Sirius XM Host Seth Rudetsky Shares Tales from Broadway

Broadway aficionado, insider and Sirius XM radio host, Seth Rudetsky, shares hilarious stories about iconic figures on the Great White Way.

2/6/17 #2014

Excerpt:

"There he is! Seth Rudetsky is a musician, actor, and writer. And that is a handsome face with talent. And energy. He's also a SiriusXM Broadway host. How you doing? It's all good. It is, isn't it? Mm hmm. Born and raised, he's the pride of Long Island. True dat. And by the way, tell folks... Oberlin? The Conservatory? I went to Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio for four years. And you knew that you loved music when? Oh. My parents took me to see my first Broadway show, which was Hair. Nude! [laughter] When I was five. And I became obsessed with Broadway. But I was also a classical pianist. So I was half Broadway, half classical piano. Okay. So here's the thing. Yes. I'm curious about this. You played the piano in about a dozen Broadway productions? Yeah. First one was? First one I played piano for was Les Mis, which was the long version. Three hours and fifteen minutes. They cut the fifteen minutes off for overtime reasons after ten years. But I did the three hour, fifteen minute version. It was brutal. But it was cool. Brutal? Because I was playing on Broadway. But it was also brutal. First time when you were there? Did you actually say to yourself, "I'm on Broadway"? Oh, you know, throughout the whole thing, especially... especially doing what I would do, where I would come into shows when they were running, cause I had listened to Les Mis for years, then suddenly go like, "Oh my God! I'm the one playing the ba-da-da-da, da-da-da-da-da!" It was very cool to be playing what you listen to. Or Phantom of the Opera. I'd be like, "Da, da-da-da-da-da!" I'm like, "Oh my God! I heard this on the record all the time! Now I'm the one doing it!" Very exciting. Broadway itself. I mean, the whole Broadway...? Yeah. ...thing? What fascinates you about it that you can talk about it, and draw people into it, on a regular basis? It's interesting. I don't know if that's an... It's an interesting question. I just love it. And I love describing what I love. I guess that's it. I do the thing called deconstructing. I do all these videos, and I do this one person show that I've done like, All Over the World, called deconstructing, where I deconstruct what I love about it. But I can't say... By the way, the New York Times said they loved it, right? I don't want to brag! The point is... [laughter] I said it! [laughter] Not you! Thank you. [laughter] I don't want to say that. I can't say what I love about it, but when I play something I can go, "This is what's amazing about it." And I can deconstruct what's brilliant. But..."