While other kids were quoting sports stats, Seth Rudetsky was quoting how many Es and Fs his favourite singers, Betty Buckley and Patti Lupone, could hit.
The Broadway guru has a self-described “obsession” with high-belters — or singers who can practically shatter glass with their high-pitched voices (according to Rudetsky, Lupone hit 16 Es in a row while playing the title role in the musical Evita).
His one-man multi-media comedy show, Rhapsody in Seth, is being brought to Red Deer’s The Matchbox on Oct. 14 to 16 by Ignition Theatre.
The show will focus, in part, on how Rudetsky’s escapist interests in music and theatre helped him deal with his awkward childhood.
For while the Broadway music director, comedy writer, actor and satellite radio host grew up in Long Island, where being musically talented was praised — being gay was not.
The show will not only feature vintage footage of Rudetsky jazz dancing in leg warmers to I Am What I Am, he also plans to compare the “sassy” belting techniques of Buckley in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Lupone in Evita and Laurie Beechman in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.
Rudetsky, who is not above doing lip-synching parodies of celebrity singers with hefty egos, will also demonstrate “chest and head voice placement,” courtesy of Janis Paige’s performance in The Pajama Game.
He has been nominated for three Emmy Awards for his writing on the Rosie O’Donnell Show and a Grammy Award for his work producing the Actor’s Fund Benefit Concert of Hair, featuring Jennifer Hudson and Adam Pascal.
In New York, Rudetsky was most recently seen in the Marvin Hamlisch/ Neil Simon musical They’re Playing Our Song.
He is also the host of a daily show on Sirius Satellite Radio and was featured on Law & Order, MTV’s Legally Blonde: The Search for Elle Woods and Bravo’s Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List. He also had a recurring role on the soap All My Children.
Rudetsky has performed with The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Mamma Mia and Grease, among many Broadway musicals.
He was in Red Deer last year for a sold out performance of his show Deconstructing Broadway.
Tickets to the 7:30 p.m. show are $22 ($18 students/ seniors) from The Matchbox box office.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com