Seth speaks: comic, writer, and accompanist to Broadway divas, Seth Rudetsky talks about his journey from high school "fag boy" to star of his own one-man show - theater - Interview

All Seth Rudetsky has held on to longer than his grudge against a homophobic humiliation in high school is his collection of Broadway original cast albums. As he recalls growing up gay in Nassau County, N.Y.--an experience that forms the basis of his one-man show, Rhapsody in Seth, currently playing off-Broadway at the Actors' Playhouse in New York City--the playwright-performer breezily admits, "I knew I was gay when I was 4! By first grade everyone was calling me a fag. My only hope was to live long enough to get out of there and surround myself with really high belters--like Betty Buckley."

That's exactly what he did. Over the past dozen years, as a musical director, conductor, and pit pianist, Rudetsky, now 36, has accompanied such Broadway babies as Bebe Neuwirth, Audra McDonald, and Megan Mullally.

Musicianship is only part of what makes Rudetsky so popular, explains Will & Grace's Mullally, for whom he served as musical director on a recent Actors' Fund benefit performance of Funny Girl: "His verbal mannerisms and sayings are so catchy that I've literally heard them translated into catch-phrases all the way out in L.A."

Rosie O'Donnell was so tickled by Rudetsky's sense of humor that she put him on her TV show staff for two years--earning him three Emmy nominations for comedy writing.

So with all this success, what's still stuck in Rudetsky's craw? Two words: "fag boy."

During Rudetsky's senior year in high school, someone scrawled that phrase into the galleys of the school's annual yearbook, under Seth's "Nickname." Unchecked, it went to press. Rhapsody's retelling of the events--parental confrontations, student reactions, the lawsuit--are heartbreaking and hilarious. "They say that living well is the best revenge," Rudetsky deadpans, "but I've found that talking about the people who've traumatized your life--and using their real names--is better. Welcome to my show!"

Still, times change, as Rudetsky recently discovered. "The school actually invited me to tell my story for Human Rights Awareness Day," Rudetsky says. "And you know what the kids did there this year? They formed their very first gay-straight student alliance!"

Drake's latest one-man show is Son of Drakula.

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