Read the Asbury Park Press’s feature article on Rita Rudner, who is joined on the MPAC stage with Louie Anderson for their July 22nd, 2019 show!
Asbury Park Press: “Rita Rudner: Don’t Mess With Success? No Way”
By Ilana Keller
Don’t mess with success?
Don’t tell that to Rita Rudner.
Rudner, who started her performing career as a Broadway dancer before deciding to delve into comedy, has done more than 3,000 solo shows in Las Vegas in a theater specially built for her, and has been named “Comedian of the Year” nine years in a row.
“I’m so happy I chose this profession and that when I do my comedy I know it’s going to work 100 percent of the time and I know everyone’s going to be happy when they leave. It was a good decision I made 400 years ago or whenever.”
But amid her decades-long comedy career, the award-winning performer and writer says she needs to continue branching out in order to grow.
“I always like to try to challenge myself every year and do something and stand on the show business cliff. I always do something that’s a little bit ‘oh my gosh I hope it works.’ Otherwise I don’t think you can really grow as an entertainer if you’re not taking a few risks. Even in my act if I don’t do a few new thoughts and jokes whenever I do my act I feel like I’ve let myself down. So I think you’ve always got to keep moving forward.”
She’s doing that this summer with a return to the New York stage in the musical comedy “Two’s A Crowd” at 59E59 Theaters.
It’s a family affair for Rudner. She and her husband, Martin Bergman, co-wrote the book (the show features music and lyrics by Jason Feddy) and he directs. Even her daughter is working on the show.
“She’s the wardrobe mistress and she’s working on the fast changes,” Rudner said. “And wouldn’t you know, she had to help me take my blouse off and put on my new costume and she didn’t hang it up. I said ‘Molly this isn’t your room, you have to hang it up.’ “
The musical comedy is making its New York premiere.
After working on a project that Rudner says she didn’t feel strongly about, “Martin and I said ‘let’s write something that we’re passionate about’ and we wrote something. You know we have to write about things you know about, and we said two people in Las Vegas in a sold-out weekend and both of them refused to leave (their hotel) rooms because they’re there for emotional reasons that they’re trying to heal themselves. The room has been double-booked and they both refuse to move and they find out it’s two people who should never be together, and in the course of the weekend they find out a lot about each other.”
Rudner is joined onstage by Kelly Holden Bashar (“Fargo” on FX), Brian Lohmann (off-Broadway’s “Lifegame”) and Robert Yacko (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “The Price” at the Mark Taper Forum).
Rudner says her move into comedy has played into her sense of autonomy and her fierce dedication to family.
“I like the independence of it and the fact that I can do it by myself and I can think of a joke and I can say it to an audience and they can laugh and it doesn’t have to be filtered through an executive or somebody else paying me to do something, It’s just something I want to do. And I take it straight to the audience. It’s something that’s totally unique. That’s why some comedians I think exist in the universe because they come from their own unique perspective without being filtered through a network or a studio or somebody who wants to tell you how to do something.”
She said her comedy career also allows her the freedom to be a mother, and that she has turned down projects that would take her away from her family.
“What’s great about stand-up is I did one-nighters here and there and in Vegas for 13 years. It was great because I didn’t go anywhere. I just said I took the car to my show and the audience took a plane and I could be a mother and do the things that I wanted to do and still do my show every night.”
One of those one-nighters is set for the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown on July 22, alongside Louie Anderson.
Rudner says she and Anderson met 30 years ago on Rodney Dangerfield’s “Young Comedians Special.” They have collaborated many times in the past because Rudner says their acts mesh well.
“We’re both family-friendly acts. I don’t swear. I don’t talk about things that would embarrass my daughter,” she said. “I like to do jokes that people can relate to. Everyone always says laughter is the best medicine and it makes sense.”
“Two’s A Crowd” runs through Sunday, Aug. 25, at 59E59 Theaters, 59 E. 59th Street, New York. Performances are 7 p.m. Tuesdays to Fridays, 2 and 7 p.m. on Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays.
For tickets, $49 to $79, to Louie Anderson and Rita Rudner at the Mayo Performing Arts Center, 100 South St., Morristown at 7:30 p.m. on July 22, visit mayoarts.org/shows/rita-rudner-and-louie-anderson.
Ilana Keller: Twitter: @ilanakeller; 732-643-4260; ikeller@gannettnj.com
