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[0:00] CHRISTINE PEDI: And realized he hated all the other women. So he then became a bus driver and you know, he would come home and there'd be some sort of a story about like on Halloween how he was driving and all of a sudden a body falls in front of the bus and I slammed on the brakes and I heard a blood-curdling scream. It was a dummy. It was like mischief night or something, you know, and it was in Bedford-Stuyvesant and there and the drama and the um and and he just everything he said just had a funny cadence to it, a Bronx kind of a cadence and and uh I you know, we're the kind of people that when we scream and yell at each other, it's like, I don't know why you're doing this to me. This is ridiculous. Is this tomato sauce from today or yesterday?

You know, and we just said that's what we do. And uh so yeah, so the funny started I think with my father. I never did impressions or anything, but he was good at doing voices, just not for he didn't realize he was doing it, but if he you know, he used to point out all the character actors when we'd watch movies.

[1:04] CHRISTINE PEDI: And I realized just the other day, what was I watching? That I knew the names of so many of them because of my father. You know, Thomas Mitchell he'd always say he do all the character actors, Thomas Mitchell and Harry Davenport and um uh uh Faye Bainter and and and uh um Spring Byington and all these wonderful movie stars and um Sydney Greenstreet, he'd always do his Sydney Greenstreet. It was just what we did. You know.

[1:35] Kevin David Thomas: And what did mom do?

[1:37] CHRISTINE PEDI: Laughed. My mother, you know, when I tell people about my mother, they think she looks like she sounds like Edith Bunker when I do my mother, you know. And um when she first saw Forbidden Broadway, I came out, my brother-in-law said, you came out in a Carol Channing blonde platinum wig with huge red lips and a headdress, you know, two feet, three feet wide, and everyone was laughing and your mother nudged me and went, it's a spoof. They're spoofing. Do you get it? And then I remember introducing my friends in Forbidden Broadway to my mother and they went, CHRISTINE, your mother's very pretty and I said, I never said she wasn't. I said she only sounds like Edith Bunker. She doesn't look like her. You know.

[2:18] CHRISTINE PEDI: Um so my mother was just the laugher. Yeah. And and uh funny in her own way, trust me. We were saying I s I remember I wore a dress to some event. I was on stage performing and afterwards my mother came up to me. Said, CHRISTINE, you look gorgeous in that dress. Let me tell and you put on weight. I don't know how you pulled it off. I don't know how, but it looked gorgeous 'cause at your weight it's hard. Oh my god so you see what I'm saying? She j she doesn't know.

[2:51] CHRISTINE PEDI: Oh yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, this is Sicilian. Yeah, they're not the first one. Exactly, Yonkers, my mother's from Yonkers.

[2:59] Kevin David Thomas: Where did you grow up?

[3:00] CHRISTINE PEDI: In Brooklyn? No, Westchester. I was born in the Bronx. I was born in the Bronx and then a few years later we moved to Westchester. You know, Southern Westchester, East Chester, Bronxville area, sort of and uh so I grew up there, but you know, uh my mother's family was from Yonkers and my father's from the Bronx and all Italian and so there was, you know, uh enough ethnicity, although we lived in a little English Tudor house, you know.

[3:23] CHRISTINE PEDI: My parents love all things British. They're total Anglophiles. Oh. Absolutely. They love London, they love uh uh my if my mother could watch Downton Abbey on a loop for the rest of her life, there would be no problem. She reads Pride and Prejudice over and over and over again. She just li and I really feel like I believe in past lives when because of my mother and father and my uh uh uh solidarity when it comes to all things British that we love. My sister and my brother, no. No. You know, and we just love it.

[4:00] Kevin David Thomas: So um you know, we we and they also were fans too, which is nice. That God knows that helps. Did you go into see Broadway shows a lot?

[4:11] CHRISTINE PEDI: No, no, never. We were we didn't really have the money for that. I saw one Broadway show, uh uh when I was in high school, Very Good Eddie. And it was the it was the it was at the Booth Theater. Wow and it was the cheapest seats that they could afford uh the back row of the Booth Theater. And that was my first Broadway show. My father threw the whole family, but that was that was the last time that was it was just too expensive. And and I think the tickets were seven dollars each.

[4:40] CHRISTINE PEDI: Um and then I I when I I think when I was in high school I saw a few more and they were Dracula, things like that in high school, high school call but and then uh and then I started in college to go because I became the arts editor of yeah, of Fordham University's radio station, and um th that started this slight interest in performing because I was never gonna perform.

[5:06] Kevin David Thomas: Really?

[5:06] CHRISTINE PEDI: So you weren't like you were singing or anything like that in high school.

[5:09] CHRISTINE PEDI: I did I did a couple of things in high school. I did Godspell like everybody else, and then I was in the chorus of Bye Bye Birdie and Very Good Eddie, actually. They did very well. That was, you know, that was yeah.

[5:22] Kevin David Thomas: I know.

[5:23] CHRISTINE PEDI: And and then I somehow decided that in the final show of the year I wanted to get a lead and it wasn't like I was a theater kid you know I didn't know a lot of theater I was just starting to scratch the surface of it and get you know records out of the library. A library kids is a place with a lot of books it was a building you'd have to walk into and you'd have to sign up for a card if you got your card if you forgot it you couldn't get any books out or records.

[5:52] CHRISTINE PEDI: So I just decided I wasn't going to do any I wasn't going to be in the play that year if I didn't get a lead. And it was an odd choice to make your social life is limited when you go to an all-girls school. We did the plays at the all-boys school. So if I didn't do the play, you know, that was a big not a big slice my entire social life. But I just felt it was time and I had been my m the the director of Godspell told my mother that I should take singing lessons and so I went to the little old lady in the neighborhood who was the second Laurie in Oklahoma. Her name was Evelyn Hancock and when she was in Oklahoma her name was Evelyn Wyckoff and she talked like this.

[6:35] CHRISTINE PEDI: Hello Chris how are you? All right we're going to did and she would give me exercises and but she kept to give me all these Italian art songs to sing. You know oh Mio Babino Caro and I'm like okay and then finally I kinda said why am I singing these and she said well I thought you were Italian you'd like Italian songs and I said okay no.

