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ONSTAGE & BACKSTAGE: When You Got It, Flaunt It
By Seth Rudetsky
16 Jun 2008
A week in the life of actor, musician and Chatterbox host Seth Rudetsky.
Please stop with the Hollywood celebs and bring on the Broadway! I want longer performances from every musical, not four minutes and we're out. Remember Dreamgirls in 1982? We got to see the fight scene leading to "And I Am Telling You" and all of "And I Am Telling You"! These days, they'd skip the fight scene, and we'd only get a truncated version of "And I Am Telling You" to make room for a headache-y TV star to present.
Ladies and gentlemen….Dreamgirls!
"And I am telling you….you're gonna lo-o-o-o-ovme-e e-e-e-e-e!"
And now…Patricia Heaton.
Since I can't recap the Tony Awards, let me recap my week. Monday night I went to a celebration for a theatre company that is one year of age and awkward of name. Yes, the Jaradoa Theater has now been around for a full year, and they used the Vineyard Theater to show what they've been doing for the past year. They did scenes/songs from the shows they've put up (The Small of Her Back and Serenade) plus demonstrations of the volunteer work that they do. They go to senior centers and perform old radio plays in the way they were done in the old days, AKA sound effects and singing commercials. Anika Larsen did a commercial then launched into a short version of "Ain't Misbehavin'" adding a sassy high G that I loved hearing but feared could possibly cause someone in a senior center to have an angina attack from the fierceness.
They also visit public middle schools and work with students. Jaradoa will have one of their actors read a book to the class, and then two Jaradoa helpers will stop every few sentences to ask questions to help kids with reading comprehension. One of their great actors, Chris Harbur, read "Oliver Button Is a Sissy" to us, and there were some actual public middle school kids in the audience. He started reading the mother in his regular voice and the two Jaradoa helpers stopped him:
ANIKA/APRIL: "That's not how a mother sounds, right, everyone?"
AUDIENCE: Right!
ANIKA/APRIL: How does a mother sound?
KID 1: Nice!
KID 2: Soft!
Pause
KID 3: Jamaican.
That's right. Chris then had to read the mother part as a nice, soft-spoken Jamaican woman…and he was amazing! Stella did get her groove back. Work! They also teach kids to write their own plays, and we saw a video of the kids and teachers who've benefited from Jaradoa. I was so moved when a middle-school teacher said that even though she's an educator, she didn't understand the value of the arts. But after seeing the changes in her students since Jaradoa worked with them, she now sees how important the arts are in school. She talked specifically about one of her female students who has special needs and had her play picked to be performed. Since then, the teacher noticed a total change in her confidence level and said she was now smiling around the classroom. Of course, hearing about her smiling started me crying. I'm a sucker for that kind of story. Yay, the arts and yay, Jaradoa! Maybe at next year's anniversary we can also celebrate their name change. Watch the amazing video about them at http://youtube.com/watch?v=xTqB2yEBoVM. PS, Chris is the guy doing the beatbox at the end. PPS, check out the actors in the video: Who are they talking to? Where are they? Why are they all sitting on pillows? Are they in someone's bedroom? Why is there a long line of 8x10's on the wall? Is it a stalker's bedroom? And, why is there a woman sitting next to the speaker in all the shots, nodding silently. Silent Bob? Silent Bobette?
On Tuesday I performed in a benefit that Judy Gold put together for the public school her son goes to (which is the same one Juli goes to). Andrea McArdle and her daughter Alexis performed and sounded fabulous. They're both doing Les Miz in the late summer with Andrea as Fantine and Alexis as Eponine. I love it! Triumph the insult comic dog performed and was hilarious. He talked about Judy Gold being a gay mom and said that while Andrea and Alexis are doing Les Miz, Judy and her sons are doing Miss Lez. He followed that with, "I'm not saying Judy is raising her sons gay, but Andrea McArdle is backstage right now singing, 'Your son'll come out…tomorrow.'" I wish I could tell you some of the jokes he said about me, but Playbill.com is a family site.
While leaving Caroline's on Tuesday the weather seemed crazy — super quiet, but windy and on the verge of something terrifying. I knew something was about to happen, so I raced to the subway to get home before it hit. And while I was on the subway, my block was hit by a tornado!!!! Seriously! One of the supers was standing on the street and said he saw a swirling mass of dust at the end of the block and when it cleared, a tree had been uprooted and was sprawled across the street! I couldn't believe it, but then Christine Pedi told me that her friend was leaving Carnegie Hall that same night and saw a twister going down 57th Street. Al Gore, please help!
At the Chatterbox I interviewed young Tony nominee from In the Heights, Robin De Jesús. I asked him where he was from, and he told me "a factory town in Connecticut." Huh? When questioned further, he admitted that just saying Connecticut sounds too middle to upper class, so he adds the "factory town" part to give him some street cred. He loved singing when he was a kid, but could not match pitch and essentially clanked, so he would pray to have a better voice. I asked whom he prayed to sing like and he replied immediately, "Ariel." I don't think he meant Ariel Sharon. He was working in a camp right after he graduated high school and heard about the auditions for the movie "Camp." It was an open call, and he kept getting called back. He gave his final audition on a Friday and knew he'd find out later that day. He was so excited when the casting person called him and said…he needed to come back Monday. Turns out, they had auditions in California and wanted to bring everyone in together. He went back, saw his competition and, after he auditioned, he was told they didn't need anything else from him. But the other guy was asked to stay! Robin was like "…um….I can sing something if you want…" and they were like, "That's all we need." He thought he definitely didn't get it, but on the train ride back to Connecticut, he pulled an Oprah's secret and decided that he did get it. The casting person called him later and said, "So…we'd like to offer you the film." He was too scared to think it was for the actual part, so he said, "In the ensemble?" She told him it was for one of the leads. I, of course, interrupted and asked why she told him with such low energy, and he readily agreed. He said that the only time she was filled with excitement was when she found out that someone he knew had her last name.
Let's compare/contrast.
(blank-faced) So…we'd like to offer a major part in your first film ever.
Versus
(Freaking out) Wait!!! The exact same last name as me!?!?!? No wa-a-a-a-a-a-ay!!!!!!!! Continued...
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