BROADWAY’S BIGGEST FAN

Talk/variety show creator-pianist-music director-radio host-author Seth Rudetsky brings his love of musical theater and quick wit to the Wallis.

/ BY LIBBY SLATE /

THE ROLE OF green witch Elphaba in the Broadway blockbuster musical Wicked, which brought stardom and a Tony Award to Idina Menzel, was actually originated pre-Broadway by Stephanie J. Block, who later won her own Tony Award as Cher in The Cher Show

That’s but one of the fascinating facts audiences have learned in the presence of Seth Rudetsky, whether in person at a theater or via radio or the Internet livestream. Rudetsky’s passion for and encyclopedic knowledge of Broadway musical theater, not to mention his piano-playing skills, have brought him a multifaceted career on and off the stage.

He returns to the Wallis in Beverly Hills May 4 for the second of two evenings this season featuring a concert and conversation with a Broadway star. In March it was Lillias White; previous shows at the Wallis have starred Audra McDonald and Chita Rivera. This time it’s the aforementioned Block.

“People often don’t know that Stephanie was the original star of Wicked—she went to all the workshops and readings, and then when it was going to come to Broadway they decided they needed someone established,” Rudetsky says. “So we’re going to tell a lot of really fun stories about Wicked, and how all those songs were first written for her. It will be a great night, because she’s funny, an amazing actress, and her voice is amazing, too.”

Some of each show is impromptu, in part because of Rudetsky’s penchant for pivoting to the unexpected should the occasion arise. When he discovered during their conversation that Sutton Foster had starred in a non-Broadway production of Annie, for instance, he made her sing “Tomorrow” on the spot.

“You just never know where it’s going to go,” he says. “They’re always going to sing the biggest hits from their biggest shows. But instead of scripted patter, which I can’t stand, between songs we talk about whatever I want to. It’s very inside, highly comedic, and different at every single show.”

Take it from Stephanie J. Block herself. “Seth is the mayor of Broadway,” says the performer, who stars in a revival of Into the Woods at the

Ahmanson Theatre downtown June 27-July 30. “His passion for, and knowledge of, sassiness and musicality make for an absolute in-the-moment experience. It’s like riding a musical-theater roller coaster—exhilarating, unexpected, joyful, hilarious and sometimes panic-inducing. You will want to attend, ride, his concerts again and again.“

That roller coaster includes Rudetsky’s rapid-fire, stream-of-consciousness cheeky delivery, sprinkled with favorite words “ah-mahh-zing” and “anyhoo,” and the wideranging musical-theater knowledge that can produce the perfect tidbit from his mental archive for any topic being discussed.

Added to that are his skills at the keyboard: He has a degree in piano performance from

Oberlin College and played in the orchestras of such Broadway shows as Ragtime, Les Misérables and Phantom of the Opera Rudetsky and guests also share songs and stories on the Broadway-themed shows he hosts on SiriusXM Radio, on cruises and on Stars in the House, the talk/variety web series he and husband James Wesley created during pandemic lockdown. The series livestreamed daily until Broadway re-opened and now livestreams sporadically; it has raised almost $1.2 million for Entertainment Community Fund (formerly the Actors Fund) and money for other organizations, too.

Why such a strong interest in informing audiences about the behind-the-scenes of Broadway? He’s so

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