Playbill.com
Vilanch and Rudetsky to Head Androcles Reading With Slew of Theatre Critics
By Andrew Gans
30 Mar 2007
Hairspray’s Bruce Vilanch and Chatterbox host Seth Rudetsky will head the cast of the upcoming reading of Androcles and the Lion.
The April 23 reading is the latest installment in Project Shaw and will be presented at the Players Club at 7 PM. Vilanch will star as the Lion with Rudetsky as Androcles. The Christians, who will be thrown to the lions, will be played by theatre writers/critics David Cote, Adam Feldman, David Finkle, Eric Grode, Charles Isherwood, Howard Kissel, Jeremy McCarter, Michael Musto, Patrick Pacheco, Rex Reed, Michael Riedel, Frank Scheck, Michael Schulman, Raven Snook, Alexis Soloski and Roma Torre. Brendan Lemon will host the evening.
The Project Shaw series is produced and directed by David Staller, who acted with Dana Ivey in Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession at the Irish Repertory Theatre. Dates stretching throughout 2007 and beyond will provide an airing of every sketch, full-length and one-act play by the playwright.
Past participants include Blair Brown, Daniel Jenkins, Rebecca Luker, Michael Cerveris, Karen Ziemba, Michele Pawk, Jack Gilpin and George S. Irving.
Creator and host of Seth’s Broadway Chatterbox, Seth Rudetsky has served as a pit pianist and/or conductor for such Broadway shows as 42nd Street, The Full Monty, The Phantom of the Opera, Mamma Mia! and The Producers. He also conceived the idea for the recent all-star The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas concert to benefit the Actors’ Fund of America as well as the five previous benefit concerts, Hair, Chess, Funny Girl, On the Twentieth Century and Dreamgirls. Rudetsky was a member of the comedy writing team for “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” for two years, and his awards include the Duplex’s Stars of Tomorrow, the Backstage Bistro and the Funniest Gay Male in New York. He was also the author and star of the recent one man, GLAAD nominated show Rhapsody in Seth, and his new tome — “The Q Guide to Broadway” — was published by Alyson Books. Rudetsky has been seen on “Law & Order” and “All My Children” and is a columnist for Playbill.com.
Bruce Vilanch made his Broadway debut in Hairspray, after having played the role of Edna Turnblad for over a year in the show’s national tour. An Emmy-winning comedy writer, Vilanch has written for the Oscars, the Emmys, the Tonys and the Grammys. He is also the author of “Bruce! My Adventures in the Skin Trade and Other Essays” and is the subject of the documentary “Get Bruce!” He spent four seasons on “Hollywood Squares” and also appeared in his own one-man show. Vilanch’s other credits include “It Nearly Wasn’t Christmas,” “The Morning After,” “Bosom Buddies,” “The Ice Pirates” and “Call Me Claus.”
