Seth Rudetsky knows a things or two about musical theater. It is pretty much his entire life. If you listen to SiriusXM On Broadway (and you should) than you have very likely heard one of Rudetsky’s many shows where he either playing his favorite Broadway tunes or recalling some his of his favorite moments in theater history. When is not busy with the channel On Broadway, Seth is preparing for his upcoming show Disaster! which is coming to Broadway. But that is not all. Rudetsky regularly pens a column for Playbill where he shares some his many experiences “Onstage and Backstage.” Recently, Seth tried shared a story will resonate with all of us who have been stuck in September at some point in our lives. Check out the report below to see what Rudetsky remembers about his time in The Fantasticks.
Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones’ theatrical classic The Fantasticks is one of the longest running and most widely produced musicals of all time. You would be hard pressed to find a theater actor who doesn’t have the show on their resume. So it should come as no surprise to you to learn that Seth Rudetsky has had some experience with this show. Recently Seth took us all the back to his high school:
“Jack (my co-writer and director of Disaster!) told me that his high school theatre teacher from Ohio was coming to New York and he asked her to watch rehearsals. I thought that was so fantastic, I invited my high school theatre teacher, too! I had one really great year of high school theatre when our regular teacher was on sabbatical, and Mary Hall came to teach during sophomore year. Back then she was Ms. Wilamowski, but she got married by the end of the year and became Mrs. Hall.”
Rudetsky went on to show just how devoted he was to musical theater, musing:
“Backstory: One of the roles in which she cast me that year was 'the man who dies' in The Fantasticks, opposite the brilliant Eric Ronis who played the old actor. I cannot tell you how much I loved doing that musical. However, if you know the show, you know that the two characters come out of a trunk that sits onstage and is full of props. Well, I played piano for the show Off-Broadway, and (spoiler alert) the trunk is actually missing the entire back so the two actors crawl into it about five minutes before they're revealed. We did our show in the small theatre in our high school, so there was no way for us to sneak in without being seen. We had to be in there for the entire first part of the show. And in order to make sure the audience didn't see us, we had to get in before the audience arrived! So we were crammed in that trunk around an hour! Not since Room. But I remember how much fun it was to do that show.”
You can read the rest of Rudetsky’s Playbill Onstage and Backstage column here.
Check out Seth on Siriusxm On Broadway Channel 72.
Previews for Disaster begin on Feb 09 and officially opens on March 8 at The Nederlander Theatre, 208 West 41st Street New York, NY, 10036.