[6:53] CHRISTINE PEDI: Uh I was singing My Lord and Master and Glitter and Be Gay and and legit stuff as well. So it was all soprano stuff. So I went out for Irene Malloy and and I got it, which was I remember I told my mother they put the list up, the list, you know, the list. They put the list up on Monday morning and uh it was like Veterans Day.

[7:18] CHRISTINE PEDI: And I thought we didn't have school on Veterans Day. And I had told the dress shop that I worked at that I could work, because I thought it was a school holiday. I don't know what made me think that. So and they were livid when I said I have to go to school, they said, No, we need you. It's a big sale.

[7:32] CHRISTINE PEDI: So I had to cut school and work at the dress shop. So my mother dropped me off at the dress shop and which was just around the corner from the school. And I said to her, Don't look at the list. Because I knew if she looked, she'd come and tell me, or she'd call me, she wouldn't be able to see. And I waited about an hour or so, and then I realized I didn't get it. Because I know my mother looked at the list.

[7:56] CHRISTINE PEDI: And I know she wouldn't be able to sit on it. And then sometime later, like maybe an hour after that, I was just devastated. And so there was nobody in the shop PS their sale. So I went and I tried on some clothes, thinking it would perk me up, and all of a sudden I heard Chris, Chris, and it was my friend Maura McInerney, who I'm still friends with.

[8:16] CHRISTINE PEDI: Um she her knee socks were rolled all the way down to her ankles. She had the kilt on, you know, the private girl school kilt, and her flat face was flushed and it must have been the autumn. And uh I'm like, what? She went, You got it, Chris, you got it. And I went, No, I didn't. Because my mother hadn't shown up, you know.

[8:36] CHRISTINE PEDI: And she went, You did, you did, CHRISTINE kid, you got it. And it was such a big deal, you know, it was such a big deal. And my mother later told me she did look at the list. But she f why was she obeying my orders for the first time ever, you know. So she she did look at the list and she happened to look at it at the same time that one of the other girls who was up against me, looked at it, who was always the lead, you know.

[9:04] CHRISTINE PEDI: Um and it was just fascinating for her to observe that. But it was um it was a great moment, and it really was like that song that Candron Ebb song, a quiet thing. It was just the things that give you confidence that you don't know give you confidence. It was not, you know, doing the happy dance and uh score.

[9:21] CHRISTINE PEDI: Um I get to see ribbons down my back. Uh it was that you know, it w it was just a quiet sense of accomplishment, and then I just moved on. But but uh it was important. And I prayed so damn hard that night before. I just literally was sending out like, you know, not like dear Jesus make me get this. It was like I was literally sending out energy waves, you know.

[9:43] CHRISTINE PEDI: And um Jerry Herman has been very important to me. Uh, because then when I graduated college, I decided I wanted to try community theater. And the first role that I auditioned for was Mack and Mabel.

[9:54] Kevin David Thomas: Oh.

[9:54] CHRISTINE PEDI: And I did a really good job and I was having such a good time and they were ooing and eyeing all over me, and I was so excited, and I had a call back, and then I never got the call, and I thought I didn't get it. It was like two, three weeks later, and I thought it was very sad because I loved singing those songs, and I thought I really wanted, you know.

[10:11] CHRISTINE PEDI: And then all of a sudden I get a phone call. Oh, CHRISTINE, yeah. We're wondering why you're not at rehearsal. And I said, What? Well, why we're we're here waiting for you. And I said, Well, I'm in the show. And they said, Yeah. Now, of course, if you were not offered the part you auditioned for, you would be offered the chorus usually.

[10:29] CHRISTINE PEDI: And I said, Who who who am I? He went, What what do you mean? Nobody called you. I said, No, nobody called me. Who am I? He went, Well, we're waiting, we're having a rehearsal now. I'm so sorry. Nobody c I said, who am I? He went, Well, this is so embarrassing that nobody can who I what would it what uh d tell me.

[10:41] CHRISTINE PEDI: He's like, Well, you're Mabel. And I just I you know, and honestly, Jerry Herman shows have been at these like pivotal moments in my life, though those two anyway. And uh um the oh and because of the connection to my early years, you know, you have that like certain smells conjure up things immediately.

[11:04] CHRISTINE PEDI: Yeah, well, certain songs oh definitely. We'll do that. Take you right back there to that time for sure.

[11:09] Kevin David Thomas: So when did you decide that you were going to go from community level performance to a more professional world of theater?

[11:14] CHRISTINE PEDI: Well, I was doing a lot of commun a lot of good community theater up in Westchester, in Chappaqua, where uh what some of it was in Chappaqua where uh you know the Clintons lived. They didn't live there then. But I think Vanessa Williams was just coming into her own at that point, and that's what made Chappaqua famous.

[11:30] CHRISTINE PEDI: But they had a lot, they Chappaqua Harrison, East Chester, all these community theaters that that aren't thriving quite the way I think they they were at one point, but they're still there, you know. Um I d I I done let me think I'd done Barnum, I'd done Mack and Mabel, Funny Girl, Little Shop, Oliver, Night Music, Evita, Um, uh, oh, I'm forgetting uh Music Man, uh uh just a lot of great parts.

[12:04] CHRISTINE PEDI: And it was it was my school. I didn't go to theater school, so that's where I learned. I was just having a conversation with somebody. It was talking about, you know, when the list goes up in high school or when you get cast in something in community theater and you do those shows. They're as important as any Broadway show I've ever done.

[12:25] Kevin David Thomas: Yep, yeah.

[12:26] CHRISTINE PEDI: You know, I haven't done as many as Kevin Chamberlain. I haven't done it, but but I in no way diminish their importance. They are as pivotal and as much a learning experience um as anything on Broadway. And it's important because I want people listening to know that because uh there there are people in my community theater circle of friends uh who I don't see that often anymore, but I can promise you have have clocked more hours on a stage in a more in a wider variety of parts than I ever will in my lifetime.

