Theater: SETH’S BROADWAY BREAKDOWN (Asylum NYC)

SETH’S BROADWAY BREAKDOWN
OPENS AT ASYLUM NYC

Seth Rudetsky, SiriusXM’s afternoon Broadway host, musician, actor and award-winning comic, has opened his hilarious one-man homage to Broadway at Asylum NYC. Celebrating Broadway’s return, Seth’s Broadway Breakdown continues its run Sat & Sun at 4 thru December, 2021. The 90-minute comedic tour-de-force breaks down musical theatre with Seth’s trademark “deconstructions”; his breakdowns go from the sublime (the straight-tone-to-vibrato of Ben Platt in Dear Evan Hansen, the belted E from Nell Carter in Ain’t Misbehavin’) to the “interesting” (The Osmonds unique take on Fiddler On The Roof.)

At the beginning of the show, Seth remarks that when Broadway musicals went away in March 2020, we realized we’d been taking them for granted. But now that they’re coming back, we must take a solemn vow to fully appreciate them! How? He states: “I believe if we learn to break down Broadway songs and singers… and understand what makes them brilliant (or not!)…. we will enjoy them that much more. We need to embrace the brilliance of Broadway musicals and truly give them the appreciation they deserve so they never leave us again!”

This award-winning show began as Deconstructing Broadway, and has played across the United States and Canada, as well as to sold-out crowds in London, where it received 5-star reviews. Check out one of Seth’s deconstructions “Barbra Streisand vs Bea Arthur!”

Seth began working on Broadway as a sub pianist for shows like Les Misérables, Ragtime and Phantom Of The Opera. He soon connected with Hearts and Voices, an organization that brings live weekly performances to hospitalized people with AIDS and began volunteering for them in 1992, performing at: Rivington House, Roosevelt Island Hospital, the prison ward at St. Clare’s Hospital and the Cardinal Cooke AIDS ward.

In 2001, he produced and conducted Dreamgirls starring Heather Headley, Audra McDonald and Lillias White, the first fall concert for The Actors Fund, which was recorded on Nonesuch Records and raised almost $1 million for The Fund. He then did Funny Girl with Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, Chess with Adam Pascal, Norm Lewis and Josh Groban, Hair with Jennifer Hudson (Ghostlight Records, Grammy nomination), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas with Terrence Mann and Jennifer Hudson and On The Twentieth Century with Marin Mazzie and Kathleen Turner. He also starred opposite Sutton Foster in The Actors Fund production of They’re Playing Our Song and hosted and played piano for an array of divas for their 2009 Nothing Like A Dame concert with Betty Buckley, Stephanie J. Block, Audra McDonald, Kelli O’Hara and Bebe Neuwirth.

On SiriusXM, he is the afternoon Broadway host on SiriusXM Radio and also hosts the talk show “Seth Speaks” and the podcast “Seth Rudetsky’s Back To School” where he interviews celebrities like Allison Janney, Bowen Yang and Vanessa Williams all about their high school years. Seth co-wrote (with Jack Plotnick) and co-starred in Disaster! on Broadway, which was co-produced by his husband, James Wesley and is now licensed by MTI. Seth and James also co-produced the Broadway for Orlando recording of “What the World Needs Now Is Love” featuring stars like Carole King, Gloria Estefan, Sara Bareilles, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Billy Porter. The song charted on the Billboard Hot 100, reached #1 on iTunes, and raised over $100,000 for the GLBT Center of Orlando. Seth and James also organized the group to sing at the Democratic National Convention in 2016. Seth and James also produce Voices for the Voiceless which has starred Darren Criss, Tina Fey and Tituss Burgess, an annual fundraiser for You Gotta Believe, which helps older foster children find loving homes.

As a writer, he was nominated for three Emmy awards for comedy writing on “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” and is the author of three volumes of “Seth’s Broadway Diary” which has tons and tons of inside Broadway stories (Dress Circle Publishing) and “My Awesome Awful Popularity Plan” and its sequel “The Rise and Fall of a Theater Geek” (published by Random House), a young adult series about a teenaged gay kid named Justin Goldblatt, who’s obsessed with theater and sports a Jewfro.

photos by Arin Sang-urai

Seth’s Broadway Breakdown
produced by Asylum Artistic Director Alan Kliffer
Asylum NYC, 307 W 26th St
Sat & Sun at 4p
for tickets, visit See Tickets