… my future is unlimited" motif that Elphaba sings is actually the same notes in "Somewhere over the Rainbow." Sing it and you'll see...it's so cool!

He's always been completely obsessed with Irving Berlin's signature two-songs-that-sound-different-but-actually-go-together ("I hear singing and there's no one there" vs. "You don't need analyzing"). That's why he's put one of those type songs in most of his shows: "All for the Best," "Two's Company" and, I didn't realize 'til he told me, "Loathing." The verse "What is this feeling, so sudden and new" goes with "Loathing… unadulterated loathing." He said the trick is to make them sound like they would never go together. Bravo!

All right, let's discuss
The Ritz
opening night. In case you're wondering if the hype about a Broadway opening is accurate, let me tell you that it is! It was literally like my birthday. I had a million cards all over my dressing table: from the cast, creative staff, friends, etc. Tons of flowers, candy and some incredible gifts. My two favorites were: Andréa Burns, who covers Rosie Perez, took a picture of me backstage in my full ‘70s costume. She blew it up and put it in an engraved frame that said, "Congratulations, Seth! Broadway debut, October 11th, 2007!" It's such an amazing present! Also, remember when I said that I told Jeffrey Thomas about my favorite episode of the TV show
Fame
? It's the one where the secret service guy tells Carol Mayo Jenkins that the President isn't coming to the show and she "doesn't know what to say." And then she replies with a raised eyebrow: "There's only one thing to say… Places, everybody. Places." Jeffrey literally tracked her down and got her to send an 8x10 signed with "There's only one thing to say… Places, everybody. Places"! I went into shock!

The ironic part about the actual performance on opening night is that it is the one night where there are never any critics (they all come before opening). However, in this case, it was the only show where I was really nervous! Who cares about critics when all of the Broadway elite is in the audience? Jon Robin Baitz, Nathan Lane, Kathleen Marshall, Walter Bobbie, Marian Seldes, Raúl Esparza, Michael Mayer, Jessica Stone, Rob Ashford, Dick Scanlan, Harriet Harris, etc. And, to boot, my big feature in Act Two is me singing an earnest "Magic to Do" from
Pippin
and Stephen Schwartz was there! I was having a panic attack before I went on but did my
JackPlotnick.com
affirmation ("I release my need to impress") and had a great time. Stephen gave us the rights to the song if he could get tix to opening, but when he saw me at the cast party, he told he was taking back the rights. He, thankfully, was joking, and my unitard-clad moment lives on eight shows a week!

The one sad part is that the weather prevented my mom and sister from coming. They live on Long Island, and the trains stopped working because of the rain and the tornado watch! My mom was so sad she was missing it, but she had seen the show already, so essentially all she was missing was hanging out with a ton of Broadway celebrities and an amazing party. In other words, her sadness was valid.

I saw some reviews and thankfully, no one mentioned my dropped umbrella. However, one was much worse. It said the bathhouse patrons were a mix of boys with washboard abs and trolls in towels. What the-? I don't have washboard abs so, by process of elimination, I'm devastated.

OK, everyone. I’m off tonight and then Tuesday, I’m back in
The Ritz
! Can't wait to troll around in that towel!

Autobiographies, Understudies and Betty!

October 22, 2007

Ouch! This was the week of accidents, injuries and regurgitation! Details to follow. First a chronological rundown of the week.


Monday night, I did
Celebrity Autobiography
with some amazing co-stars including Tony Roberts, Mary Testa, Jackie Hoffman (all from
Xanadu
), Karen Ziemba (doing an amazing Elizabeth Taylor), Richard Kind (whose child goes to the same school as my boyfriend's) and my good friend Jack Plotnick. It's the show where we read autobiographies verbatim. Elizabeth Taylor's written dialogue keeps randomly harkening back to the fact that she's Jewish, so when the section of the book came when Elizabeth runs into Eddie Fisher years after their divorce, Karen Ziemba was hilarious reading the part where Elizabeth politely nods to him at Sardi's and says (with a 1940s accent), "Mazel Tov."

I loved reading the part of Star Jones' book where she differentiates between Star, who's the Diva, and her real name "Starlette," who's underneath it all. "Take away the wigs, the eyelashes and my
fabulous
clothes, and you'll find me at White Castle…
feasting
on a half dozen of those greasy, square burgers!"

Jack was so good at subtly busting Nancy Reagan's horrible treatment of daughter Patti Reagan. When Patti was a toddler, she wouldn't swallow her string beans, so the pediatrician advised Nancy to leave Patti in her high chair until she swallowed it all. Jack raised an eyebrow and slowly continued: "
An hour and a half later
, they were still in her mouth…"


The show was a little intimidating to perform because
Saturday Night Live
producer Lorne Michaels was there, sitting with Alec Baldwin. My boyfriend, James, said that he's sure the show convinced Alec
not
to write an autobiography.

The show got out early enough for me, James and Jack to hightail it to Carnegie Hall and see the second act of Brian Stokes Mitchell's concert for the Actors Fund. There was so much Broadway in the audience! We were seated behind Tyler Maynard (from
Altar Boyz
) and Sarah Gettelfinger (from
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
) and in front of Betty Buckley. Stokes sounded great, as usual, and the big orchestra was delicious, too. The last song was "Grateful" by John Bucchino, and it was sung right after Stokes described how the Actors Fund helps
everyone
in the entertainment field, not just actors. After the show, I complimented the director, Richard Jay-Alexander, on the cool idea of bringing up the house lights during the song. It really drove home the point that we're all in it together, and the Actors Fund couldn't exist without the audience to donate. Richard said that the concert was going long, and if it went into overtime, it would cost thousands of dollars. So, actually the house lights came on in the middle of the number to make sure people knew that they had around one minute to vacate. Out of necessity spawns brilliance!