[12:55] CHRISTINE PEDI: Well because they're the regulars and they do one to two to three shows a year. They you know, they don't do uh as many performances of it, but they have played more parts. Uh sometimes they've, you know, uh gone back and repeated a role, but they have incredible life experiences, you know. It's it's important.

[13:13] CHRISTINE PEDI: Also for people who don't perhaps regret or think, Oh, why didn't I do this for a living, etcetera, et cetera. It's it's you know, it's a very difficult business. It doesn't get easier, unfortunately. People may know your name more, but it it honestly paying the bills does not get easier.

[13:35] CHRISTINE PEDI: Um particularly 'cause as you get older you also expect and think you you you you you are entitled to more too, you know. Um but I I you know not making it your primary uh um focus in life, but having it as a secondary is is I can promise you can be very, very rewarding and you know, as valid a way to experience performing as those of us who, you know, try to pay the rent from that and only that.

[14:05] Kevin David Thomas: When did you become equity?

[14:07] CHRISTINE PEDI: What happened was I decided after all the community theater, I had a full-time job working as a uh a a secretary basically for the March of Dimes telethon, which was sort of connected to my communications degree. You know what I mean? I th I did that. The f the first week I got the job, I wanted to leave. I hated nine to five, hated it, hated it. But I wanted to get dental. So I waited a year. I had all four wisdom teeth pulled on the same day because I wanted to get out and then it took me another year to get the nerve to quit. But I was doing community theater all that time. And then finally I quit.

[14:48] CHRISTINE PEDI: John Tracy Egan was my only friend. We did a Vita together. He was my Che. And we did uh Animal Farm in children's theater, but John was off in Europe doing Cats. So I had no friends in this business. I just opened up Backstage and that was it, and that's how I figured it out. And so I was um doing that a lot. I was working at the Westchester Broadway Theater backstage for a friend doing props and building stuff, and they had children's theater and they offered me a children's theater job where I would get my equity card. Uh no, not children's theater, I'm sorry, their Christmas show. Carol Demas was in it. That's where I met Carol Demas, who was ageless then. She looks exactly the same as she did then.

She's freakishly young looking. I mean, she takes impeccable care of herself. I remember she was on that um, what is that um, uh cross country ski thing? Um, uh like a Nordic, yeah, Nordic track. She was on a Nordic track all the time, and she took incredible care of herself. So that's where I met her, and that's how I got my equity card. And then during that, I got I auditioned for and got Forbidden Broadway. I had reached a point where I was so sick and tired of going to open cattle calls with hundreds of girls that I finally just said no, I can't do it anymore.

[16:09] Kevin David Thomas: How long were you doing that?

[16:11] CHRISTINE PEDI: Oh, four years? Oh my god, oh yeah, I got nothing. I mean, I got two or three little, I got one summer stock job for two weeks, and I mean, you know, another job for two weeks, nothing. And uh, and I was, you know, sixty pounds lighter and how many decades younger. So I just said, enough. You know, back then you would send postcards to agents thinking they would want to sign you because you did the Chapel Quadrama group's production of such and such in their library theater. You'd spend all this money on your postcards and your photographs, and it was very expensive. If you didn't have an agent, you simply couldn't get an audition appointment, and you were relegated to the cattle calls. But I couldn't take it, so I just made this decision and I said no more cattle calls.

I'm not going on any more auditions till I get an agent. I knew I couldn't get an agent without a job, but I didn't have a job. I just had to say no, I'm not gonna do this to myself anymore. And the next day, I opened up Backstage, and there was an audition for Forbidden Broadway.

[17:19] CHRISTINE PEDI: I kind of always had a sense that I might be well suited for that show, even though I'd never done impressions. And so I looked up at the universe and said, "All right, this is the last one." I honestly said no more auditions after this. And there were hundreds of girls there. Not hundreds, but you know, a hundred was a lot. They had seen apparently hundreds of girls. But they said I was their first choice, which was a nice feeling. As a matter of fact, I went out and did the show on the road for six months. We called it the bus and truck 'cause we were in a bus with the back seats taken out and all of our costumes back there. And it wasn't until after that, like all one-night stands, like a hundred and three days on the road.

We only had five days where we were not traveling or performing. But I was seeing America, so it was thrilling to me. And again, I was young and rubbery and elastic, and you could sleep on a bus all cramped up, and you know, it didn't hurt. But then I found out that at the audition, Gerard Alessandrini turned to the producer of the national tour and said, "I wonder for New York?" And they were like, "You can't have her." So I was on the road for six months, then I did a production in Denver, and then I did a production in Detroit for a year. It was like three years before they had a slot open for me in New York.

[18:51] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, that's wild. And you said you had never done real impersonations before, so then how did, what was your training like? I mean, you must have been like, "All right, here we go."

[18:59] CHRISTINE PEDI: Well, they asked at the audition, you know, can you do Carol Channing? I had met Carol Channing at an event I volunteered for. I used to do that too. I used to volunteer for big fancy Broadway events as a volunteer. Then I worked for free, and I got to watch Carol Channing and Comden and Green and who else was up there? Dolores Gray. Oh wow, Liza, and I met Sondheim. He doesn't know he met me, but I met him. At Avery Fisher Hall, I remember it was an event for Julie Stein, and I volunteered there. Carol Channing was there, and I had to show her to her dressing room, which of course thrilled me to no end. There was nothing not to love about the whole event, just being in that venue. I performed there years later at a big event, and I remember walking through the stage door and having a dressing room with Chita Rivera and Carol Lawrence and Andrea McCardle.

It took a minute before I realized, wait, I'm actually here. 'Cause you know, I'm focusing on what I'm doing, and I thought, wow, good for you. I had to do that. I might even have been in the dressing room Carol Channing was in, but I remember her asking for something, and I said, "Oh, I can get it for you." And what is your name? And I said, "Christine." "Oh, CHRISTINE," and I just put Carol Channing said my name. So when I auditioned for Forbidden Broadway, they said, "Do you do Carol Channing?" And I said, "Well, first, everybody does Carol Channing," and then I explained my little meeting with her, and they loved that. Then they asked if I did Merman, and I'm like, "I don't know." I didn't really.

