Bev Katz Rosenbaum is on the GCC with me and she's written two books about Floe Ryan -- who was frozen for ten years. Crazy, but true. She was vitrified at sixteen because of a rare disease. Now she’s been thawed back to her normal self, but absolutely everything else has changed. The first book is I WAS A TEENAGE POPSICLE, and the second is BEYOND COOL, just out -- and Floe has boyfriend trouble, immune system trouble, and a search for a missing doctor on her hands. Plus she's driving a hovercar. Buy it here from Flying Pig, one of my favorite indie bookshops.

Her group blog is here, Teen Fiction Cafe, and her myspace blog here. And she is a Dramarama woman, I tell you. Check out the lyric she quotes about acting class. Plus she loves Idina (we ALL love Idina, don't we?) and she knows the Drowsy Chaperone dude!

THE DRAMARAMA MUSICAL THEATER INTERVIEW with Bev Katz Rosenbaum

1. You were in a play in high school, weren't you? Tell me all about it.

Was I in a play? WAS I IN A PLAY? I was the star of Sir Sandford Fleming Secondary School, baby. The only problem was that we were a tiny, completely inconsequential school that only ever performed obscure, artsy, non-musical plays, like The Royal Hunt of the Sun (in which I was the elderly, male narrator...sigh). So of course, when, in my graduating year, we finally persuaded the Theatre Arts teacher to do Guys and Dolls and I won the role of Adelaide, the teachers promptly went on a lengthy work-to-rule (no extra-curricular activities) campaign. Yes, I'm still bitter. (As anyone can tell from my YA novels.)

2. Give me a song lyric that makes you laugh. Preferably from a show.

And everybody's goin' "Whooosh, whooosh...
I feel the snow...I feel the cold...I feel the air."
And Mr. Karp turns to me and he says,
"Okay, Morales. What did you feel?"

And I said..."Nothing.
I'm feeling nothing."
And he says "Nothing
Could get a girl transferred."

They all felt something.
But I felt nothing
Except the feeling
That this bullshit was absurd!

-From "Nothing", A Chorus Line

3. If you've seen a show on Broadway, what was your first one? Whom did you go with, who was the star, what did you think of it?

I'm going to cheat a bit and talk about the touring version of A Chorus Line that came to Toronto when I was in seventh grade. I and two of my friends saved up our money for weeks for tickets, dressed up, went downtown together alone for the first time, had a fancy dinner...the whole bit. It was magical. I'd never been to a big live musical before and I was an aspiring actress/dancer, so it was the perfect show to see. Can't remember who starred in that production, but I do remember the whole cast was fabulous. It's still one of my favorite shows. (See above lyric.)

4. What's your showbiz fantasy?

To write a broadway show and have the directors pressure me to star in it. Recently I have become even more dangerously delusional, as a guy who went to my high school (Bob Martin) penned A Drowsy Chaperone and won a gazillion Tonys for it--including one for Best Actor!

5. Which Broadway diva are you, deep inside? And why?

Idina Menzel. Loved her in Wicked (as a former high school nerd, I could relate), and also love that she sings jazz, which I love to do, too (but only in the shower, these days).

6. Write me a nice little song lyric for the book you're promoting right now. Please.

Ha! Okay, to the tune of "Happiness", from You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (please excuse the messed up meter):

Happiness
Is a purple hovercar
A yellow unitard
Learning to fly
Happiness
Is a robotic Swiffer
A virtual dinner
Learning to hoverdrive
For the very first time
Happiness is watching a smashball game
In your own school yard
And happiness is
Not smashing your hovercar...