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| Seth Rudetsky |
If you love Broadway and don't know the name Seth Rudetsky, you need to - so google him immediately, or click here to go to his website.
I consider Seth to be the reigning King of Broadway, or at least the Court Jester. While he hasn't won any Tony Awards or headlined in any Broadway shows he is probably the biggest champion of all things Broadway and theatre around, as well as one of the funniest guys out there.
To give you an idea as to Seth's Broadway and theatre experience, here is just a short list of the many things he's done: in addition to hosting several shows on Sirius/XM Satellite radio's "On Broadway" channel, including having interviewed just about every Broadway star around for his "Seth Speaks" show, he has played in over a dozen Broadway orchestras; hosts a weekly Thursday night "Chatterbox" series of Broadway themed interviews at the Don't Tell Mama cabaret club in New York City that benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids; provides music direction and piano accompaniment for solo concerts for many singers including Patti LuPone, Betty Buckley and Audra McDonald, just to name a few Tony winners that he is friends with; has written several books on theatre; produced a couple of Off Broadway shows and even worked on the Rosie O'Donnell Show and co-wrote two of her Tony Awards songs. He's also a husband and father.
While he's done a lot of things, the one thing that is obvious when talking to Seth is how much he loves theatre, Broadway and Broadway performers. When listening to his interviews you feel like he is asking the person he is interviewing, no matter if they are a well-known performer who has won multiple Tonys or an up and coming and virtually unknown composer, the kinds of questions that you'd want to ask them. He gets them to talk about things you'd never think they would and share their theatre experience with us. He also gets them to tell some very funny stories about their experiences.
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| Seth's Big Fat Broadway Show - coming to Desert Foothills Theatre in Scottsdale Oct. 25 |
Since Seth is bringing his "Big Fat Broadway" show to Scottsdale on Sunday October 25th (click here for more info on that) , I thought it would be fun to turn the tables on Seth and ask him some questions, exclusively for PHX Stages....
First let me just say that it is an honor to have you answer some questions about yourself and your upcoming show in Scottsdale. I’ve been a fan for years and feel, like I’m sure most people do, that the name “Seth Rudetsky” is synonymous with “Broadway.” Also, you seem to be ubiquitous, in that you literally are everywhere – on the radio, performing across the country, releasing a new book, producing a show, etc. But for those few people who don’t know who you are or know about your love for “deconstructing” songs and how much you love Broadway, what can you tell them about yourself?
"I’ve had lots of gigs so I now just call myself an entertainer! I have a classical piano degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of music but I made my living for many years playing piano on Broadway. I’ve done around 15 Broadway shows including Les Miz, Phantom, Ragtime, The Producers and Grease. During that time I became a comedy writer on the Rosie O’Donnell Show (The writing team got three Emmy nominations!) and I got to write two opening numbers for the Tony Awards when Rosie hosted. I then started focusing on acting and did The Ritz on Broadway with Rosie Perez and a concert version of They're Playing Our Song where I starred opposite Sutton Foster. When I wrote and starred in Rhapsody in Seth, my play about growing up, I got an interview on SiriusXM radio. That suddenly segued into me hosting on the Broadway channel and I’ve been there for 11 years!"
WATCH VIDEO: Seth wrote the opening musical number for the 1999 Tony Awards that features Rosie O'Donnell, Patti LuPone, Betty Buckley and Jennifer Holliday
"I started doing stand up in the ‘90’s and won some great awards including “Funniest Gay Male in NY!” In the show, I would play audio and video clips…pointing out amazing singing (Patti LuPone in Broadway’s Evita) and horrific so-called singing (Madonna in the film version). I did some of those deconstructions in a big Broadway benefit and Rosie O’Donnell saw me. She told me I should do an entire show of just that and it turned into a show I’ve been touring for ten years!"
Has the show changed over the years that you’ve been presenting it?
"People wind up sending me hilarious/horrific videos and recordings and I’ll add them to the show. I now do a whole segment on the Osmonds singing Fiddler on the Roof. And it’s a medley!!!"
Any different audience reactions to your show from outside of NYC, verses a NYC theatre audience?
"I really wanted this show to appeal to everyone: theater insiders and people who know nothing about music. Thankfully, my reviews say I have! Therefore, this show has worked wherever I’ve done it…From L.A. to Red Deer, Canada to London!"
Any interesting audience reactions?
"I love when people come up to me afterwards and tell me 'Now I have to buy the cast album to The Pajama Game!' or 'Now, I have to youtube The Brady Bunch Variety Hour.' Or 'I’ve been listening to Whitney Houston sing ‘I Will Always Love You’ for years and I’ve never noticed what you pointed out.’ The show is a comedy but I love people leaving and loving music even more."
I've had the pleasure of seeing you perform in both The Ritz on Broadway as well as in title of show at the George Street Playhouse in New Jersey; as an accompanist at several benefits; as well as heard you play piano in several Broadway orchestras over the years. You are a man who wears a lot of hats - you are an actor, musician, accompanist, radio host, skilled interviewer, author, producer, husband and father - which of these roles do you find the most challenging and why?
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| Just one of Seth's books - his Broadway Diary series are a collection of his "Onstage and Backstage" columns he writes for Playbill.com - Seth has also published several non-fiction and Young Adult books |
"Probably conducting.Most of my conducting gigs have been one-night, high pressure benefits like Dreamgirls with Audra McDonald. If you listen to me on my radio show, you know that I talk really fast. Well, that pertains to my conducting as well. My internal rhythm is super fast so I have to have a metronome when I conduct becauase I’m so scared I’ll go twice the tempo during a performance. It could really hurt a dance number because if the tempo is too fast, a dancer could trip and something crazy could happen like their coccyx falling out (Is that a thing?)"