It was just loud, and you know, some things you could approximate, and that'll get the job done. They gave me a Patti LuPone song, "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina," which my Patti LuPone was awful, but now it's really good. It took twenty years. Sometimes just something you just hear something one day that you never heard all those days before.

[20:55] CHRISTINE PEDI: So I just started slow. It got easier when they would throw an impression at you. Suddenly you just kind of knew what kind. I guess it's like playing piano, you know what I mean? It's like you suddenly know where the notes go, I guess. I don't play piano, but I'm assuming it's sort of like that 'cause I look at some music and go, how do they do it? I know where their fingers have to be. I also get asked from time to time to do celebrity sound-alikes for movies, like when usually when they are doing test screenings and they need to change a line or a line needs to be re-recorded, and they haven't gotten the star in yet to do it. Sometimes I'll get called in. It's just not in my, it's not an exact sound-alike on stage.

It sounds alike, you know, but for the actual purposes of perfect reproduction, it's not. It's fascinating. Sometimes I'll be in a venue, and I'm doing a series of impressions, you know, I'm doing one of my big mashups, and one or two of them just don't sound right, and it's the sound system. There are people that I've done a lot. You know, and Seth, I was with Seth, we were on one of the Rosie cruises, and I'm like, wow, that doesn't sound like her at all. You know, I know what's the matter when it ain't me. I'm doing the thing I do. There's something about the sound in the room and whatever, or the song doesn't fit, you know, that I'm spoofing. That person just doesn't really, there's nothing particularly funny about their voice with those words. I can't make it as funny as I want it to be.

[22:41] Kevin David Thomas: How do you switch between impressions so quickly?

[22:45] CHRISTINE PEDI: That's not hard. It's just making sure it's finding the music to begin with, you know. It's so nice. I want to try and work on some new people, but I was very spoiled because I was in a show. I was in Forbidden Broadway for years, so every night I could go up there and try it. If I had a new sound or a new thought of how to, you know, inflect, I could try it. I had eight shows a week to try it. But then I went into a musical, the same thing. So I can get impressions good. But when I'm not in a, you know, a regularly running satirical off-Broadway show, if I want to work on my Dolly Parton, and I'm only doing my act once this season, I don't have a lot of opportunities, you know. If I did it in May and I'm not doing it again until June or July or August, I can't quite remember what worked, you know. So I've been very lucky in that respect that I've had those opportunities to work on stuff.

[23:52] Kevin David Thomas: And it sounds like you didn't just, you know, you're always honing it. I mean, for those years, you were constantly...

[23:59] CHRISTINE PEDI: Oh yeah, Liza Minnelli got so much better. I'm done. I'm okay. I got it. But you were like always trying to like, I admire that.

[24:07] CHRISTINE PEDI: Yeah, I mean, I suppose I do that with some of them, maybe. But no, I, in one way or another, no. I'm always trying to figure something else out to keep it authentic, you know. I mean, Liza Minnelli's gotten much better. It was very convenient that she got older and menopausal because that helped me enormously. She did it first, of course. You know, Bernadette Peters got much better. Angela Lansbury got much better. Patti LuPone got better too. Yeah, yeah, they got better.

[24:38] Kevin David Thomas: Do you first focus on the essence of the individual or the cadences and inflection of their speaking voice?

[24:44] CHRISTINE PEDI: No, it's, well, look, I know all these people that I'm doing. You know what I mean? I know their work, and no, it's the sound. You know, I'm working on the sound, and honestly, the physicality comes. The physicality's easy. I don't know why, but it just is. It sort of comes out naturally. But the sounds, you know, have to, you have to work on, and sometimes you have to think, well, maybe I use this word instead of that word. I'll tell Gerard Alessandrini that I'll say maybe more sounds with this consonant or with this vowel sound, or you know what I mean? Because it's funnier, and he's totally on board with that.

[25:30] Kevin David Thomas: You and Gerard have worked together for quite a long time. What's it like being in a room with him? What makes it so special?

[25:36] CHRISTINE PEDI: He's just a mad genius. I mean, he really is. He loves the process, and he's done it so much that he should be dried up and tired of it, you know, by anybody else's account. And yet he got together with me maybe at the beginning of twenty sixteen, I'm gonna think. He said, I want to talk to you about a project, a professional project, and I thought, oh, he wants to be on the radio. Because what I haven't done, I'm not doing anything else, so you know, and I have no power, so I felt bad. I'm like, I'm gonna have to, poor Gerard, I feel bad if he wants to be on the radio because there's no, you know, there's nothing I can do. And it turns out he said, I've written something, and I want you to produce it, and I want you to be in it too if you want to, but what I really want you to do is produce it.

I think you and I have worked together a long time. Now we hadn't worked together in years. We hadn't seen each other with any regularity at all for maybe five years, you know, maybe more. But we bumped into each other all the time at events, and we were good friends because of all the time we spent putting up so many different editions. But it had been a while. And he said, I want you to produce this because you and I, we've worked together a long time. We understand the nature of the animal. We have shorthand to keep with each other, and I would love you to produce this. He puts down a script, and it had the star, the Hamilton star with Hamilton on it, but instead of his fist in the air, he was thumbing his nose, and it was that silhouette, and it said Spamleton.

I laughed and I went, sure, why not? Absolutely. What do I know about producing? But I do know everything about Forbidden Broadway, and I do know everything about the animal, and I do know everything about Gerard. So we started talking, and he started taking notes because I said, what about a song about this? What about a song about this? And then in the middle of it, he said, you know, the other reason I wanted you to do this, and this is sort of, it's not confidential, it's intimate. He said, because in all the years we've known each other, you've never been mean to me. And it was such a touching thing to say, and he's kind of right. I mean, in that I sometimes I observe very, very rarely, I will say this, you know, people who would roll their eyes or want better product, you know, and look, we all do.

