It is almost September. I was thinking of that saying 鈥淚f a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?鈥� and I changed it to 鈥淚f a summer happens and I don鈥檛 do any of the things I normally do in the summer, did it actually happen?鈥� Every summer for years, I do one or two Broadway cruises and I spend almost every weekend performing shows in Provincetown. Well, I haven鈥檛 done a cruise since February and I haven鈥檛 set foot in Provincetown. Yet, next week is September. Or is it?
Speaking of September, it鈥檚 back-to-school time (and I hope it鈥檚 remote learning for everyone!) and I have a new season of my podcast, Seth Rudetsky鈥檚 Back-To-School, coming out! My second season is going to start very soon with the hilarious Martin Short, but why don鈥檛 you listen to my first season first? The podcast is all about celebrities in high school and my premiere episode starred Tina Fey! Then I had Vanessa Williams, Jason Alexander, Bob the Drag Queen, Allison Janney, Michael Urie, Bebe Neuwirth, Rosie O鈥橠onnell, and Sean Hayes.
On Tuesday we had a reunion of some amazing musical theatre graduates from Carnegie Mellon University on Stars In The House. Jack Plotnick, Michael McElroy, Tami Tappan, Ty Taylor, Eric Woodall and Billy Porter all went to school there and joined us. Before the show, James said I was acting like I went there with them and I sort of feel like I did!
I became friends with Billy and Eric the year before they graduated, when we all worked at Candlewood Theatre over the summer. Eric (who became a big casting director in New York and now runs North Carolina Theater) was an intern for the summer and appeared in all the shows鈥� ensembles. And Billy was cast in Dreamgirls as C. C. White, Effie鈥檚 brother. We all kept in touch and Billy called me the following winter to say he was in a production of Dreamgirls in Pittsburgh with a lot of CMU (Carnegie Mellon) peeps and the music director needed help sassing it up. I flew down, stayed with him and had an amazing time with that cast, including Natalie Venetia Belcon (Gary Coleman in Avenue Q) as Deena, Michael McElroy as Curtis, Vanita Harbour as Lorrell, and Virginia Woodruff as Effie. We all had such a great time laughing about old times like...
The time there was a production of A Little Night Music with Jack as Henrik. For some reason, things kept going officially wrong with the production, including Jack completely losing his voice and Eileen Kaden Dean, who played Charlotte, having to have emergency appendix surgery. Jack finally admitted, years later, that he and Natascia Diaz caused it all. Turns out, they were constantly backstage during rehearsal running lines from a scene they were working on鈥�.from the show Macbeth! Everyone knows that if you say 鈥淢acbeth鈥� in a theatre, you have bad luck! And when I say, Jack lost his voice, I mean it was gone. He couldn鈥檛 sing at all.
Here鈥檚 how they 鈥渟olved鈥� it:
During 鈥淎 Weekend In The Country,鈥� which is a group number, Henrik has a big solo near the end of the song. The director had Ty Taylor sing Jack鈥檚 solo while standing in back of Jack鈥nd Jack was told to walk around and act as if Ty was expressing what he was thinking. So, it was a lot of Jack pacing and making a 鈥渢hinking鈥� face while Ty sang up a storm. Audience enjoyment = possible. Audience confusion = complete.
The other problem that needed solving was Jack鈥檚 big song, 鈥淟ater.鈥� The solution was to have Jack lipsync it all while having Billy Porter sing it into a microphone backstage. Well, the song began and Jack started lipsync-ing it as Billy sang. However, Billy鈥檚 microphone wasn鈥檛 working! So, poor Jack was center stage where he could vaguely hear Billy singing backstage, but the audience heard nothing! Jack had no choice but to 鈥渟ing鈥� the song with his horrible raspy voice down the octave. This time, audience enjoyment = Zero. #ThanksMacbeth
Speaking of Billy, he got to Stars In The House five minutes late. Why? He had to take a phone call with Amy Klobuchar. For real! And, if you don鈥檛 know, he had just sung on the DNC. Yes, he鈥檚 hobnobbing with Michelle Obama and Presidential candidates, or, as he described himself as soon as he came on: 鈥淪he鈥檚 a political b*tch now!鈥�
Billy said that when he came into CMU, he could sing and dance, but knew he had to work on his acting. He remembered a student talent show freshman year when Jack asked Billy to do a comedy scene playing a construction worker. Billy told him that he appeared too gay to play a construction worker and he wasn鈥檛 funny. Jack told him to give it a chance, that Jack would direct him. Trust him. Billy remembers agreeing and when he finally did the scene, his first line got such a big laugh that they had to hold! Billy had tears in his eyes recalling the story. Billy thanked Jack for 鈥渟eeing him鈥� in a way that the teachers weren鈥檛 able to see him. He said Jack saw an aspect of him that the people who were being paid to see their students鈥� capabilities weren鈥檛 seeing. It was so moving!
Throughout the live stream, there was so much support between them all. Ty talked about when Billy created the role of Teen Angel in Grease (please watch!)
Billy knew that the role of Doody (originated by Sam Harris) was going to open up and told Ty to have his agent get him an audition. Ty鈥檚 agent wouldn鈥檛 submit him because the only 鈥渂lack role鈥� was Teen Angel. Billy then told him to call Jeff Calhoun (the director) directly and Ty went in and got the part. And, he lamented, he still had to pay his agent his commission鈥or a role his agent wouldn鈥檛 submit him for!
Side note: I was conducting a matin茅e or Grease one day and I told Ty he should change the ending of 鈥淢agic Changes鈥� and go to a high D flat instead of an A flat. I don鈥檛 know what I was thinking (I guess I didn鈥檛 think he would actually do it) and I don鈥檛 what he was thinking鈥ut he actually did it. And it was CRAZY. Not bad, not good鈥ut crazy!!!! We tried to recreate it in this Obsessed!.
And there are so many other memories. I remember a few years after college when Tami got the call to play Ellen in Miss Saigon and she is so naturally humble that she kept assuming it was for the understudy. The casting person had to reiterate it was for the role itself! If you鈥檝e never heard Tami, listen to this amazingness:
And McElroy and I will always bond over the 鈥渄ead-eyed vibrato鈥� we witnessed during a production of Dreamgirls. Here鈥檚 the whole story:
And, of course, Jack and I have been writing comedy together since we first officially worked together鈥ight after he graduated Carnegie Mellon and was cast as the swing in Pageant and I was the conductor. We began with a sketch show we called An Evening With Joyce DeWitt and got to Broadway with our musical Disaster!. He鈥檚 been spending his COVID-19 time making amazing videos. Here鈥檚 his latest:
In other news, my concert series is going strong! You can still see Stephanie J. Block鈥檚 concert on demand (where she sang from Funny Girl, The Cher Show, Wicked and so much more) and this coming Sunday at 8PM ET (and then Monday at 3PM ET) I鈥檓 with Sierra Boggess! Then Karen Olivo and then Jeremy Jordan! Info and tickets at
Here鈥檚 a song from Sunday鈥檚 concert when Rachel Bay Jones sang from Next To Normal (in which she starred last February at the Kennedy Center). SO GOOD!
Watch Rachel and then peace out!
