Hello from beautiful Provincetown!
I鈥檓 here with Melissa Errico, who begins her show in a giant pink dress and then turns her look into an homage to Barbie! Here鈥檚 a fun pic of us from the show. I will have fabulous videos and even more photos in my next column.
After Ptown, I come back to NYC and then fly to the West Coast, where I鈥檓 making an appearance that is part lecture, part interview, and part concert about my book Musical Theatre for Dummies. It will be packed with lots of hilar Broadway stories and videos! Because the JCC has two giant grand pianos, I decided to end my show with my ol鈥� chestnut, 鈥淩hapsody In Blue.鈥� I just performed it at French Woods Festival of the Arts with their orchestra and members of the Pittsburgh symphony. Here is a clip of the terrifying moment when the first violin鈥檚 music went flying off the stand because we were outdoors and it was windy! I used our measures of rest to bend down and hand back the sheet music so we could continue the piece. I鈥檓 not saying I deserve a medal, but you do the math!
if a similar emergency happens during 鈥淩hapsody in Blue鈥� at the San Diego JCC!
In last week鈥檚 column, I forgot to mention this fun story Mandy Gonzalez told me about her Broadway debut in Dance of the Vampires. Mandy played a young woman under the spell of a vampire played by Michael Crawford, and (spoiler alert) at the very end of the show, she became . . .a vampire! At the moment of conversion, Mandy would turn away from the audience and put specially-made vampire fangs in her mouth and then turn back around, shockingly revealing them! Well, the fangs were just a little longer than regular teeth and, as you probably know, Broadway musicals don鈥檛 have close-ups. So, when she would 鈥渞eveal鈥� the terrifying fangs, everyone past the fifth row would simply wonder, 鈥淲ait, what is she smiling about?鈥� Then blackout.
She did, however, get to sing the big Jim Steinman hit 鈥淭otal Eclipse of the Heart,鈥� so it鈥檚 all good, right?
On Seth Speaks, my SiriusXM talk show, I had Jackie Hoffman on to talk about her new show at Joe鈥檚 Pub August 15. I spent the whole interview recounting all of my favorite Jackie stories.
For instance, she was cast in Hairspray when she was 40 years old and had only worked Off-Broadway, in theatre that was decidedly low budget. When they first put on her wig for one of the three characters she played in Hairspray, she cried that there was no way she could ever do that herself. They explained to her that there would be someone at the show to put her wig on for her. Jackie replied through tears, with disbelief, 鈥淓very night?鈥�
I鈥檒l also never forget how hilarious she was when she hosted the Artios Awards, which is the awards show for casting directors. She pointed out Bernie Telsey, the casting director for Hairspray, and said, 鈥淏ernie, because of you, I have been playing three different roles in Hairspray for the last two years!鈥� Then she said, 鈥淎nd because of the rest of you, I have been playing three different roles in Hairpsray for the last two years.鈥�
(If you can鈥檛 understand the joke without the line reading, she was busting the other casting directors for not calling her in for any other job. Hilar!)
Of course, I鈥檓 thinking of Jackie because I鈥檓 playing the JCC in San Diego. She says that whenever she plays a JCC, there鈥檚 always someone in the audience who yells out 鈥淟辞耻诲别谤!鈥� And, after the show, someone will undoubtedly approach and say, 鈥淐an I say something?鈥� which, she claims, is Jewish for 鈥�I鈥檓 gonna say something!鈥�
One of my absolute favorite Jackie jokes is when she was raging about someone from her childhood calling her when she was one of the stars of The Addams Family on Broadway. He left her a message saying, 鈥淛ackie, it鈥檚 Mordechai. I heard you鈥檙e in a show. I wanna see you in the show. Call me back and tell me how to get tickets to the show.鈥�
Jackie would tell us the message and then yell, 鈥淚鈥檓 on Broadway! I don鈥檛 tell you how to get tickets, you go online, and you buy tickets to the show like everyone else who comes to a show on Broadway!鈥� She continued with, 鈥淒o you think Bebe Neuwirth gets calls like that?鈥� Then, in Bebe鈥檚 calm, measured voice, she鈥檇 go, 鈥淗i, Mordechai. It鈥檚 Bebe calling you back. My show has 8 PM performances Tuesdays through Saturdays. There is also a 2 PM matinee on Wednesdays and Saturdays and then a 3 PM matinee on Sundays. You can get tickets at the box office or by contacting Telecharge.com. And now, Mordechai, I have to go. I have a lot more calls to make.鈥�
I love it!
