So, he’s an interesting guy. A number of years ago when Buckley was doing her Broadway By Request act at the old Feinstein’s, I went to see the show alone. I ended up at a single table, and low and behold about ten minutes after I sat down, Mr. Riedel was sat next to me. I had a few 7&7’s in me at that point and was feeling brave. I looked at him and asked him if he thought Billy Elliot was going to win the Tony for Best Musical that year, or did he have some half-baked idea that was being fed to him by a publicist. He turned, smiled and said “do I know you?”. He asked me if I lived in the city and I told him that I was from upstate and he then asked me how I knew who he was. I told him I read his column on a regular basis and that I saw him in the Showbuiness documentary that chronicled the 2004 Broadway Season. He said, “well, I came off like an ass in that” to which I said “actually you really did”. He laughed, told me he went to college not far from where I live and struck up a pretty good conversation.
He, like I, is a huge Buckley fan. At the end of the show, he asked me if I wanted to go backstage with him, which of course I took him up on his offer. I spent almost 45 minutes backstage with him and Betty Buckley, and I have to say I don’t remember much of what we all talked about, but it was a great time. I left - thanked them both, and walked away with a slightly different opinion of him. I agree he is nowhere near as relevant as he used to be, but when he’s not trying to keep his job at the NY Post, he’s actually kinda fun to talk to.