Harvey's Broadway Blog: First Day Of The Rest Of The Run!

Harvey Returns! Welcome to The Return of special new series on BroadwayWorld.com - four time Tony Award-winner Harvey Fierstein's personal MySpace blog of bringing his brand new musical, A Catered Affair to Broadway. We'll be exclusively picking up Harvey Fierstein's blog as he shares his first hand reports from rehearsals to Opening Night (and beyond). Check back for updates as rehearsals get underway!

YES, MY FRIENDS, WE ARE OPEN AND INTO THE RUN!

Last week was the crazy busy week you would imagine as we prepped for our opening night, partied, took in the reviews and began to settle in for (what we hope will be) a LONG RUN.



The week began with a luncheon we hosted for all of the TOURING PRESENTERS who bring Broadway shows to their theaters across America. Here you see Faith Prince, John Doyle and I posing for the press before going in to lunch.

During the meal we showed an 8 minute documentary about the making of A Catered Affair. I still need to figure out how to post this video here, but if you want to see it just go to our website -

http://www.acateredaffaironbroadway.com/

- and click on "SEE OUR EXCLUSIVE VIDEO" and you can watch it. There's lots of wonderful footage of the show so anyone who wants a real taste can find it there.



Back at the theater our doorman, JOHN, bulks up on his veggies so that he'll be strong enough to manage the coming tide of flowers and gifts that will soon be arriving.

Adam Hunter and John Doyle lurk in my doorway before the final preview.



And the always wonderful CBS Anchor DANA TYLER drops by for a hug.



Down in the bowels of the theater, I get a final trim of my 1950's haircut in prep for the opening.



And darling HENRY KRIEGER, composer of DREAMGIRLS, stops by to offer encouragement. You may be interested to know that Henry and I have been working together as friends since 1973. That's thirty-five years of friendship shared. And I truly treasure this man.



Backstage, just before the curtain goes up on opening, a few cast members, plus Faith's son HENRY, drop by for a hello.

THE OPENING NIGHT

I've got to start by apologizing to you. I was intending to take lots of photos for you, but I just got too involved having a fabulous time at our HILTON HOTEL WEDDING to get my camera out.

Believe me, the entire evening was a Storybook opening from the red-carpet celebs including Joan Rivers, REGIS AND KATHY LEE, GLEN CLOSE, Bernadette Peters, Brian Stokes Mitchell, RAUL ESPARZA, SHEILA MAC RAE, SUZANNE VEGA, and on and on.

They served the wedding menu that we arrange in the show. And there was a dance band and wedding cake... The whole thing was a wonderful HOOT!

I'm certain there are dozens of photos on other sites including BROADWAYWORLD.COM so check them out. But here are my few photos.



In my dressing room right after the performance are SUSAN BRISTOW, Richie Jackson, Jordan Roth and JOE MAJODA.



I know it's a terrible photo of her, but I had to share this pic of me with one of my idols Judy Collins.