Harvey's Broadway Blog: Leaving On A Jetplane

Welcome to the debut of a very 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 out-of-town tryouts to Opening Night (and beyond).  A CATERED AFFAIR also features a score by John Bucchino and is being directed by Tony Award-winner John Doyle. Prior to Broadway, the new musical will play at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre beginning September 20th and then hit the Great White Way at the  Walter Kerr Theatre with previews beginning on begin March 25. The cast includes Broadway favorites Faith Prince, Tom Wopat, Harvey Fierstein, Leslie Kritzer and Matt Cavenaugh. Group tickets for the show are now on sale..

LEAVING ON A JET PLANE...

Why is this young couple smiling?
Because they're on their way to San Diego!

Here are Matt Cavenaugh and Leslie Kritzer ready to rehearse their opening scene for the last time in Chelsea Studios. Somehow they just couldn't hide the smiles under those 400 count cotton sheets. They are ready to go!

If you've been keeping up with this MySpace blog you already know that we have been having a blast for the last four weeks of rehearsal. Our director, John Doyle, has brought us along through the process of finding the characters, the story telling, the music, and the truth with so much joy that it is almost sad that this period is over. But at today's run-thru there was no denying that the show had outgrown a rehearsal room. The walls seemed to close in on us, holding us back from spreading our wings and taking flight.

I mean, look at the faces of Heather Mac Rae and costume designer Anne Hould Ward. These are some happy women. Some of us are flying out tomorrow, some on Sunday and the rest on Monday. We have our first orchestra rehearsal on Tuesday afternoon and then get up onstage in the evening. All very exciting.

Someone at the theater sent me this photo of the set being raised up in the theater. Not much to see yet, but I thought I'd share it anyway. To us it's "pinch me" proof that the show is actually happening.

Before I show you some more happy faces, I wanted to share a little backstage story. Before we started rehearsal we did a small 3 day reading of the show just for insiders to get a taste of what we were going to be taking on. In that version of the script, my character entered a scene announcing that he'd just mailed the wedding invitations. Hearing it out loud I thought it a big snore and got the idea that he entered the room with a great big "JUST MARRIED" sign that he'd made to hang on the back of the happy couple's car after the ceremony.

Well, Mr Doyle asked me if I knew what I wanted the sign to look like.
"Of course I do" I replied.
"Fine" he said "Then you go and make it."
Hmmmmm... A challenge!

So, off I went to the DOLLAR STORE where I spent a whopping $37 on all kinds of art supplies. And then, on our day off, I got out my hot glue gun and Martha Stewart apron and went to work.

Here is a photo of my table covered with the raw materials.
And here is the resulting prop.
So? Would Martha be proud of me?

I brought the silly thing to rehearsal and whipped it out during the scene half expecting Mr Doyle to toss it into his now infamous box of cast-off props, but lo and behold, he loved it. So, as I type this, my "JUST MARRIED" sign is winging it's way to San Diego ready to make it's stage debut.

And now back to happy faces... Here is my collaborator John Bucchino sitting alongside our orchestrator - the legendary Don Sebesky - beaming away after the run-thru.

Another shot of the beaming bride to be - Ms. Kritzer (Can you tell I am crazy about this girl?)

And here is AARON the most handsome company manager on Broadway.

BUT not every face was happy today. As the actors left to party and pack, the stage managment was left behind to finish paperwork and load us out.  Here's Heather and Jinny our hardworking ASM team.

And I will leave you with a classic NYC image. As we left rehearsal today, Kristine Zbornik and I came upon this bus shelter poster that some "artist" had added to. It was definitely worth a snap. No?

(I was just looking back at the images in this blog and saw a definite PINK theme running through the photos. Just thought I'd mention it. And for those who saw Michael Reidel's column today and wanted to know if I really said those things... Of course I did. The man may be mean and ornery and vicious and evil but he knows a good quote when he hears one and always gets it right.)

So, what else can I tell you?
The show feels wonderful.
We all feel like we are creating something almost completely new and yet somehow classic. There is a truth to what we are putting out there that I've longed to claim in my work. Thanks to the Paddy Chayefsky touch, we are telling a story that is so immediately identifiable that no one who has entered our rehearsal room has left untouched. The big question remains... Can we effect an audience that way? We are off to San Diego to find out. So if you want to know....

STAY TUNED!

Group tickets for A CATERED AFFAIR are now on sale. Click here to visit/subscribe to Harvey's blog.