The Ritz
is now officially open so here come the injuries. At the end of the show, there's a chase scene. A couple of nights ago, I was running through the audience and as I was running up the stairs to the stage, I fell on all fours. First of all, right before that scene, Rosie Perez introduces me as a contestant in the talent contest named Sheldon Farenthold and I do a little number. Even though I'm introduced by name, there's no dialogue in the show where I'm actually called Sheldon. Well, right as I fell, Brooks Ashmanskas yells out, "Watch it, Sheldon!" Then as I'm on the ground I hear, "Sheldon, are you OK? Sheldon!" Both lines were said less out of concern for my well-being as they were just for the comedy of actually addressing me as Sheldon.

Anyhoo, I got up and felt fine. Cut to that night, my leg hurt so much it literally kept waking me up. I then arrived at the theatre to see my understudy learning my number! I assured him that there was
no way
I wouldn't be going on. I saw
All About Eve
! And I did
Applause
in summer stock.

I actually wasn't that outraged he was trying to learn my number because it was understudy rehearsal. Now that the show is open, the covers have officially begun to learn their roles. I cover Brooks Ashmanskas and learned his lines during previews in case I had to go on, but we just started officially rehearsing. Our great stage manager, Tripp, told us that, because the run only goes through Dec. 8, there's a good chance we'll never go on, but we have to be ready just in case. We finished rehearsal on Friday and were about three quarters through learning the blocking for Act Two. I got to the theatre for the Saturday matinee and saw that one of our leading men, Terry Riordan, had injured his back and Billy Magnussen, his 22-year-old-just-got-his-Equity-card understudy, was on! It was shocking
!
A few years later, Billy got nominated for a Tony Award for VANYA AND SONYA AND MASHA AND SPIKE
and played Rapunzel’s Prince in the INTO THE WOODS film
!
It just goes to show how sudden it is when it happens. I assumed there'd be days of an actor complaining that he wasn't feeling well, a warning from the stage manager that it wasn't looking good, and finally an understudy told that he was on. Instead it was a terrifying, last-minute shocker. One afternoon, Billy and I are in street clothes going through our blocking, the next minute he's in full costume about to make his Broadway debut in a leading role!

The good news is, he was on his gig! He got through everything without a hitch and was on for three shows! We all hope that Terry gets better, but the whole thing definitely added some excitement to the weekend shows.

I interviewed Betty Buckley this week, and she was so much fun! First of all, her "new" CD,
Betty Buckley 1967
, is out! It's a recording she made with a jazz trio when she was a teenager that she sent to her boyfriend and a NY agent. They played some of it on her Bravo special, and Phil Birsh, Richard Jay-Alexander and Andrew Gans from Playbill Records convinced her to release it. She sounds amazing. She said that she's learned something from listening to it all these years later. Nowadays, when she does a CD, she's constantly re-recording phrases and/or punching in notes she doesn't like, but all the songs on
Betty Buckley 1967
were done in one take. She wants to recapture some of that "singing for the sake of singing" and not the over-thinking/trying-to-make-perfect version of performing she sometimes does nowadays. She wants the spontaneity and joy of her early youth, not the arduous perfection-seeking so many artists fall into.

Betty talked about wanting to be in the original
Pippin
on Broadway because she had been obsessed with Bob Fosse ever since she was 12. Her agent told her the
Pippin
people weren’t interested in her. Jill Clayburgh got the part and when she left, the
Pippin
people wrote Betty and said they were interested in her auditioning for the original but were told that she left the business! What!?! She finally found out that her agent steered her away from the audition because he also represented Jill Clayburgh and knew he could get more money for Jill because she had done a film. Hmph! "Not interested" indeed! She fired her agent and wound up getting the part of Catherine and staying in the show for a year and a half. "Why so long?" I asked. "To pay for my acting classes… and my therapy." Brava honesty!

Ironically, I was just made dance captain of
The Ritz
and told my boyfriend that the extra cash would cover
my
therapy! Too much info? Um… physical therapy?

I asked Betty how she went from playing the step mom on
Eight is Enough
to starring in
Cats
. She said that when
Cats
was announced, a lot of women wanted to sing "Memory." Rumor has it Cher was vying for the part! Anyhoo, at that point, Betty had hit it big with
1776
in the late ‘60s but still didn't really have a signature role/song like many of her contemporaries. She went in for many
Cats
auditions, and at her final callback, she asked the director, Trevor Nunn, to come to the stage so she could say something. She told him that there were indeed other women who could sing the part as well as her… but there weren't any women who could sing it better…
and
it was her turn! She knew that could either backfire or pay off, and thankfully it was the latter! However, once she started rehearsals, it was a nightmare. Trevor wanted to make the other dancers really think of her as the rejected cat, Grizabella, so he didn't let her sing for the cast during the first weeks of rehearsals. Instead, he made her do dance rehearsals with the cast, knowing that she was not at their level. She remembers doing horrifying
chainé
turns across the floor but not being allowed to sing "Memory." It was à la Jerome Robbins separating the Sharks and the Jets during
West Side Story
rehearsals to keep them adversaries. I'm sure the desired result is achieved, but at what cost? Can't you just say to the cast, "Act like you don't like Grizabella," instead of making a belter do turns to the left?