Seth Rudetsky announces DIVAS BY THE DECADE concert at Crazy Coqs
Seth is no stranger to Broadway and West End divas, having first appeared in London with a series of intimate and hilarious concerts opposite award-winning leading ladies Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Judy Kuhn and Jenna Russell. He coupled these concerts with his trademark Deconstructing Broadway show, receiving a clutch of stunning 5-star reviews, hailing him as “blindingly brilliant” “fantastic”, “hysterical”, a “must see”, and “nothing short of brilliant”.
In Divas By The Decade, produced by his husband James Wesley Jackson, Seth is ready to diva dish with scores of hilarious insider stories on the wonderful women who have helped make musical theatre what it is today.
Starting with “Why would I need a microphone?” Diva Ethel Merman, through the very first triple- threat diva, Chita Rivera, as well as “I originate every leading lady role that requires high belting” Elaine Paige, Seth will cover every diva who put their mark on musicals from the 1950s to today. Of course, perfectionist Barbra Streisand will get an entire section to herself, including the inside scoop on what she said to composer Marvin Hamlisch when he commented on her changing the melodies in Funny Girl as well as what she said to Seth backstage in Los Angeles after seeing him deconstruct her!
And just wait ‘til you hear these divas sing! From West Side Story to Wicked, Seth will share clips from his audio and video collection to demonstrate how these women became theatre’s brightest and
biggest stars. These are the ladies who created Evita, Dolly, Effie, Velma, Eponine, Elphaba and so many more iconic roles ... Divas By The Decade!
As a pianist, Seth has played in the orchestra pit on more than a dozen Broadway shows including Ragtime, Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera before making his Broadway acting debut in the play The Ritz at Studio 54 in 2007. As a comic, Seth was crowned “Funniest Gay Male in New York” at Stand-Up NY and was nominated for three Emmy awards alongside his fellow comedy writers on TV’s The Rosie O’Donnell Show. Seth co-wrote and starred in Broadway’s Disaster!, a comedic homage to 1970s disaster films, which the New York Times called a “triumph” and was a New York Times Critics’ Pick, and he is currently the afternoon Broadway host on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio, as well as the host of the weekly talk show Seth Speaks.
He was a comedy writer for the Grammy Award shows of 1999 and 2000 and wrote two opening numbers for The Tony Awards, including the 1998’s DIVA homage featuring Patti LuPone, Jennifer Holliday and Betty Buckley. Rudetsky had his short story published in 2005’s anthology Fresh Men 2: New Voice in Gay Fiction followed by Alyson Book’s The Q Guide to Broadway and then his first novel Broadway Nights (intro by Audra McDonald) and then three compilations of his weekly Playbill Columns called Seth’s Broadway Diary (intros by Nathan Lane and Lin-Manuel Miranda). In 2012, his first young adult novel, My Awesome/Awful Popularity Plan, was published by Random House and in 2015, he released a sequel, The Rise and Fall of a Theater Geek. His audio books include Broadway Nights (featuring Jonathan Groff, Kristin Chenoweth and Billy Porter) and My Awesome Awful Popularity Plan (featuring Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Megan Hilty and Josh Gad).
In 2020 as the Covid pandemic shut down Broadway theatres, Seth and his husband James Wesley Jackson created a daily live-streamed web series called Stars in the House to benefit The Actors Fund. Reuniting the stars of Broadway shows, TV series and movies, Stars in the House became a must watch event raising over $1.3 million to date for the Actors Fund and $700,000 for other charities, including NAACP LDF and The Humane Society. Seth has volunteered for decades for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and he recently founded The Jewish Broadway Alliance.
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