BWW Flashback: Randy Rainbow (Re)Reads Patti LuPone's Autobiography- Patti Fights to Save Meadowlark!

Sang my first show tune when I was just three

My mother knew I'd go far. I've been a show queen since way before Glee

Now I'm a Broadway star. Well, not exactly, but my friend has a friend who knows Idina Menzel

You know, I mean, sort of. So things are happening, you'll see. But till my ship comes in, I've got a lot to tell her

Let's start chewing the scenery with you. Welcome to Chewing the Scenery with... me

Turn off your cell phones. I remember one time driving over the Golden Gate Bridge

on my way downtown to the theater. The fog was rolling in. The city lights were twinkling

It was gorgeous. I thought to myself, I'm working in a big Broadway-bound musical

I don't particularly care how bad this show is. This is great

How lucky am I Not very it would turn out I may have thought I was having a great time but we were still caught in the power struggle

between David Merrick on one side and Stephen Schwartz on the other

One particular bone of contention was a solo of mine, Meadowlark. It's a beautiful soaring ballad

but at seven minutes plus, it was way too long, David insisted

yet Stephen refused to cut it. Needless to say, I was on Steven's side

While we were running in Boston, David Merrick was overheard in a bar vowing

I'll get that song out of the show if I have to poison the bird seed. He then took matters into his own hands to solve the problem

The next day, we had both a matinee and an evening performance. In the morning, David went into the orchestra pit

pulled all the charts for Metal Ark off the music stands, locked them in his attache case and returned to Manhattan

But David's victory was short-lived. When Stephen found out what had happened he took countermeasures The charts magically rematerialized By the evening performance the song was back in

After that, Metal Ark became a test of wills between them. It's in, it's out

In, out, in, out. I knew Stephen was right. It is one of the most beautiful musical theater songs ever written

and even though the show never made it to New York, it has become almost as much a signature song of mine as the one about tears in Argentina

The constant revisions and rehearsals were bad enough, but even worse was the hideous behavior of my co-star, the Israeli actor Chaim Topol

Timmy Jerome, who played the teacher, had to deliver a character description of Amable

which Topol was not playing. So Timmy decided to go to his dressing room to discuss the lines with Topol

to see if there could be some resolution. Timmy lines described Amabla as old jolly and in love with Genevieve Timmy said You aren playing that so it makes no sense when I say it Topol contemplated what Timmy had said and replied hmm yes I see hmm hmm

Let me think about it. The next day, he put white powder

in his hair and went on stage playing jolly like a hillbilly in heat

making goo-goo eyes at me, Genevieve. Shortly after we arrived in Washington, D.C.

the last stop on our pre-Broadway tour, Topol was gone. My new amable

was the American actor Paul Sorvino. He joined our company, all full of bravado, enthusiasm, and superiority

He was also the classic show-off tenor. Whenever a new cast member would enter the rehearsal room

he would hit a high C. It was like having howdy-doody at Auschwitz

What's the matter with you, he said on his first day with the company. Where's your energy

Come on, give it your all. We've got to pull this together. Oh, shit