And if something isn't working, believe me, no one knows it better than he does. But the stuff that he puts out is staggering that it's all come from the same mind. It's unbelievable. So, you know, yes, you can be frustrated if something's not working, but you go write it then. You go write it, basically shut up, you go write it. So I have the highest respect, and the reason I bring it up when you're saying what is he like, the reason I bring the Spamleton story up is because he sat down and he wrote that play, that spoof of Spamilton. I mean, I sound to the all by himself, but I mean, he wasn't in a rehearsal environment. You know, usually Forbidden Broadway, he'd have a good hunk of songs, and then he'd continue to write and continue to write.

No, Spamleton, he just showed up at rehearsal with it practically, I don't know, eighty, ninety percent done. You know what I mean? He was inspired. He achieved a new level of his own excellence. He was writing for rap. He really, and he's a proper lyricist. He rhymes. He does not have any sloppy, there's no such thing as a sloppy rhyme. It's just not a rhyme, you know? I'm really such a stickler for that, and to do that to every syllable and note that Lin-Manuel wrote, not every, it's a long show.

[29:46] CHRISTINE PEDI: I mean, Hamilton is two and a half hours. Spambleton is an hour and a half, but that's still a lot. It was so inspiring to watch a man, you know, who's been in this business for decades, who was behaving on a level of inspiration that kids in their twenties would. I was so happy for him, first of all. So happy for him, because he deserves it, because he is a mad genius and because he's a legend. And because this kind of material is important. I've told this story. I don't know if I told it, I think I told it. I did a tribute to Betty Comden years ago. I did a Comden and Green show and happily they were both alive and they both came. And then I did it sadly after Adolf passed and Betty came. We carried her up the stairs of this venue.

She couldn't have been happier; she was so delightful. And it was her hundredth centennial last year. We think. You know, some of the paperwork doesn't sync up. But anyway, I told this story. I used to go visit her with a pianist friend, either my friend Michael Levine or my pianist Matthew Ward, and we would come into her apartment and her caregivers would bring her in very slowly in her little dressing gown and her little satin slippers and they put her on the settee in her living room and I would sit at the piano and sing for her. We'd sing songs from my shows, standards, and then of course her songs. And she wasn't talking very much, you know, but I'd say, "What do you want to hear, Betty?"

And she'd go, "Everything." Oh my god. And she couldn't even applaud; she'd just wave her hand like a dictator. You know what I mean? Like, and one time I went, she was tired and she was in her bedroom and I went into her bedroom and a friend of mine had written this parody lyric—it wasn't Gerard; it was another friend—and I said, "Betty, I thought you might like to hear this," and she was very, oh, she did not speak a lot, but she invited me into her bedroom. Her caregiver said, "Go and you can talk to her in there," and so I read this spoof and I maybe sang it out loud and she looked at me and she said, "This is very important what you're doing," and I went making fun of Madonna, and she looked at me and she nodded and she said, "Yes, it is.

All of it. It's very important." And I think I know what she meant because, you know, taking the piss out of something, as they say in England, it's important; it knocks people off their pedestal. We still honor what we love about them, but it allows you to observe—you don't realize it at the time as a participant in the audience—but you observe greatness and you observe it with another level of intelligence beyond just, "That's entertaining," "That moves me," "That inspires me," "That sound of that song thrills me." When you can find the flaws and you can find the quirks and the things, I think that it's another level of observation that is important. It's understanding irony, which is not something that as many people have a grasp of as you'd think.

Yes. Because if you understand irony, then you—God, you can laugh at life a lot more, I think. Oh my God. And maybe we need to give classes in it. Right. On how to just spot the irony in something, you know, just you'll take the piss out of yourself too. You just let the air out of everything for a minute and just not be so clenched and puffed up and stuff. Yeah. You know, it's interesting that she started out doing the exact same thing back when she was in the reviewers, back when they all were together when they first came to New York. It's almost like she probably saw, maybe, I don't know, I don't know what to speculate, but she saw a little stuff in you, I think.

[34:20] Kevin David Thomas: Well, in the material, yeah. I mean, and I found that, you know, even when they went on to be lyricists in quote-unquote straight book plays, they always had a—they were sly and adorable and smart, and I wanted to always do a medley, maybe I still will, of all of their ridiculous lyrics.

[34:47] CHRISTINE PEDI: Yes. You know what for stop did you hay and you know and Mrs. She's a nut, she's a nut, but and all the weird words they tend to use and I don't know, there's funny words that they make up. Oh God, I love them so much. I love that.

[35:02] Kevin David Thomas: They were special.

[35:05] CHRISTINE PEDI: They were.

[35:06] Kevin David Thomas: Absolutely. Dare I ask, do you have a favorite Comden and Green song?

[35:11] CHRISTINE PEDI: Oh, there's way too many to count, but I mean the one that I've been doing a lot is "If," and I have a wonderful arrangement of it. And it's so witty and it usually starts at a breakneck speed. Yeah, but that's not how I do it. Mark Nadler did it with me and it was his idea and it's genius. It starts slow, "If you had been on," it starts really slow, and then every stanza builds up to a fevered pitch, and then she shoots the bastard. Oh, and so oops, sorry. Spoiler. I love it. I love that song so much.

[35:44] Kevin David Thomas: Hey podcast listeners, are you looking for a place to rehearse in New York City that is clean, spacious, and most importantly affordable? Come check out Shetler Studios and Theatres, our wonderful host for these podcasts. Shetler is centrally located on West 54th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, right in the heart of the theater district. Right in the heart. You'll find music, dance, and acting studios complemented by two black box theaters and six presentation venues. The professional facilities, inspired environment, and expert industry staff combined to provide the New York artist with an unparalleled studio experience. Visit their website at ShetlerStudios.com. That's S H E T L E R Studios.com. Shetler Studios and Theatres is our home for recording the legends of Broadway, and we hope that you make it your artistic home too. That's Shetler S H E T L E R Studios.com. See ya here.

[36:39] CHRISTINE PEDI: Uh, yeah, I mean it's a multifaceted, you wear many hats.

[36:45] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah.

