Harvey's Broadway Blog: One Week To Go!

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!

....We'll be back in rehearsal for our Broadway debut. A Catered Affair, after an almost ten year journey, will finally arrive at the Walter Kerr Theater on 48th Street. Amazing. Of course, it will be even more amazing if the theater going audience embraces the show and makes it a hit. (Toi Toi Toi)

No matter what, I feel lucky to have gotten to play with the work of two of my heroes. "The Wedding Breakfast" was the TV drama first written by legendary Paddy Chayefsky for Thelma Ritter. That script, mostly lost to the ages, was then adapted by genius Gore Vidal at The Catered Affair for MGM. It was his very first assignment at the studio. Can you imagine? And now, fifty years later, I've put my own spin on this story. Hopefully I've kept all that is right and wonderful about the first two visions while adding my own take. I guess, in the long run, YOU will be the judge of that. So I'll just keep my fingers crossed, work hard at rehearsals and leave the rest to the spirits of the theater.

So, last week I was invited to participate in an event at The Zipper Theatre for the American Theater Wing. It was an informal Q&A moderated by legendary theater lover and doctor to the stars Dr. Barry Kohn. Informal was the key. And it was fun to talk about how you go about choosing a project and developing it. I hope the audience enjoyed our chat. Among the attendees were divas Marian Seldes and Julie Halston and Pia Lindstrom... I felt very protected with them in the room.

Here's a photo of Dr. Barry Kohn and Julie Halston and me as we met up for coffee before the event. We slipped around the corner from the theater to NY landmark Manganaro's. The food on display, the smells and sights drove me absolutely nuts since I am dieting. But Julie, thinner than a piece of spaggehtini, allowed herself a chocolate biscotti. I sniffed it, but behaved.

Another sign that we're about to get back to work was obvious when we found ourselves in a room holding auditions for an actor who will understudy Tom Wopat and myself. I'd love to tell you who the successful contender is, but his contract is still in negotiations. BUT... I'll give you a hint... Members of the stage actor's union will have reason to celebrate. (And I promise to announce the name as soon as the contract is signed.)

The funniest part of the session was that right outside our door a TV company was shooting auditions for the new reality show where young hopeful actresses are trying to become the next star of Broadway's Legally Blonde. I'm sure it will make compelling TV but in real life it just looked like a big mess of blonde hair, production assistants and chaos. But good luck to them all. Personally, I'm not sure how I feel about casting lead roles this way. But plenty of mistakes have occurred casting the old fashioned way, so could this be so much worse? Like I said, Good Luck To ALL!

Meanwhile, here is a snap of the gang that our hopefuls had to face when they arrived to audition. Not quite as scary as a TV audience, but plenty formidable, I'm sure.

Left to right: composer John Bucchino, fabulous me, Producer Jordan Roth, Director John Doyle and Associate Director Adam Hunter.

That's the news for this week. I am hoping to go on a few last adventures this weekend since it will be my last free weekend for WHAT I HOPE WILL BE A LONNNNNNGGGGG TIME!

And you know that if I find anything fun, see anything amazing, do anything outrageous, YOU will be among the first to know. All you have to do is...

STAY TUNED!