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.

ZBORNIK certainly looks like she's having a great time, yes? This was, afterall, her Broadway debut. I think that requires real celebrating.

And here I am with my brother/partner RON.

Songstress Karen Akers was there looking fabu.

And no Broadway event is complete without GLIKAS!!!!

And here is a shot of me with some of my closest friends who all came out to celebrate. They were the ones, in the long run, who have been around the entire time I was creating the show. They deserved the celebration the most.

REVIEWS AND THE RUN

We certainly got our share of FABULOUS REVIEWS! I know that everyone says they do not read reviews, but I swear that I only skim them briefly and move on. But I am happy to report that USA TODAY, VARIETY, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, THE NEW YORK POST, ASSOCIATED PRESS and tons of others got what we are doing and embraced the show with praise and enthusiasm.

And then there were the ones who just didn't want to "go there" if you know what I mean. A Catered Affair is an attempt to tell a story in an honest, emotionally truthful way without manipulating the audience or telling them what to think or feel. I would almost say that A Catered Affair is to Broadway musicals what a foreign film is to movies. Foreign films trust the audience and rely on their intelligence to interpret the story and characters. American films leave almost nothing to the imagination. They spell everything out, manipulate the audience's emotions and oversell their message. American films are black and white while foreign films (and real life) have many gradations of gray. I have always said that we are not for everyone and some of the critics certainly proved that. I'm happy to say that ALL OF THE CRITICS treated our show with respect and admiration whether they wanted to come along on our journey or not.

So, now, armed with a very healthy advance in the box office, a ton of terrific quotes from the critics, fabulous audience word of mouth, and (most importantly) an absolutely terrific show, A Catered Affair has begun it's run bringing our story to audiences EIGHT TIMES A WEEK.

Please check out our website for that documentary where you will easily see why I am so very proud of what we have created. A Catered Affair is not just another show and I hope that you will all find the time to see it for yourself.

Meanwhile, as we enter the AWARD SEASON, I'm sure there will be fun updates so...

...STAY TUNED!