Palm Beach International Film Festival president and CEO Jeff Davis was very taken with Lisa Rothauser’s autobiographical one-woman show with music and thought it would be a good fit for his new and newly refurbished Palm Beaches Theatre in Manalapan.
But he thought the title, Life. WTF?, was too crude for his venue and audience. So out went WTF and in its place came a new title, Life. Who Knew? Gone too is the act’s opening number, which was also called WTF?
“I’ve got to tell you I don’t hate the idea, because now we can have two versions of the show, with and without the ‘F’ word,” says Rothauser. She calls herself and her musical director/significant other, Tor Hyams, “malleable writers, and we had fun rewriting it to clean it up. Now we can take it on cruise ships or go anywhere with it. Then for the 11 o’clock shows, we can put the ‘F’ word back in.”
Rothauser is no stranger to Palm Beach County, having appeared at the Caldwell Theatre in 2002 in Avi Hoffman’s biblical romp, Songs of Paradise.
Asked what she remembers most about that production, she talks of an injury she sustained here. “I think I sprained my finger. We had to do a thumb fight and I literally had to go to rehab for my thumb,” she says. “That was the last time I’d been in the area, but we’re excited to bring this new show there.”
Life. Who Knew? tells the up-and-down saga of Rothauser’s career and personal life, which were often out of synch. “I was basically starting my career and I was on fire,” she says, cast as she was in the national tour and then the Broadway cast of The Producers. “I was so happy to be in what I consider is one of the best shows to ever hit Broadway. I had just gotten married when I booked the tour and then moved into the Broadway production.
“My ex-husband now, but my husband at the time, was a Wall Street guy. I fell in love with what I thought was Prince Charming, but he really wasn’t,” says Rothauser. “I realized, for a lot of reasons that are all in the show, it was not a good thing. We were not working well. I realized he was schtupping everybody except me.
“While my career was happening, I had this life of being a Stepford wife. But I woke up one day and went, ‘Oh, god, this is not’ and ‘He’s not’ and ‘What the hell do I do?’
“I realized that he was not going to change and I filed for divorce. That’s when I realized I am a singer and a songwriter and I am funny. I needed to share what I do with other women and the world, to empower them as well as make people laugh.”
OK, it might not sound that funny, depending on how dark your sense of humor runs, but imagine Rothauser’s tale injected with comedy and songs.
Over the past year, it has been evolving, moving closer to the form she long pictured in her mind.
“We have more instruments — six — we added some jokes, we got rid of the stuff that nobody really gets, added stuff that people really do and that’s why we’re coming to Florida,” says Rothauser. “I hired a comedy writer who’s written for Bette Midler’s Vegas shows and also Betty Buckley and others. He helped me out with making the banter a little quicker and quippier.”
Why should people come see Life. Who Knew? “If people are interested in the whole awkward truth, they should come,” says Rothauser. “They’ll feel a lot better about their own lives. And don’t we really love schadenfreude?”
LIFE. WHO KNEW?, at The Palm Beaches Theatre, 262 S. Ocean Blvd., Plaza Del Mar Shopping Center, Manalapan. 2 pm and 7 pm Thursday, 7 pm Friday, and 2 pm and 7 pm Saturday. Tickets: $29. $20 for students and seniors. Call: 561-362-0003 or visit www.pbifilmfest.org.