Which role is the most rewarding and why?
"I love interviewing people because everyone has amazing stories of getting a job when they were told they were wrong for it or hilarious stories about wigs falling off onstage."
You seem to always be working, traveling, writing or interviewing someone – how much sleep do you get a night?
"Ha! I sleep a normal amount. I don’t think I do that much. I think it’s much harder to commute and have a 9 to 5 job. By the time you get home and make dinner and hang with your kids, it’s bedtime!"
You coined the catchphrase “ah-mahzing” – do you remember how you came up with that phrase? And do you think you could go an entire day without using it, along the other word you seem to love, “devastated?
"My friend Melissa Papp said “ah-mahzing” to my other friend Jack Plotnick and I thought it was hilarious so I started using it. I definitely do not really use it in my every day life. It’s more of an onstage word. However, I am constantly devastated. If the store is out of fat free half and half, I’m devastated."
You've worked with or interviewed just about every major Broadway icon of the past thirty years, including recently haven gotten the chance to actually speak to Barbra Streisand. Besides Streisand, were you ever nervous about meeting anyone?
"I’m nervous meeting anyone I’ve admired so yes. When I first met Patti LuPone I wanted to ‘play it cool' but instead I blurted out 'I love you!'."
Besides your love of Broadway, you have also written several books. Is there another one coming out soon, or that you are currently writing?
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| Seth co-wrote and starred in DISASTER! Off Broadway - plans are in the works for future productions |
"I’ve written a few books my most recent ones are Seth's Broadway Diary which focuses on all the experiences I’ve had working on Broadway and TV with various celebs. Like when I was doing the Kathy Griffin TV show and Kristin Chenoweth had a full make up team attending her and I asked for makeup and got a crew guy blotting a paper towel on my forehead. It also has tons and tons of stories from all the celebrities I’ve interviewed…Idina Menzel, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Nathan Lane and many, many more. And my other one is a young adult book recently published by Random House called The Rise and Fall of a Theater Geek. It’s a bizarre genre I think I invented: a comedic Broadway-themed mystery! It’s about a Broadway loving, overweight teenager from Long Island with a Jewfro (loosely based on me!)."
Can you tell us the latest news about your musical Disaster?
"It’s a musical that’s an homage to all those amazing 1970’s disaster films. We ran Off-Broadway and got incredible reviews. We may have very good news to share soon!"
Your daughter Juli has acted in your husband James’ play Unbroken Circle, that you produced Off Broadway. Do you think she’ll continue with acting, and what do you think she will be when she grows up?
"It was so great seeing her Off-Broadway in that show. We saw a regional production last year and it was so sad to us that she’s now too old to ever play the role again! I know she’ll do something creative, but she’s like me in the sense that she has lots of interests. I don’t know how many she’ll focus on but she definitely has one skill I don’t have: she’s an amazing artist! Right now she’s going to a high school where that’s the focus."
Any special memories of your time at Oberlin?
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| Seth served as the Artistic Producer/Music Director for the first five annual Actors Fund Benefit Concerts including Dreamgirls - the live recording from that concert was one of the first recordings of the complete score |
If you knew your life would end up so involved in theater, do you think you'd change majors and college choice, instead of going to Oberlin for piano?
"I’m happy I went there even thought classical piano was never my real focus.I wound up learning what I needed to learn about theater from doing summer stock and acting from doing student theater and comedy from hosting events at Oberlin. I loved the vibe there and I’m really happy my Mom went into debt paying my tuition!"
Favorite musicals?
"I saw In the Heights 10 times! Old school, I love Evita, Dreamgirls, West Side Story, Gypsy, Funny Girl and A Chorus Line."
Favorite showtunes?
"I can listen to the fight scene from Dreamgirls over and over. And I do at the gym!"
WATCH VIDEO: Seth is obsessed with the fight scene from Dreamgirls - watch Charity Dawson who starred in Seth's musical DISASTER recreate her audition for the show where she (and Seth!) performed as multiple characters from Dreamgirls.
Favorite flop musicals?
"Rags has one of the best scores EVER!!!!!"
What new theater score that has come out in the last decade is your favorite?
"In the Heights!"
WATCH VIDEO: Seth "deconstucts" one of his favorite musicals In the Heights.
If you could only play piano for one theater person for the rest of your life, based on their talent, who would it be?
"I’d split it between Betty Buckley, Patti LuPone and Barbra Streisand"
If you could only play piano for one theater person for the rest of your life, based on their personality, who would it be?
"Betty, Patti and Barbra! So much history! I could never get enough!"
Who would play you in a musical adaptation of your life and why?
"Me! I’m not giving that part away!"
WATCH VIDEO: Seth played in the pit for Les Miserables on Broadway and he loves the flop musical Rags - here he deconstructs performances of Judy Kuhn, who starred in both of those shows.
WATCH VIDEO: Seth "deconstructs" Barbra Streisand and Bea Arthur!
WATCH VIDEO: Seth "deconstructs" Betty Buckley's high belt!
WATCH VIDEO: Seth has played many concerts with Patti Lupone- here he "deconstructs" her amazing voice
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