[36:46] CHRISTINE PEDI: Particularly when you're working with a small group of people in a small project, size-wise. So, you know, you're dealing with the actors, you're dealing with marketing, you're dealing with—you know, John Friedson was the, you know, he produced Fribbing Broadway for years, David Zippel, the lyricist, and I were the producers, but John and David were the lead producers, you know. And John knew, John had, you know, fifteen years of producing for Bidden Broadway in New York to immediately, you know, the questions to ask and what have you. And even in his world things have changed in the past few years since he was producing because every ten minutes the technology changes. So it's just fascinating to watch.

I have certain things that piqued my interest, like visuals, like what the visuals gonna be for the show. And you know, my pet peeve was that we looked too much like the Hamilton logo that if you looked at it on a thumbnail on your phone, you couldn't tell the difference because you have to look so close to see that he wasn't pump fist pumping, you know. And so I said, "You gotta use a funnier color. It's gotta be a funnier." I wanted like orange instead of their gold, but we ended up, you know, and Gerard is very color sensitive. I mean, crazy color sensitive. Seriously. It's gotta be the right exact tone of red. It can't have too much blue in it. He's really visually sensitive like that. But I was into that.

I created the website, which, you know, was an arduous task, and then we moved on to a marketing company that went and did a fancier one that could, you know, I don't know. I don't know what it could do, but it did things. And I was involved in that respect and just learning slowly.

[38:32] Kevin David Thomas: Do you want to produce again at some point?

[38:34] CHRISTINE PEDI: I couldn't do it alone.

[38:35] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah.

[38:35] CHRISTINE PEDI: You know, just because it's a desk job, you know, there's just a lot of sitting at the desk and I couldn't do it alone. I'd produce my own thing. I may be doing something with Gerard, like a small two-person thing with Gerard, and I could probably do that because, you know. So, but I don't know, it's hard too 'cause I have a lot of opinions and it would drive me crazy. I feel bad, like the logo. Again, if I didn't like a logo of a show that I was producing, but I was not—I didn't have enough clout in the producing team to nix it or to keep it, it would drive me up the wall.

[39:09] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, no, I hear that.

[39:10] CHRISTINE PEDI: You know, and so, but I learned a lot and it was hard working with the actors too because they were all—not all, but they were—uh, a lot of them were—it was their first show, they were working in a cramped space. It, you know, I was trying—it was hard to explain, you know. We did everything by the rules, but I can't make the dressing room any bigger and I feel bad. I just, yeah, you know, it's—it is what it is. And part of me wants to say it's paying your dues, but guess what? I know plenty of people that went back to the tiny little triad dressing room, you know, decades after their Broadway debut. So, you know what I mean? You can't get that way because, as I always say, you always enter through the kitchen. You know, in one way or another.

[39:54] Kevin David Thomas: It's true.

[39:57] CHRISTINE PEDI: I just did a gig at the Edison Ballroom. Ding dong.

[40:00] Kevin David Thomas: There you go. How did Sirius XM come into your life?

[40:04] CHRISTINE PEDI: I went to Fordham University and I majored in communications, and they have a stellar radio station, which at the time was completely student-run.

[40:13] Kevin David Thomas: All right.

[40:13] CHRISTINE PEDI: So the people that were running that channel are now sports announcers for the Yankees, sports announcers around the—Michael Kay, I don't know if you know Michael Kay—the producers on Good Morning America, anchors on the local Fox News channel, just—they went on to do incredibly wonderful things in the media. And my closest friend from that era is Paul Cavalcante, who's a major DJ here in New York City on the classical channel on WNYC, and we remained good close friends. And one day in 2001, he called to say that Sirius XM Radio, which had not been launched yet, it was still in test markets, was looking for somebody to host the Broadway channel, and he gave me the name of the person to call.

And I went in on September 9, 2001, and had a nice conversation. I did some demos and I was gonna go in again on September 11 to audition for the Jazz Channel, but the Twin Towers fell. And then it took them until the spring to finally get the paperwork done because they moved slow up there. But I finally got the job in the spring of 2002, and it's because it was really kind of nice because after a certain number of years at Sirius, I realized, "Oh my God, I've actually made enough money in communications to have paid for my college education." You know, they sort of—it sort of cancels each other out, which was nice. And I love radio and I love doing it, and Paul Cavalcante's still my dearest friend.

I spent Thanksgiving with him, and it's because of him. You know, it's because of him. And I just love doing it. And we have the loveliest listeners. Oh, we meet them all the time. And I'm telling you, consistently, consistently, so sweet, so kind, so full of—they have these most generous open faces, and it sounds like I'm not being genuine when I say it on the radio. Like, we have the nicest listeners in the world. It sounds so goofy, but damned we do. And I've been doing this now for what, sixteen years? And that means that if there were kids who were ten years old listening to me and decided to major in the arts, they might be in Broadway shows right now for all I know.

[42:50] Kevin David Thomas: That's true, CHRISTINE.

[42:51] CHRISTINE PEDI: Definitely. The influence that you've had on people is monumental.

[42:55] Kevin David Thomas: I teach musical theater at Penn State. We have so many people who apply who, you know, when we ask, you know, "Why do you want to do musical theater?" they say, "Well, I grew up listening to CHRISTINE PEDI."

[43:03] CHRISTINE PEDI: Oh, yeah.

[43:06] Kevin David Thomas: That's their only way into the Broadway world if they're not from the—

[43:06] CHRISTINE PEDI: Well, I know, and as I say, they're lucky because in my day we had to walk to the library and get out records and or stay up when nobody was looking and watched Gypsy when it was on at two in the morning, or, you know, not finish our homework because it was on at four in the afternoon, or that's what we were doing. I mean, so, and I, you know, I will have—I do have a bone to pick with some of these kids though. There is no excuse for these kids not to know everything in musical theater. There are kids who only know Hamilton and Wicked and Mamma Mia because they, uh, yeah, but with all due respect to your podcast, they don't need your podcast. They can sit in their pajamas before they get out of bed in the morning, and you know, in a half hour, they can Spotify, they can see stuff on YouTube that would have reduced me to tears of gratitude as a kid.

All right, you know, as a matter of fact, I just found video tapes that I had put away that I didn't want to throw out because there were such so many important wonderful things that you couldn't find on television that I had kept. And as I looked at them, I said, "You know what?" I went to my computer and I tried to see if everything in that video tape was available on the computer, and it was. And I'm talking some obscure weird ass stuff.

