Interview: Seth Rudetsky Talks Upcoming Concerts With Brian Stokes Mitchell, Vanessa Williams & Jane Krakowski

Seth Rudetsky's Broadway, the popular concert series hosted by the one and only Seth Rudetsky (Sirius/XM Radio star, creator and co-host of Stars in the House, and more), features Broadway's biggest stars singing their greatest hits, and sharing behind the scenes stories- prompted by Rudetsky's questions- in a warm, funny, and unscripted format.

Tonight, Monday, April 4 at 8pm, Rudetsky will welcome Tony Award-winner Brian Stokes Mitchell to the stage of The Town Hall (123 W. 43rd Street)!

His additional upcoming live concerts include Vanessa Williams on June 20) and Jane Krakowski (on Sept. 12). BroadwayWorld will also virtually present The Seth Concert Series on April 13 at 8pm, featuring Six's Adrianna Hicks.

BroadwayWorld spoke with Rudetsky about what to expect his upcoming shows, his favorite un-planned onstage moments and more!

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You kept us all going through quarantine with Stars in the House, how does it feel now to be able to be back and performing in front of a live audience again?

Good! It feels like the most normal and the weirdest thing in the world. It's kind of both. It's so weird because it's so new, but it also feels like, "Oh, I still know how to do this."

For anyone who doesn't know, can you tell us what to expect with a Seth Rudetsky's Broadway concert?

Sure! I can't stand when I see a show that has scripted patter, so years ago I started this version of doing concerts where the artist will always do their greatest hits. So, let's say for Stokes, of course you're going to hear Ragtime and Kiss Me, Kate and all his greatest hits. But between songs it's not going to be the, "I've always loved Cole Porter," anything scripted, really you have no idea what we're going to talk about. Not that we're going to talk about, you know the government. But it's going to be really fun Broadway stories, and Stokes is not going to know what I'm going to ask him. It's always very freeform according to the audience and whatever anyone is in the mood for.

So, it ends up being incredibly spontaneous to the point where if someone.... I was doing a show with Sutton [Foster], she mentioned that she played Annie as a kid, which I did not know, but, of course, as soon as she said that I was like, "Andddd, hit it!" So, I ran to the piano and made her sing 'Tomorrow', in a healthy mix, it wasn't too high. But the point is, you never know what songs you're going to wind up doing, I always wind up surprising the audience with songs, and we never know what we're going to talk about. So, it's not like you can say, "Oh, I've seen this concert before," because it's never the same as anything they've ever done, and it's never the same as anything I've ever done, because it's different every single time.

That's such a treat for the audience to get to see something special and unique every single time, where you don't know what can happen. Like you said, your next concert is with Brian Stokes Mitchell, what is your favorite part about working with and performing with him?

The weirdest thing is, he's such a good dancer, which is such a crazy thing to bring up, but I remember when I first did 'It Ain't Necessarily So' with him, I was like, "Wait, what?" Two things people don't expect, he's an amazing dancer, and he's an amazing riffer, so that is the most incredible thing, when he hauls out a dance move, which he doesn't do that often in shows, or when he does an amazing riff. Those are the two things I love because it's so unique and it's so shocking. But, on top of that, of course, he's an incredible singer and performer, and he's just worked on so many classic shows. So, I like doing these classic songs with him. And he's also an amazing musician, so he's done these really cool arrangement of songs that are really fun and creative to play.

I feel like a lot of people don't know that he's a fantastic dancer!

Yeah, I mean, he came back to Broadway, one of his big shows in the 90s, he took over the lead in Jelly's Last Jam, which is a major dance show! He's got it going on.

In addition to Brian Stokes Mitchell, you have upcoming live concerts with Vanessa Williams and Jane Krakowski. I know this question could lead to so many stories, but with Vanessa and Jane, do you have favorite moments of theirs? Either on stage, or behind the scenes moments that pop into your mind?

Well, I'll never forget seeing Jane in Grand Hotel, I guess she was 21 and, oh my God, I just thought she was so amazing in that show. I was so flipped out from her, and I was walking down the street a couple months later, and I saw her and I just was like, "You're amazing!" She did not particularly react. But I did not know I would work with her a few years later. I'll never forget that performance and how brilliant it was. We had a very similar childhood, we were both kind of stage kids trying out for shows in New York, so I love talking to her about the 70s, and about going to open calls for Broadway shows. One of her first gigs, which we'll talk about, is this industrial she did, with her and Sarah Jessica Parker, and it's such a fun story. And what's crazy, is at her audition for it, her mom was in the balcony, and for opening night of Once Upon a Mattress, Jane gave Sarah a photo of them both doing the dance call for this audition, when they were 10 years old. And, of course, Jane's leg was like, all the way in the air, and Sarah said her leg is like, bent, crooked, and off to the side.

And in terms of Vanessa Williams, a lot of people don't know she's a major musical theatre gal. She was a musical theatre major, and Miss America was just this random thing that she did not pursue at all, she was not a pageant person. So, I love talking about musical theatre with her, and also making her perform. One of my first jobs was playing her rehearsals for Kiss of the Spiderwoman, when she took over for Chita Rivera. So, I'm definitely going to make her sing songs from Spiderwoman, which she doesn't normally ever do in concerts, but I'll have her recreate them. If you ever saw the reviews she got, she got incredible reviews for that role, so I'm definitely going to make her recreate some of her Spiderwoman magic.

You said this a little while ago with Sutton, but if something just strikes you on stage in the moment, do you just kind of throw it on them?

I did that with Jessie Mueller, I was like, "Why have you never been in Les Mis?" She was like, "I don't know, I wanted to." And I was like, "Well, let's hear how you would have sounded." And I just made her sing 'On My Own'. You never know what the hell I'm going to make the person do. And usually they trust me to know I'm not going to make them look bad, I'm usually going to make them look amazing! The audience flips out hearing them spontaneously do something. I just did that at the Stars in the House Fundraiser we did for Ukraine, where I asked someone to donate $500 and I would make Josh Groban sing a role he did in high school. And Patti Murin actually donated 500 bucks, and Josh put the words on his iPhone and recreated his 17-year-old appearance as Tevye. I love that kind of stuff. There is always something unexpected at my concerts.

I love that so much. On that note, looking back at all of the concerts you've done, do you have a favorite moment from one of your concerts?

Yeah, I think there's a video of it online where Audra and I were doing 'I Could Have Danced All Night', and I decided the key was too boring for her, so halfway through I modulated up and I made her end the whole song on a high D flat. So, she hit the D flat amazingly and then gave me the finger. And it's all videotaped!

Do you have anything else you want to share? Anything you want to tell people who are coming to your concerts?

I would just say, if they're in New York they should see them, and if they're at home in a different state, I do the same type of concert every Sunday on BroadwayWorld too, my Seth Concert Series. Next week I have Adrianna Hicks from Six. So, even if you're not in New York City, you can see me do that kind of spontaneous concert either virtually, or live in New York at The Town Hall.

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For tickets to Seth Rudetsky's Broadway, visit: http://thetownhall.org/seth-rudetskys-broadway

For tickets to The Seth Concert Series streaming on BroadwayWorld, visit: https://events.broadwayworld.com/seth-concert-series/