Hello from LAX airport! I鈥檓 on my home with James and Juli after a busy weekend! Yesterday was Juli鈥檚 birthday (19!) and we all got brunch at The Magic Castle. In order to go there, you have to be a magician or be invited by a member. I am decidedly not a magician and am thankful we got an invite from Andy Nyman, who is currently playing Tevye on the West End in Fiddler On The Roof. He also co-wrote wrote Derren Brown: Secret, which just opened on Broadway!
When you go to The Magic Castle, you not only eat, you attend various magic shows鈥攚hich are amazing! We went with my friends Jack and Jonah Verdon who played Ben/Lisa in Disaster! Off-Broadway and his mom, Margie.
Jonah (who now goes to Oberlin, my alma mater) and Margie flew to L.A. to help put together Concert For America and boy, were they helpful! I鈥檒l have more video clips to post in next week鈥檚 column, but here鈥檚 one with a story:
First of all, I needed two women to sing the duet part in 鈥淟et The Sunshine In.鈥� I knew Rachel Bay Jones had done Hair on Broadway and asked her if she knew the harmony and she wrote back that she didn鈥檛. I told her she could do the melody, but I added that it goes 鈥渃razy high.鈥� I didn鈥檛 want her to have to belt an F#. I鈥檓 so used to people being nervous about their voices that I assumed she鈥檇 write back 鈥淚 better stick to the lower part鈥濃nstead she wrote back 鈥淚 sing crazy high.鈥� It鈥檚 completely true and I thought it was so hilariously honest. Here she is singing the high part with Melissa Benoist from Supergirl, who learned the harmony the day before!
melissa in the finale!
鈥� lee鈽勶笍 (@saltzmantwins)
Before Concert for America, I was doing my concerts with Audra McDonald in Chicago. We were talking about when I met her and she was Audra McDonald, then she won her first Tony Award as Audra Ann McDonald, then she was Audra again. What鈥檚 up with that? Well, turns out, we met right after I was in college and she was still at Juilliard and not in Equity yet. When she finally got into Equity, she went to fill out the paperwork and thought it was like a passport, meaning you had to include your full name. She didn鈥檛 know you were supposed to write the name you wanted as your professional name. So, she filled it out very thoroughly: Audra Ann McDonald. Hence, that was her name in Carousel when she played Carrie.
A little while later, she was doing the workshop of Marie Christine. The fabulous Mary Bond Davis (who later went on to create Motormouth Maybelle in Hairspray) mentioned that she was doing numerology and wanted to know if Audra wanted her to do her name. Audra told her 鈥渟ure鈥�! The next day was a backer鈥檚 audition for investors/producers. The cast was lined up onstage in chairs and the composer-lyricist Michael John LaChiusa stepped forward to address the audience. When he began telling everyone about the show (which is very dark鈥ased on the tale of Medea), Mary Bond Davis leaned across a few cast members to reach Audra and loudly whispered, 鈥淕irl! I did your chart last night. Get rid of the Ann!鈥� She continued, 鈥淭he Ann has no power! You gotta lose the Ann!鈥� Audra wanted more details and this whispering went back-and-forth until Michael John turned around to tell them to stop chitter-chattering. End of story: She went back to Audra McDonald and stayed there.
Speaking of Audra with an Ann, we鈥檙e doing another concert in New Orleans December 14. Get thee! Visit for more info.
One fun highlight from Concert For America: Kate Flannery from The Office emailed us and asked if it was OK if her Dancing With The Stars partner, Pasha Pashkov, came with her and 鈥渨atched from the wings.鈥� We were like, 鈥淲atch from the wings?!鈥� We told her we are bringing him onstage and demanding he performs! Pasha, who鈥檚 an immigrant from Russia, and his wife, Daniella, (who鈥檚 the daughter of immigrants) danced up a storm 鈥ith Kate frantically running onstage the very last second in her Dancing With The Stars glimmer blue dress and hitting the last pose with them. Make sure you vote for them tonight on DWTS, as the kids call it!
