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

must have strep and since I'm allergic to penicillin, he gave me a Z-pack. He assured me, though, that I wasn't contagious anymore. But I felt terrible, so I had to cancel my afternoon tickets to Sunday in the Park With George . Devastating. Well, at least I could nap the whole afternoon. Really? Keep reading.
     
    Since James' mother is in town, I forced myself to go out for a quick lunch and then they all went to the South Street Seaport. I crawled back to my apartment to discover that James had my keys! Yay! It's fun to be locked out of your apartment with a fever and a white sweater on your tonsil. I had keys to James' apartment and slept there all day. By Sunday, I was determined not to cancel any more tickets, so I forced myself onto the subway and saw the amazing Gypsy . I'm so glad the show came to Broadway. People are always commenting, "Why do we need another revival of Gypsy ?" My comment is, "Why did it ever close?" It should have stayed running since 1959. It was so fantastic to see and hear a full orchestra again after having to suffer through various revivals with orchestra reductions, yet ticket inflations. And I loved that the audience was completely silent during the overture because it wasn't used as a section of music to settle the audience so the show could then begin — it was the beginning of the show. The cast is fantastic. How great to have Patti LuPone back in an old-school musical. I remember thinking what a long wait it was between Evita and then Anything Goes , but that was less than ten years! This has been 20! I know she did her own show on Broadway, as well as plays and Sweeney Todd , but I'm talking old-school, high belt, stand center stage on zero and tear-it-up musical comedy.
     
    Side note: speaking of standing on zero, I was lecturing to some school kids about Broadway with a bunch of cast members from Phantom and explaining to them that Broadway shows have numbers on the edge of the stage so people know where to stand so they don't block each other/bump into each other. The cast members told me that Phantom doesn't use them! I was aghast and then thought that maybe they didn't need them for dance formations. But I was then informed that there are indeed formations, and the cast is told things like "Line your body up to the slight crack you'll see upstage" or "Make sure you land that jeté where the stage paint is slightly lighter." I heard it's a nightmare for the swings because they're not familiar enough with the stage to know where the cracks or fading paint is. Attention Phantom artistic staff: it's been twenty years! I'll paint the numbers on for you — it'll take me five minutes!
     
    The lighting guy from Phantom said that Tony Walton didn't like to have literal numbers on the stage, so he'd theme them to whatever show he was doing. During Guys and Dolls , they all looked like playing cards, and during Forum they were all Roman numerals. In other words, V was actually 5, hilariously prompting Nathan Lane to have a breakdown during rehearsal and say that there was no way to find your number unless you had a classics degree.
     
    Patti got a standing ovation after "Rose's Turn," and I think it was the first time I've been in a Broadway theatre where a standing ovation has happened in the middle of the show. Unless you count Good Vibrations , but the standing was then followed by walking out . Years later, my good friend, the brilliant Andrea Martin, also got regular mid-show standing ovations in PIPPIN.
     
    Even though Dr. Clements said I wasn't contagious, I was too scared to go backstage afterwards, so I sent James with his mom, and he congratulated Laura Benanti for her brava-ness. James complimented her on the last scene of Act One, where she so clearly showed the devastation of June leaving with Tulsa, then the joy of finally being a family, then the horror of witnessing Rose's steely denial. James said that he learned from me to be specific in his compliments after he sees