[44:24] CHRISTINE PEDI: But in my day, that's what you had to do. Let alone the underground stuff that's all on YouTube, like the weird stuff that you know people would trade and all that. Yeah, of course, of course. The other day, I don't know why did I do it. It was a series of events that led me to want to go onto YouTube and find out about iambic pentameter, which I really didn't know much about. And uh I think I was reading a poem and I was like, this poem don't rhyme. And then, you know, and uh and not only did it rhyme, I didn't like the poem either, but you know, and I was like, is that what they call blank verse? You know, oh that's what it was. And then I looked up what blank verse was, and then they said most of blank verse is in iambic pentameter, so I said, let me find out really what iambic pentameter is.

And then I did, and it took all of 15 minutes for me to get a total real good grasp on. I knew it was da-da-da-da-da-da-da, but I didn't know why and what the hell, and and and I learned about other um uh what was the one? I thought all of Shakespeare was iambic pentameter, but it's not. It's it's what is uh uh bub up, bub uh wait, Iambic McTameter is but uh butt up butt a butt up uh but but what is it double trouble boil and try you know the the witches and m m Mac Macbeth. Well anyway, but the point is it's a different kind of cadence, but there's names to that, and I didn't know it and I looked it up on frickin' YouTube and it took no time, it was all there. Now to take it back to my mother, we just got her an iPad and it's so because she can't do anything.

My mother is impossible you know, she can't. They did this thing on on on uh uh modern family where the manny's trying to teach the the father how to tap like how to tap a link. He's like, No, double tap. And he went, I'm double tapping. No, no, no. You're you gotta go tap tap. And he he would go tap, tap no no, no, tap tap. And it made me laugh because that's my mother's problem. She presses too hard. I was like, No mom, tap tap. Light. So the other day on the phone, she went, you know, forget about this iPad, because I could be, I could be on the YouTube, forget it. I mean, I could log on to the YouTube and I'm not I mean, what do you mean? She will I'll never leave. Because she's looking up psychics and mediums and stuff like that.

You know what I mean? And how do you how did palm read and stuff? And that she doesn't realize that one one video is over, another one comes on. So my mother's become addicted. I know that it's an unhealthy addiction to ask the kids to like watch watch more YouTube, but that's you can learn a lot if you're watching the right YouTube. I have to ask, is there an impression that you do that's a little off the beaten path? I did blossom dearie. You know what I mean? Um, um Go on now, go, walk out the door. Don't turn around now, because you're not welcome anymore. Stupid. But nobody would know. You know what I mean? Ann Hampton would. Ann Hampton Calloway would love it, you know. And uh you know, I could probably do Sarah Vaughn.

Yeah, I don't know, but uh and then and then I did Audrey Hepburn and um uh at but that was very quiet. I don't know if it'll work uh because I haven't done a long time, but we used to do the twelve days of Christmas, but she was so quiet that it wasn't it didn't read well in the room, you know, after all the loud singers. It would be like on the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a partridge in a battery, you know. And um, see how low it is? I couldn't even hear myself. I know you guys heard it because you had the headphones on. But so uh yeah, yeah, I don't know. People like that. I wish, you know, I just wish that uh um I I yeah, those are the ones that that come to mind at the moment.

I'm working on Dolly Parton and she has a kids album out. And Dolly Parton's voice is really she's much rasper than you'd ever think it was. And she's got this song, and it's a children's uh album, and the song is called You're My Chemo Hero. Uh oh. Uh oh. And God bless her. And it it was it was hard for me to get Dolly Parton, and I but see, I wish I had an I want him to put her in musical for some reason so I can do every day. But I wasn't getting her, and then we heard her going, You're my chemo hero. Like you said, sometimes it's a child. Not to laugh at chemo. There's nothing funny about chemo. And but the and the album's really cute. It's a kid's album. Um so uh yeah, it's just the little little things that can inspire.

Have you met the people you impersonate and how has that been? I I don't know if Angela Lansbury has ever heard me do her, but I did I d her brother did last week at an event and he was delightful. Um and uh a Bernadette, I think heard me at a Gypsy of the Year event. Uh Patty has seen the videos and has always reached out to me. Oh. Um, yeah. Uh that's fun. Well, no, she just said, always do me with love. You know, her pianist actually Facebooked me, said I'm with Patty in Connecticut. And, you know, she says, Thank you, and always do her with love, which I do. I don't do I don't there's nobody I I there's nobody I I do impressions of with the intention of saying that'll that'll show them though, yeah, that you know, not even like Elaine Stritch, who was kind of nasty to some people.

No, it's not my intention at all. It's just to bring out their the purest strain of them, the uh essential oils of each uh, you know, each character. Um Eliza Minelli too, because I'm known for Liza Minnelli, and I never I it at at it at my worst, I just play her as uh slightly clueless to anything that is dark and unpleasant. You know what I mean? That's that's what I like to do when somebody says something that's just a little too, you know, heady or a little too complex. She'll go, I don't know what that means, or a little too rock and roll or a little too, you know what I mean. Yeah. Um but uh yeah, uh never my intention. Um and who else? Uh not not a lot of not a lot of people when you consider how many people I've done.

I don't think Earth a Kit. Oh, I did Earth the Kit for a nothing like a Dame event, and I came out and I did I Will Survive, and I start the song as Earth the Kit, and then I go into a lot of different women at the end of the number, they said Earth the Kit's gonna come out on stage, and then you're gonna people will laugh and you'll leave. I went, okay. And we were on the set or at the Schubert Theater at the time. Chicago is there. So I'm down center. I finish the song, big applause. I take a bow. Even bigger applause. I'm like, wow, I guess it might well. And I'm waiting for Earth the Kitt. And I look to the left. She's not on stage left. I look to the right, she's not in stage right. I bow again because they're still applauding.

