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Everything's Coming Up
ROSIE!

[[image: color photo of Rosie O'Donnell holding a Tony]]
[[credit]] TONY ESPARZA/BILL LOSH [[/credit]]
[[caption]] Rosie O'Donnell - host of this year's Tony Awards(R) telecast and the talk show that everyone's talking about - is just a Broadway baby at heart [[/caption]]

As a teen-ager, Rosie O'Donnell didn't have time to cruise the malls of Long Island with her friends. The would-be comedienne from Commack was busy riding the train to Manhattan and buying standing-room tickets to Broadway musicals like A Chorus Line, Pippin, Dreamgirls and They're Playing Our Song. "At some point the ushers would recognize me and let me in without paying," recalls O'Donnell, who didn't mind seeing her favorite show five or six times. "Sometimes I'd catch the beginning of one show and the end of another one," she says. "I was a fanatic."

Thanks in part to those indulgent ushers, Rosie - who hosted the 51st Annual Tony Awards on June 1 - grew up to be Broadway's biggest fan and one of its most important boosters. Just check the guest list of the wildly successful "Rosie O'Donnell Show": As she welcomes performers like Carol Channing, Patti LuPone, Jennifer Holliday and Liza Minnelli, O'Donnell holds up old PLAYBILLS, autographed programs and ticket stubs from her carefully preserved memorabilia collection and recalls how much their performances meant to her.

O'Donnell recalls that her very first Broadway show was her idol Bette Midler's Clams on the Half Shell revue at the Minskoff Theatre 22 seasons ago. "From the time I was 12 or 13, I knew that there was a place called Broadway where people did what I wanted to do for a living - perform onstage," she says. "I never thought of movies as a career option because I never met any of those people. But to go to a Broadway show and see these phenomenal actors and singers, and then to wait by the stage door and speak to them as they walked out, had a profound impact on me and my career."

Thanks to her talk show, O'Donnell can share her Broadway memories with millions of viewers while thanking the people she once idolized. "I had a mad crush on Lucie Arnaz and used to write letters to her at the theatre," she recalls of the star of one of her favorite shows, They're Playing Our Song. "Not only did she write me back, I kept all her letters, and when she did my show, I brought them out and showed them to her." At that, O'Donnell breaks into a chorus of an obscure song from the show. "Tell me just how sweet this weekend will be," she sings, "Just you and me, just you and me." She laughs. "I don' think there's a show you could name that I don't know. It's insane."

In addition to funny, tuneful musicals, Rosie's taste runs to emotion-packed shows with larger-than-life characters. "When I was 16, I wanted to be Patti

52  by Kathy Henderson

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