Hello from many feet in the air! James and I are headed to California for a few days. When we land, James is staying in L.A. and visiting old friends, while my friend Jack Plotnick and I are headed down to Palm Desert to visit my Dad and his wife Gloria.
Back to my Palm Desert trip: Broadway beltress Alix Korey lives in 鈥渢he desert,鈥� as they call it, and I first became a fan of hers when I heard her brilliant performance of David Friedman鈥檚 鈥淢y Simple Xmas Wish.鈥� .
I remember interviewing Alix about her run in the late 1970鈥檚 tour of Hello, Dolly!. She played Minnie Fay and Carol Channing was reprising her role as Dolly. Alix鈥檚 sister was getting married and Alix asked if she could take off a performance to go the wedding. All was approved until right before the wedding. She was solemnly called into Carol鈥檚 dressing room by Carol鈥檚 husband, Charles Lowe, who was also Carol鈥檚 manager. Charles pointed at Carol and asked Alix if she truly was going to let this great star go on with an understudy. It was a very dramatic guilt trip and Alix, who was a young actress, felt enormous pressure and felt she had no recourse. In the end, Alix missed her own sister鈥檚 wedding. The good news is that after that horrific experience, Alix got onto the Equity council and became one of the pioneers who got Equity to officially recognize personal days, so actors are now allowed to miss a show for a wedding, funeral, etc. Brava!
The other craziness that was happening in the 鈥�70s and early 鈥�80s was random firings. I have friends who did the A Chorus Line tour and they told me that Michael Bennett would come to the show in various cities and, when he arrived, everyone knew that meant trouble. Situations would happen where an understudy would be on, Michael would be impressed with that person鈥檚 performance and then have them take over the role. Yes, it was cool that an understudy would take over a role, but it also meant firing the person who actually had the role! My friend in the cast said that the day after Michael would be there, the cast would be standing in their signature A Chorus Line poses and they鈥檇 look up and down the line to see who remained from their regular cast. They likened it to Agatha Christie鈥檚 And Then There Were None because you never knew who was going to be missing the next day. Well, the good news is that all those random firings led to the new rules where you now have to be written up three times before you can be officially fired.
I remember being fired from one of my very first jobs I got after college; I was asked to play second keyboard at the Darien Dinner Theatre. I was still living with my mom in the house I grew up in and I would take the LIRR to Brooklyn where I鈥檇 be picked up by fellow musicians and drive to Darien, CT. Then, after the show, they鈥檇 drive me back to the Brooklyn LIRR stop and I鈥檇 go back to Long Island. When I told my Mom we had a show on New Year鈥檚 Eve, she forbid me from being in a car on New Year鈥檚 Eve because the roads are filled with 鈥渓unatics.鈥� Yes, I was 21 and when my mother forbid something, I listened. I told the conductor of the show that I couldn鈥檛 do the show but he didn鈥檛 tell me to get a sub. (P.S. I didn鈥檛 even know what a sub was鈥 had just graduated school! It was all new to me. Instead, he told me that the boyfriend of the comedic lead would be at the show and he could sit at my keyboard. That way, it would like someone was playing and no one would notice my absence. I assumed that was a normal thing to do and said I鈥檇 see him after the New Year. Well, on the day I was going to return, I got a frantic phone call from him telling me that the woman who ran the theatre figured out that there was a non-keyboard player sitting in my chair and I was therefore fired. What the-? I didn鈥檛 come up with that Lucy/Ricardo-esque scheme. Anyhoo, the good news is that even though it was the first time I was fired it definitely wasn鈥檛 the last! Wait. Why is that good news?
Speaking of good news, I went to see Fairy Cakes and had such a great time. It鈥檚 such a cast of comedy superstars! Here we are after the show with Mo Rocca and Ann Harada!
We saw that last weekend, but this weekend I have Kathryn Gallagher on The Seth Concert Series. Yes, you may have first heard of her because she was recently Tony nominated for her performance in Jagged Little Pill but I first met her when she was 7-years-old and I was doing a benefit with her Dad, Peter Gallagher (On The Twentieth Century, The O.C.). She鈥檚 known as a rocker now, but she was a major musical theatre kid. We鈥檙e going to be reprising some roles she did back in the day, like her signature Mama Rose, which took place when she was the appropriate age of 13. Also, her Baker鈥檚 Wife that she portrayed opposite Ben Platt鈥檚 Baker! And we鈥檒l feature her Tracy Turnblad from Hairspray as well the other time she did Hairspray and played Corny Collins...re-named Cornelia Collins!
I do this live concert series every Sunday at 8 PM ET. It鈥檚 a little bit of a headache for me because me show Seth鈥檚 Broadway Breakdown has Sunday matinees at 4PM. So, I end at 5:30 PM, then do the 鈥渕eet and greets鈥� I have with the audience members that purchased them, and then rush home to do the sound check/dress rehearsal, which starts around 6:20 PM. Speaking of the sound check/dress rehearsals, if you buy tickets to my December lineup, you get free access to the sound checks where which are so fun because we often run songs we wind up not doing in the concert! My December stars are Jos茅 Llana (who asked if we can do Christmas songs, even though it鈥檚 early December, and I said 鈥測es!鈥�); Jessica Vosk, fresh off her sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall; and Andrew Barth Feldman, who鈥檚 no longer playing Evan Hansen because he鈥檚 now at Harvard. (Tip o鈥� the hat to Elle Woods in Legally Blonde?)
Get tix to all my concert at .
By the way, I just got extended again! I鈥檓 now playing Seth鈥檚 Broadway Breakdown in December in addition to my Friday night 11 PM performance for Thanksgiving Weekend. You can see a Broadway show and then come see my show!
If you haven鈥檛 seen me deconstruct/break down music, , since he went to high school with Kathryn. Watch, then peace out.
