Free Seth's Broadway Diary, Volume 1: Part 2 by Seth Rudetsky

ringing. It was Jen Cody. I picked up. "Oh My God. I have to watch every week now. I have so much material." I guess she meant material to bust me on... and I say brava! Bring it! As a matter of fact, I did a whole deconstruction on the first episode, ending with the mortifying close up of me talking to the girls while I was standing in a pageant girl bevel . You can watch them all on SethTV.com.
     
    On Wednesday, I went to a matinee with my mom. I informed her that it was the same theatre where she first took me to see Hair when I was a toddler. I pointed out the seats I remembered sitting in (house left) and felt so moved being in the same theatre where I saw my first show. My mom was mind-boggled that I remembered so much, but I reminded her that I've always had a flawless memory… especially for something that meant so much to me. It wasn't until around five minutes later that I realized we were sitting in the Belasco, and Hair played at the Biltmore. I decided to not tell my mother who was sitting with a wistful smile, tinged with yesteryear. Anyhoo, the thing I loved the most about Passing Strange is that my mother loved it. She's 76! Brava on reaching across the generations. As I was leaving the theatre, I heard the tail end of a conversation between the woman in back of me and her friend:
     
    "I loved what the guy on stage said."

    "Which one?"
    "The black one."

    (Knowingly) "O-o-o-o-oh."
     
    Huh? All the guys in the show are black. At this point, I still can't figure out which woman is the bigger idiot.
     
    On Thursday, I interviewed two of the Passing Strange stars, who I thought were fantastic: de'Adre Aziza and Daniel Breaker. Just for symmetry, he told me to call him de'Aniel Breaker . Later on she did WOMEN ON THE VERGE and he played the donkey in SHREK . They are both super nice, talented and funny. De'Adre told me that after college, she was working as an intern at The Public and wanted to start auditioning for shows there, but they said she couldn't do both, so she quit. Years later , they finally called her in for the reading of Passing Strange . She told me that it was her first reading, first workshop, first out-of-town show and first Broadway show! And, I added, her first Tony nomination! Brava! They were so cute talking about their Tony nominations. Daniel said his parents didn't really know when the Tony nominations happened, so it was a lot of phone calls for days before, "Hey, it's us. Were you nominated?" Then the night before the nominations, he couldn't get to sleep 'til 5 AM… and then woke up at 7! Because the Tony nominations were released online first, he read it there… but thought it was a mistake. I thought that was very sweet. De'Adre took her son to school around 7:30 and was too tired to stay up. She got up at 11 and read on Playbill.com that the show got a ton of nominations. She didn't think of herself, though. Then she saw her name and, à la Daniel, kept thinking it was a mistake. She finally called her mother who broke down crying on the phone while at work. Unfortunately, her mom is a teacher, so her students were probably a little traumatized seeing their teacher sobbing on the phone… but that's what school psychiatrists are for.
     
    Friday night, James and I saw Sunday in the Park With George or as cockney Dot pronounces it, Soonday in the Park With George . I am so obsessed with Jenna Russell. She has so many great comic moments, but they totally seem in the moment and not pre-planned. And it was so great to see my old Ritz friend David Turner in the role of the German servant and my buddy Anne L. Nathan as the Nurse. They still got it! Backstage, I asked Jenna to regale me and James with another Les Miz story, and she said that in London, the Eponine dressing room had a window that was on the exact same level as the top of a double-decker bus. Jenna said that the girl playing Eponine would put on her end-of-show death makeup early and have nothing to do. So, she'd