I look to the left a little more. I swing a little farther to the left. I see in the wings there's nowhere at the kit. Do the same thing to stage right in the wings, nowhere at the kit. I'm like, what's going on? And then I decide to start to leave and I turn around. She's been standing behind me the entire time. Because she came up in the Velma elevator. And she was there looking like God almighty. All right. And then she just said, How would you like to hear the real thing? And I know what I mean. And I just walked like, okay, you know. And then Stritch, I did the same thing for nothing like a dame with strich. And you know that strich story. If I told that story. So I uh I'm singing this strich, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, a spoof of zip.

And uh I was I go to the theater, the Marquee Theater, and uh stage manager number one says, All right, we just want to make sure that when you enter, don't say anything, just do the number and then just leave. Uh Elaine Stritch will come out on stage and then leave because we don't want to waste any time. I said, Okay. And Miss Stritch would like to speak to you. And then uh I said, okay. Well, both stage managers look petrified on my behalf. I was holding it together. And then stage manager number three comes up to me. It's like, oh, hi, CHRISTINE. Elaine Stritch would like to see you in her dressing room. Go into her dressing room, and she is, in fact, in the the shirt with you know tights.

No, yeah, I don't know if the tights are on or not. But anyway, so uh uh I said, Hi, Miss Stritch, I'm CHRISTINE. I'm I'm the terrible person who's gonna be doing you tonight. She went, I hear you're wonderful. I said, Well, thank you. She said, This is what I want you to do. I said, Okay, she said, I want you to do the number. I don't want you to bow. I want you to take a long time. Why don't you turn to the right, take a bow, turn to the left, take a bow, look up the balcony, take a bow. Then you're gonna turn, you're gonna walk. And I'm gonna pop out and meet you. And then I'm gonna, and then I'm gonna back you up. So basically, I was gonna bow and bow and bow. And then I was gonna turn left, head for the wings, and then she was gonna come out on stage, people would laugh, and then she, face to face, she was gonna back me across to stage right.

Which was a genius idea. Just looking at me and just, you know. And I said, Okay, and she's doing it in the dressing room. All right, all right. And I'm looking at her like, got it, fabulous. I said, I have to take the mic with me, so when I get backwards to the center, you want to tell me where the mic is? And then she and I'm like, okay, and just make sure I don't walk off the stage. And she said, sure. Okay. I do the number, I bow to the right, I bow to the left, I bow center. It took a long time. And I turn left. Now, this is the marquee theater. This is a big stage, particularly when compared to Ellen Stardust basement where I had been working, okay, which was a tiny little set. All right.

So I'm walking and walking and walking, and like, where is Elaine Stritch? Why isn't she walking? Why didn't she come on stage? And I'm walking, and I'm practically at the proscenium, practically no longer in view of the audience. Pop, out she comes. She just popped right out, right at the far end of stage left, because she's the smartest woman alive. And she looked at me, and the audience went crazy. And she backed me up, like nose to nose practically. She went, keep on going. Keep on going. Keep on going. Get the mic. Get the mic. I got the mic. I'm dragging the mic in front of me like this big mics, and I'm just dragging it in front of me. Keep on going. Keep on going. Keep on. And it was about three quarters of the way when I finally like turned around and ran because this was gonna take forever.

And I just I was too young and stupid to know. It would have been more effective if I just disappeared slowly into the wings. But instead I turned, but I had the mic dragging behind me, so there was comedy there. Um and I never heard from her again. I didn't see her for the rest of the evening. I didn't see her uh ever. Uh uh I mean, I saw her on stage and said hello to her at events, but very peripherally, she wouldn't have remembered me, I don't think. But so yeah, so those were the two big ones I'd say. I'd say, yeah. You've done so much. What's still left on your bucket list? Any dream roles? I haven't done any roles. Bucket list, are you kidding me? I never work. I'd like to do a sitcom, I'd like to do a movie, I'd like to do a TV series, I'd like to play a lead in the Broadway show.

I've never played a lead in the broad. I mean, I played Mama Morton, but that was ten weeks. Everything I've done has been limited, limited runs. Little Me was three months, Talk Radio is I think five months, Mama Morton, eleven weeks. That's just I've never done a, you know, I've never done a hopefully open ended run, you know. Um and I'd love to play Mama Rose, I'd love to play Mrs. Love It. Yeah, I'd love to play Dolly Levi. Um I um those are just a couple of 'em. Well, we just want to take a moment to say your impressions are so funny and you're so brilliant, but the way you have such enthusiasm for musical theater day after day on your program, for a lot of people, you're the first entry to the joys of musical theater, and it's your passion and enthusiasm that fans the flames of their passion and enthusiasm.

So we just want to say thank you for that. I that's really nice to hear because again you sit alone in a room and talk to yourself and you just you can only only you only have the word of the people when you bump into them. And I happily meet them when I do shows. Uh but uh the the the uh ratio of how often that happens to how often I do it is you know it's not that high. So it's it's really wonderful to hear that. And uh and I'm glad that that it's out there and available to well to anybody, you know, 247 commercial free. Um it's it's kind of important. Everybody up there at Sirius loves it. You know, there's myself, Julie James, Seth Rudetsky, John Tartaglia, and um it's it's a special it's a special platform that that uh it's it's important and happily the theater is kind of cool again, you know, all those they're they're bringing the the there's a revolving door now between television and film and theater, and it's not just celebrities, it's the good old hardworking, wonderfully talented performers like Norbert Leo Butts and Sutton Foster, and you know, who can uh who don't get pigeonholed anymore.

That's right. And so it's more of a level playing field, and it's not it's not as much of it. I don't feel that it's as much of a niche as it was. You know. So that's important, and hopefully we're doing our best to uh to keep it that way. It's been a joy and a pleasure. Thank you, CHRISTINE. I I can't wait to listen to it. And have those kids follow me on Twitter at cr at CHRISTINE Petty, P E D I. Bye, everybody. Bye. Today's episode was recorded at Shetler Studios on 244 West 54th Street. Visit Shetler Studios to book your room today, and you could be as cool as us. That's S-H-E-T-L-E-R-Studios.com. And a big thanks to our sound editor Daniel Schwartzberg and social media manager Bethany Ann Solecki.

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