Not only was yesterday Juli鈥檚 birthday, but it was also the Emmy Awards. I鈥檓 so happy for Billy Porter and his amazing Emmy win! I鈥檝e known Billy since we were both starting out in non-Equity summer stock. I actually did my very first online deconstruction of his brilliant singing:
Here are two Billy moments I love and will never forget:
When he was starring in Angels in America in a dramatic role, I asked him to come on my radio show. He immediately agreed. When I asked him to end the segment with the song, his text response was: 鈥淕irl, I鈥檓 an actress 苍辞飞!鈥�
Another time, I knew he was away, but I called him anyway and asked him to perform at an event. His response then was, 鈥淭he word is vacation鈥� And I鈥檓 on it!鈥�
I鈥檓 so proud that he鈥檚 finally getting what he deserves. I remember his amazing show On The Corner of Broadway And Soul (which I saw at Joe鈥檚 Pub with my mom and sister, Beth, and again at Jazz at Lincoln Center with Andr茅a Burns) where he talked about the roles he wanted to play and how he wasn鈥檛 considered for many of them because he is black and gay. I was also so extremely frustrated he wasn鈥檛 a huge star (which he finally is!). I was constantly saying that someone needs to write him his Funny Girl, a show where he can show all the amazing things he can do.
In his one-man show, he spoke of his unfulfilled dream to play George in Sunday In The Park With George and ended the evening singing the title song, backed up by the Broadway Inspirational Voices 鈥攚ith an amazing arrangement by Michael McElroy. It鈥檚 so stunningly beautiful.
I had members of Boy Band Project on Seth Speaks; they do a Boy Band Brunch on various Sunday, It sounds like such a fun way to spend a Sunday: you eat brunch at the lovely The Green Room 42 and are serenaded by close harmony.
I was asking them for onstage mishaps stories and Chris Messina of Jersey Boys recalled when one of the actors portraying a member of The Four Seasons forgot the long monologue that led into a song. It was supposed to be spoken over the intro of the song and then all the guys would sing. Since he forgot the monologue, he tried to cover it up with one line: 鈥淗ere鈥檚 the Four Seasons!鈥� But there was a ton of music so鈥攖o fill up the time鈥攈e started on a low note, and did it Ed McMahon-style. Basically, throughout the long music vamp, instead of the audience hearing the monologue written by Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman, they heard 30-seconds of; 鈥淗e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-ere鈥檚 The Four Seasons!鈥�
While we were in L.A., James drove me to the Will & Grace set because I bought the costume I wore in the episode I filmed a few weeks ago. (I wound up wearing for Concert For America.) Since we were in the neighborhood, James decided to drive us by The Brady Bunch house. You know, the one that鈥檚 being renovated on HGTV. Even though we were disappointed because there鈥檚 a tarp blocking a full view from the street, we were thrilled to see a certain someone exiting the house. As we approached the curb, who walked out of the house and so close to the car that I waved frantically through the window? Christopher Knight! It was amazing! I guess Peter Brady actually does live in the Brady house?
Speaking of the Brady house, I am doing my show Deconstructing The Brady Bunch Variety Hour next Thursday, October 3 in Hartford, Connecticut! It鈥檚 so 鈥渙n trend鈥� considering the HGTV renovation show is such a hit. Get tickets and more info .
The very next day, I鈥檓 in Boston at the Emerson Colonial Theater with the super-talented Cheyenne Jackson. Tickets and more info for that one .
One of my favorite Cheyenne stories couples his amazing voice with his leading man looks:
Before he performed on the Tony Awards with Xanadu, he was told by the show鈥檚 powers-that-be that his shorts might be too short for the telecast and therefore too risqu茅 to help the show get on a national tour. Cheyenne told them that they had been using his bod to sell the show on various talk shows all year long and he'd be continuing in that tradition on the Tony Awards! He had regular shorts he鈥檇 sometimes wear and longer shorts as well. But for the Tony Awards, he decided to wear his shortest of his shorts.
Back to the Bradys: Before you come see me in Hartford, if you want a taste of that mind-boggling 鈥�70s show, .
Peace out!
