A Catered Affair
|
Kritzer, Cavenaugh, Wilner, Hoffman, Fierstein,Wopat
Photo by Craig Schwartz
|
By January Riddle
With so much heart and soul, it’s a show that must go on. To Broadway, of course, where it is destined and all but booked already. But first, for San Diego audiences who deserve a musical as delightful and delovely as A Catered Affair.
The Old Globe Theatre’s world premiere arrives via four-time Tony winner Harvey Fierstein’s elegantly intelligent book, accompanied by John Bucchino’s Sondheim-inspired music and lyrics. John Doyle’s classy direction points the way to a hit, for one, because he recognized and capitalized on the enormous heap of talent on the stage.
The other reason we will be seeing this show on the Tony Awards in a year or so is that the theme and the subject speak to audience members whose parents weren’t born when the screenplay by Paddy Chayevsky and Gore Vidal premiered in 1955. The theme is, loveless robots and surly cave men excepted, eternal.
This is a story about love and marriage and how sometimes the two twine then separate like a strand of DNA molecules. It’s about dreams and wanting your children to have what you missed out on, but also about wanting to grasp the brass ring you missed out on so many go-rounds before.
Ralph and Janey are getting married, and they say they want it to be a simple, no-fuss affair at the courthouse with only immediate family. Aggie, Janey’s mom, cannot help but want to fulfill her fantasy of the wedding she never had. Tom, Janey’s dad, is within 15 minutes of realizing his dream of becoming half owner of a cab company. The money for only one of those dreams comes from a lifetime of savings and the government bereavement check for their only son, killed in combat. For all of these very real people, this is it, the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
How they individually and collectively grapple with the decisions, each other and their tightly-knit Bronx community, make the plot. Bringing the issue of economic class differences into the mix are the Hallorans, Ralph’s well-to-do, crowing parents. Helping to alternately confound and redeem the scenarios is the character Winston, Aggie’s gay brother, separated from his lover and now living with the family.
Played with gusto and his trademark gravelly voice by Harvey Fierstein, Winston is a complex character--irrepressible and irritating, sometimes at once. He’s funny, but he drinks too much and acts the fool. In lesser hands, he would be a cartoon. Proving he deserves his career full of accolades, Fierstein tempers Winston’s buffoonery with an understated display of his wise and loving nature. Like Winston’s family, the audience cannot help but love Uncle Winston.
It’s a bit more difficult to feel tenderly toward Tom. A role model for the stereotypical 50s bread-winner-only husband, Tom is not much of a communicator, and he’s focused so tightly on his chance to be a boss-owner that he’s blind to the people for whom he wants to achieve that status. Fortunately for the audience and his character, Tom Wopat plays this guy so perfectly, with every gesture and protest hinting at the nobility within him, that the surprise ending is not cheesy but celebratory.
Tony award winner Faith Prince as his suffering, sometimes shrewish wife Aggie, is his match. With an honesty that looks easy, Prince keeps her from becoming just another unappreciated homemaker and mother. She’s sad and assertive, angry and compassionate, wistful and wanting, please, just this one day to remember forever— for Janey and for herself.
Janey, sensitively played by Leslie Kritzer, and Ralph, sensibly played by Matt Cavenaugh, are a prudent pair. Lacking a lot of onstage chemistry, they still showcase their characters’ dilemmas and hold their own among the host of bold personalities that make up the rest of the cast.
With grand aplomb, Kristine Zbornik as the wedding dress saleswoman makes her cameo part a highlight of several scenes, and Philip Hoffman and Lori Wilner as Mr. and Mrs. Halloran play their characters large, making excellent foils.
David Gallo’s clever Bronx set with movable panels and projected atmosphere, Ann Hould-Ward’s practical period costumes, and the lighting and sound by Brian MacDevitt and Dan Moses Schreier, respectively, simply nail the technical aspects of this production.
If there is a flaw in this play, it could be that there is no song to hum after the curtain falls. The lyrics boast the smart internal rhymes for which Sondheim is famous, and the music flows easily and sweetly without discord. But musicals classically give something tuneful to remember, and this one does not. For those who miss that party favor, this Catered Affair may come up short. For the rest of us, however, it’s a gala celebration.
A Catered Affair” plays at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego’s Balboa Park through October 28.
Curtain at 7 pm Sun/T/W; 8 pm Th/F/Sat. Matinees Sat./Sun. 2 pm.
Tickets are $52-79
Reservations: 619-23-GLOBE or www.theoldglobe.org
|
