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ONSTAGE & BACKSTAGE: Life Is a Cabaret
By Seth Rudetsky
28 Apr 2008
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Norm Lewis at The Leading Men concert.
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| photo by Maryann Lopinto | A week in the life of actor, musician and Chatterbox host Seth Rudetsky.
I had a few non-matzoh slips, but was relatively good. And speaking of good, let's just say that those Starbucks breakfast sandwiches are hard to resist. 'Nuff said.
The week started out at Birdland, where Wayman Wong put together another fantastic "Leading Men" show for BC/EFA. I played the piano for most of the acts and did some deconstructing, demonstrating the difference between straight tone and vibrato using the ending of "Everything's Coming up Roses" with Tyne Daly versus Ethel Merman. Try to figure out who represented what. The men all sounded great, and I must give a special shout-out to Tom Andersen who performed his signature song that he also wrote, "Yard Sale." It has such a simple, beautiful melody and tells about a yard sale that Tom really went to in San Francisco that you realize is being held by a man who knows that he's dying of AIDS. It's so well-written and literally makes me cry as I play it! You must listen — visit http://youtube.com/watch?v=2hLtT5vUVGU.
The whole show ended with my favorite male singer, Norm Lewis, doing a blast from both of our pasts. When he first moved to New York, Norm wanted to do a song that guys don't normally do, so he'd audition with "Before the Parade Passes By," and that's what I heard him do when I was the music director for the Candlewood Playhouse's production of Joseph… back in 1989! Back then he was non-Equity and I had a 30-inch waist. Norm sang a phenomenal arrangement of it that completely brought the house down and it's going to be featured on his new CD. I cannot wait! Even though he's a baritone, he literally hits a B flat in it….which is a full two octaves above Carol Channing's high note. After the show I stayed at Birdland for Jim Caruso and Billy Stritch's "Cast Party." It's basically an open mic show with (as Jim says) "the most talented people in New York…and other people." Brad Oscar and I sang two songs from the reading we had done the week before (The Road to Qatar), and I knew that would be the last of me seeing Brad for a while because he's heading down to D.C. to do The Mystery of Irma Vep.
On Wednesday I saw Young Frankenstein again because my mom hadn't gone yet, and she loved it. After the show, I was gabbing with my friend Paul Castree backstage, and Megan Mullally came out of her dressing room and said, "I thought I heard your voice." I have a recognizable voice? Who's the one with the high-pitched, nasal, fast-talking twang? Oh. Both of us.
On Sirius radio, I interviewed one of my childhood obsessions, Joel Grey. He told me that he grew up in Cleveland, and his father was a famous Yiddish comedian named Mickey Katz. Joel said that all of the New York Jews who moved out to Los Angeles didn't have any entertainment, so his dad moved his family to California and created the show "Borscht-capades," which was obviously later bought by WASPS and re-titled "Ice Capades." Get it? Mary Tyler Moore's icy performance in "Ordinary People"? "The Ice Storm"? Anybody?
Joel said he was very inspired by Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland…especially the Andy Hardy movies. Eddie Cantor saw Joel singing and dancing in his father's show, and when Joel was 18, put him on TV. I watched it on Youtube and Eddie says, "This kid might be the Danny Kaye of tomorrow." Joel said it's embarrassing, but I loved it! Watch Joel talk to Eddie Cantor…he's obviously so nervous and keeps his eyes totally downcast throughout the whole interview. But then he tears up during his number and does some sassy high kicks and crazy turns (http://youtube.com/watch?v=b4fV-5JHcmQ).
Right after that he did nightclubs (the Copa in N.Y.) and the London Palladium. In London he performed with Johnnie Ray (who sang the big hit, "Cry"), and Joel said that he had to perform after Johnnie and kick away the panties that lined the stage — panties that had been thrown by girls in the audience. My question is; when girls do that, are those panties that the girls were actually wearing? What do they hope to get from throwing them? Do they stitch their phone number inside? And, do they take them off during the show? Isn't that awkward? Do they bring along a dresser to help them? Joel said that he couldn't get a job after his nightclub career because producers looked down on nightclub performers. He remembers auditioning (and being rejected from) the Broadway productions of West Side Story, Irma La Douce and The Sound of Music. He wanted the role of Rolf, who sings "Sixteen Going on Seventeen," and later becomes a Nazi. Hmm…perhaps the fact that his father was a famous Yiddish comedian prevented him from playing an effective Nazi. Speaking of Jews inappropriately trying out for The Sound of Music, Barbra Streisand also tried out for that show and got a big, fat rejection. And, years later, I auditioned to be one of the Von Trapp kids at the Equity Library Theatre and got ixnayed faster than you can say Sh'ma Yisroel. Is there no place for a Jewish person on Broadway? Besides every single show but The Sound of Music? Continued...
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