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ONSTAGE & BACKSTAGE: Glory Days and Nights
By Seth Rudetsky
12 May 2008
On Wednesday I went with my mom to South Pacific. All I can say is brava to whomever decided to use the original size orchestra. Thirty delicious instruments! This whole theory that it's too expensive for a full orchestra makes me crazy. Why does no one balk at having custom-made shoes? Ever hear of Florsheim? And, the audience went crazy when the stage moved backwards, revealing the pit with all those musicians. They went even crazier when my mom's cell phone went off during a scene ("Sorry…I thought I turned it off"), but we shan't discuss that. The cast is great and I L-O-V-E-D Loretta Ables Sayre, who plays Bloody Mary. I obsessed with the vibrato she puts on the "ha" in "Happy Talk." Speaking of that song, my friend Mary Ann Hu is her understudy and actually got to go on last Saturday! Because they just opened, she hadn't had a full understudy run-through yet. She sang "Happy Talk" once when she was learning her blocking and told me that it was thrilling/terrifying to sing "Happy Talk" for the second time in her life…and this time be accompanied by a 30-piece orchestra. My friend Chris Gattelli did some great choreography, but I totally laughed when they put on the big Thanksgiving show in Act Two. Everyone is in makeshift costumes, and they announce that Nellie and the gang made their costumes out of old newspapers and stuff found on the island. I'm just wondering where they got the pointe shoes that one of the girls wears. Are they totally isolated in the South Pacific…save for an outlet Capezio store on the isle of Maria Tallchief?
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The cast and creators of Glory Days with Seth Rudetsky
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| photo by Christie Ford |
First of all, I announced last week that I was so excited to see the opening night of Glory Days, but I couldn't go because I was in audio recording hell. I figured I'd catch the show this weekend. Then I was so overwhelmed with doing my audio book that I didn't have time to book a Chatterbox guest. I was about to cancel when I got an email from one of the investors in the Broadway show Glory Days telling me that it closed right after opening night. I felt bad for everyone involved in the production and annoyed that I'd never get to see it…but then I thought…wait a minute, this could pay off for me! I called my friend Jesse Vargas, who did the musical arrangements, and he got the whole cast and creators to come to the Chatterbox! It was great. The swing was there, too, and of course, I asked if he had gone on. Alas, no. Everyone had such a great attitude, and no one was bitter. Except maybe, rightly so, Andrew Call, who showed up at the theatre for a meeting the day after opening, not knowing what it was about, and saw a box-office person through the glass of the theatre who mouthed, "Sorry, your show closed!" He was like, "It did?" Unfortunately, the same thing happened to him last year when he did High Fidelity. Before he heard anything from people involved in the show, someone who saw it on Playbill.com called him to say, "Sorry."I feel bad for him and/or advise him to bookmark Playbill.com in his "favorites" to prevent further occurrences of "It did?"
Alex Brightman (the swing) said that everyone gathered onstage right before the show on opening night, and Nick Blaemire (the composer) said that no matter what happens, no one can take away the fact that they played Broadway. I thought that was very sweet and mature for his age. Speaking of mature, I was mortified to be onstage surrounded by people whose first Broadway show they listened to was Rent. I felt like Stephen Spinella during the curtain call of Spring Awakening.
James and I hightailed it to City Center on Saturday to see No, No, Nanette. I was very proud of Rosie (O'Donnell) who started taking tap lessons recently so she could tap in the show. Right at the end of the show, she hauled out some steps, and I was mind boggled at how clean they sounded. And, she wasn't tap-synching. Lip-tapping? I don't know the exact word to use, but you know what I mean: having someone backstage tap for her. And, it was definitely her feet tapping onstage…as opposed to what I saw in the film version of "Chicago." People involved in that movie were constantly saying that Richard Gere did all of his own tapping in "Razzle Dazzle." Hmm…I guess that's possible, but a. Why was there never a full body shot? b. Why only shots of the top half of him showing "style," and then the bottom half tapping and c. Why was it filmed completely in the dark? Did all the lights blow in Toronto, and they had to use the ghost light to film that sequence? Couldn't they have gone to a bodega and gotten a couple of 75 watt bulbs?
Anyhoo, I also loved Michael Berresse's amazing dancing and Beth Leavel's hilarity in Nanette. Plus, she is the queen of hitting a high note and making you think, "Wow…she can't belt that, but it sounds amazing in head voice…good choice!" and then, one minute later, belting that same note and then belting one even higher just to show you that she can hit any note she wants, however the hell she wants. Brava!
This week I can finally relax a little (aka pay all my overdue bills…sorry Equity) and continue the "fun" search for a new apartment. James and I are moving in together and want to stay on the Upper West Side. We decided that our ideal apartment is a ground-floor duplex in a brownstone with a backyard (for my doggie, Maggie). We saw two apartments that we loved and both were snatched by someone who applied before us. Not cool! Note to NYC: before you apply for an apartment, please clear it with me at www.sethrudetsky.com. Thanks!
All right, everyone, this week I'm also gonna see Spring Awakening one more time because Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele are both leaving, and I get to interview Christine Ebersole at Sirius radio and Boyd Gaines at the Chatterbox. It's another week of Broadway! Peace out!
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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.sethsbroadwaychatterbox.com.)
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Seth and his mom.
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