| . | 04/29/2008
A Catered Affair
By: Victor Gluck
(clockwise from bottom center) Matt Cavenaugh, Leslie Kritzer, Lori Wilner, Harvey Fierstein, Philip Hoffman, Tom Wopat and Faith Prince
(photo credit: Jim Cox)
Paddy Chayefsky’s 1955 teleplay, A Catered Affair, and Gore Vidal’s subsequent 1956 film adaptation are about people who wouldn’t sing or dance. Aggie and Tom Hurley from the Bronx are what was then called “working class,” those who were just making ends meet. In fact, it is really about how not to have a catered affair. Playwright Harvey Fierstein and composer-lyricist John Bucchino have set themselves a difficult task of trying to turn this material into a musical. The results starring Faith Prince, Tom Wopat and Fierstein himself prove to be a chamber musical, really a play with music, and very understated.
Fierstein has remained extremely faithful to the original story of what happens when daughter Janey announces that she and fiancé Ralph are getting married at City Hall the following Thursday, and Aggie decides to give Janey the wedding she never had, even though they can’t afford a big affair. The family has just received a bereavement check from the government for the death of their son Terry in Korea and Aggie plans to use this opportune windfall to impress Ralph’s wealthy parents. However, unbeknownst to her, her cabdriver husband Tom has been offered a chance to buy out his third partner and have a bigger share of his medallion. Fierstein has added a Greek chorus of three female neighbors and made Janey’s Uncle Winston, the perennial bachelor uncle who lives with the family, gay.
This alteration is tastefully handled with Winston outing himself at the get-together for the two families when he discovers that he is not being invited to the wedding, only “immediate family.” However, from then on Winston continually brings up his sexual orientation. For 1953 it seems as anachronistic as the opening scene in which Janey and Ralph (who are not yet engaged) are seen in bed together. Whether it was the choice of director John Doyle or a part of Fierstein’s book, Winston appears as a silent witness to many scenes. Is the whole story in his memory? Is it a reminder that he is taken for granted? We never know for certain. Other than this, Doyle’s direction is unpretentious and unobtrusive, particularly notable as he is the director who usually has his performers play their own instruments.
In keeping the show to ten actors, even the production has been kept small. Making his Broadway debut, cabaret artist and songwriter Bucchino has mostly written songs that forward the story but are usually prosaic, in the sense of prose rather than poetry. The melodies might be lovely but legendary orchestrator Jonathan Tunick has such a small sound coming from the pit that often it seems as if no music is playing. The characters may be little people in the scale of things, but they have big emotions and needed a larger expression of their feelings.
The most powerful song is Tom’s “I Stayed,” his version of the uneasy relationship between him and Aggie. Unfortunately, this “eleven o’clock number” (although the show is actually 90 minutes without an intermission) comes a bit late in the evening to make this a memorable score. Aggie’s “Vision” in which she imagines the catered affair, and the stage is momentarily transformed, is a magical moment, but this is the only such imaginatively staged musical number. As sung by Fierstein, whose voice seems to be deeper and more hoarse than usual, “Immediate Family” which is cleverly written does not sit comfortably in his range, nor does his last song, “Coney Island,” which is also used a bit later for the finale.
In one of her strongest (and least glamorous) roles, Prince captures the domineering, steamroller side to Aggie’s personality, a disappointed woman who regrets her life choices, and wants more for her daughter. However, she is less successful in making her sympathetic. Wopat’s Tom Hurley is mostly a silent, brooding man until his outburst just before the ending, basically the show’s climax. Fierstein is restrained as Aggie’s brother Winston, never quite fitting into any of the family scenes. The rest of the talented cast are given little to do, from Legally Blonde’s Leslie Kritzer as Janey, to Grey Gardens’ Matt Cavenaugh as her fiancé school teacher, to Heather Mac Rae as both a nosey neighbor and the unctuous caterer. Kristine Zbornik gives the show some much needed humor as the snooty dress saleswoman, while the other characters are mostly wasted.
Even the design scheme has been kept small and modest. David Gallo’s setting for the Bronx milieu consists of a back wall of tenement windows on which Zachary Borovay’s slide projections are occasionally overlaid. Set pieces such as the kitchen table, double bed, fire escapes, etc., are brought in when needed. It keeps the show honest but it is almost devoid of atmosphere which is sorely missed. A Catered Affair is an attempt to get away from the raucous musicals of recent years and return to the character driven shows of the past. Its good intentions do not diminish the sense that it doesn’t do justice to the material.
A Catered Affair (open run)
Water Kerr Theatre, 219 W. 48th Street, in Manhattan
For tickets, call 212-239-6200 or http://www.telecharge.com
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