After Jackie, I had Claybourne Elder on the show鈥攈e also has a show coming up at Joe鈥檚 Pub that he鈥檚 taken around the country. His show is called I Want to Be Evil because he was told when he was growing up as a Mormon (which he is not anymore) that doing New York theatre and having a gay relationship were bad. So basically, everything he truly wanted was 鈥渆vil.鈥�
During the interview, he told me that when he was a student at Brigham Young University, someone saw his car in a gay bar parking lot and reported him. He was then kicked out of the school for being gay. After that trauma, Clay went with his then-boyfriend on his first trip to NYC. He got standing-room tickets to Spelling Bee and, afterwards, a man came up to him and told him he looked like he was loving the show even more than the people in the expensive seats. The man told him he should buy two tickets to Sweeney Todd saying it would 鈥渃hange his life.鈥� The man then gave Clay $200! He didn鈥檛 want anything in return, but Clay asked if he could at least take a photo. Clay didn鈥檛 post it and 鈥渢ag鈥� him, because this was pre-obsessive social media. Well, Clay went to Sweeney Todd (the 2006 revival with Michael Cerveris, directed by John Doyle), and he flipped out. He had never seen anything so dark and so theatrical. It really did change his life because it made him fully commit to wanting to do theatre, and it disproved what he had learned growing up, that people in big cities, NYC, theatre, or outsiders were not kind. There actually were kind people all around the world.
So, flash forward. Claybourne moves to NYC and gets his first big job. Remember how he wanted to do theatre like Sweeney Todd? AKA a Sondheim musical directed by John Doyle starring Michael Cerveris? Well, Clay got a great role at the Public Theater in Road Show, which was a Sondheim musical directed by John Doyle starring Michael Cerveris! It was that literal! That鈥檚 not even the end of the story.
Years later, he got cast in the recent revival of Company, starring Patti LuPone. Company is another Sondheim musical, and Patti was the other star of Sweeney Todd! Even more full circle. Unfortunately, Claybourne got COVID and had to miss two weeks of performances. When he came back, he decided to do what the nice man had done for him years before. He bought two tickets to the show and offered them to someone who needed them. He made the announcement on Instagram, and he got requests from people who wanted the tix, but he also started getting donations from people to buy more tickets. Lots of donations! Clay started doing the ticket giveaways for more and more shows and eventually decided to turn the whole endeavor into an official organization. Patti鈥檚 lawyer offered free help so Clay could become a non-profit, and now his group has given away thousands of tickets to people 鈥渨ho can鈥檛 afford a Broadway ticket or don鈥檛 feel welcome in a Broadway space.鈥� Follow, request, and donate at . Isn鈥檛 that great?!
Oh! And the best part is when he first bought those two tickets to give away, he told the story about the man at Spelling Bee on his Instagram and posted that photo of himself with the mysterious stranger. Well, Clay soon got a call from his The Gilded Age cast mate, Douglas Sills, who told him he actually knew the mysterious man! The man鈥檚 name is Mark Howell, and he owns an advertising agency in L.A. He and Doug have been friends for decades! Doug arranged a FaceTime call surprising Mark with Claybourne who was, of course, weeping! The whole thing needs to be a Lifetime movie ASAP! Well, as soon as the Writers Guild/SAG-AFTRA strike is settled!
Well, I decided the unsung hero of this story is Doug Sills. I looked for a video of something we鈥檝e done together and found the quartet from the Actors Fund production of On The Twentieth Century, featuring Doug, Brooks Ashmanskas, Brad Oscar, Chris Sieber, Jo Anne Worley, and the late, great Marin Mazzie!
Enjoy!
