fabulous night

On Monday evening, the roommate and I went to a hilarious benefit for the Actor's Fund. The event was a faux master class led by Broadway personality Seth Rudetsky. Called "Broadway 101", Rudetsky talked about the different aspects of Broadway theatre, from who is an orchestrator (the person who takes a composer's piano arrangement and makes it for an orchestra) to what is a swing (understudy for the ensemble). He also used Broadway performers to demonstrate said lessons. One of my favorite moments is when he had Andrea McArdle (the original Annie in ANNIE demonstrate the chest voice by singing "Tomorrow". I feel like I have fulfilled musical theatre prophesy by seeing her sing that song. I honestly had chills...it was unreal to see live part of musical theatre history. There were so many great moments, and Rudetsky was hilarious. I laughed most of the evening, and was so sad when it ended. I was so happy to support the Actor's Fund, which is a wonderful organization. I can only wish that there will be "Broadway 102", "Broadway 201", up through graduate level courses. Oh, the show opened with him talking about the practise of orchestra pits being shrunk down to 9 people from the normal 26. An orchestra of 9 played the beginning of the overture to GYPSY. He quickly stopped them and invited the rest of the group out to bring the orchestra to the full 26. When they played the overture, it was like a little bit of heaven.

photo credit: www.sheilaomalley.com