BWW Video Show Preview: A Catered Affair

And they would show the same movie four times a day

And whenever it was a movie I liked, I used to cut school and stay home and watch the movie

And anything with Betty Davis, you know, I knew I had to see. And so there was this thing called The Cated Affair

There was this wonderful film about the people I grew up with

So it was the Bronx and I grew up in Brooklyn. and it was these normal people with normal lives

and the yentas on the street, the women gossiping, and people that didn't have a lot of money

talking about what's important in life, and a lot of emotions that don't get shared very often

and I just felt an affinity for these characters almost immediately. Of course, years later, I came to realize

it was the writings of Paddy Chiavsky and Cated Affair, just the way that he delved into the human heart

of simple people that don't use a lot of flowery language, that don't have the grasp of great ideas

They just know how they feel. They know what they're living through. You know how dear you are to all of us

But if we invite you, we've got to invite Michael and Tom and Joe and all the cousins

And before we know it, there'll be hundreds and hundreds. So we decided just the simplest ceremony with only immediate family

And would I not be considered one of the immediate family? You know how it goes

you invite one uncle, then you have to ask them all. Then the cousins and the friends and the neighbors and the dates and the list grows and grows

I'm not invited. You're not listening to me? Yeah, there's a lot of humor in the text, but in reality

it a serious story about a serious situation for people Immediate family Excuse me The kids will be inviting only immediate family Well that what they said but I know what they meant I don have to be in the head to see

through to their true intent. But this is a very intimate piece about people who are

leading very ordinary lives and who may never sing in their really ordinary lives, but have

something tied inside them, a passion tied inside them, that gets released by the story

And that's the thing I'm interested in, you know. I'm interested in the kind of extraordinariness of these ordinary people

and that they could be you and me, really. Partners, a team for life

Can't believe you're ready to become my wife. Guess you wait long enough, a dream just may come true

And I finally get to be partners with you I always look for roles that have great journeys

But there was something in the human condition about this woman that I related to in my early years

It was my grandmother growing up. And some of my mother in there

But I really knew these people. And even though it was the Bronx, not Augusta, Georgia

It really spoke to me. Everything's golden, nothing goes wrong Inside the sun, in this candlelight

On this perfect night And then there they are The impossibly beautiful pair

Just to look at them makes you ache To care like they care

To feel what they feel And believe that it's real

This is what getting married should be I had this mistaken image of musical theater

as being somewhat presentational or two or tap numbers and of razzle dazzle which I don really know how to do and what been so rewarding

is to see how this piece has evolved and yet it still does what I always want my

music to do which is resonates very deeply One thing Tom, one thing that's special for her

One thing she'll smile about all of her days. A beautiful paper fair

You know, everybody calls it a small musical. It is a small musical. It's a big play

Of course I want to give my kid a wedding, but I think blowing 20 years of savings on one night

isn't right. Is that a crime? Why can't you see my side of things this one time

I nearly had another piece of the medallion. I nearly made that dream come true

They'd be wanted so much as being selfish, but I wanted it for you

I like to feel like I'm part of a team, like I play my position on the baseball team

and the position's always a little bit different. For a long time I was a hero

and those were an awful lot of fun. But these parts, they're painful sometimes

but there's a lot of satisfaction to be had. You know, I saw Faith on television

while I was watching dinner one night in high school open. Guys and Dolls and they went backstage

and I was like, wow, isn't that cool? Years later I wound up going to the same college as her

majoring in the same major, and now I'm playing her daughter on Broadway. It's kind of a dream come true

It's a good thing getting married. It's the thing that people do

Now you've found the fella for you. So you'll each wear a groove in your side of the bed

each learn to ignore things the other one said. And you smile when you think about the day you were went Is that all Oh I guess There are moments where you know I look at Faith I told her and I was like God I saw my mom

When you said that, it was like I was talking to my mother and I was reacting to you like I have

It brought me back to a different time and place. Please. I've been out here on my own

Now make your feelings known Don't ever stop saying I love you

A lady the other Saturday night who saw the show, her and her husband, they really enjoyed it

and the husband said, you know, it's a great Harvey Fierstein piece

He said, it's a real piece about family, and it has humor and pathos and all those things

I said, you know, he's right. That really is what Harvey has written

I'll never stop saying I love you. Bringing this painfully human story to Broadway

has been a labor of love for us for years and a labor of love to us all

To know that you're going to entertain an audience is a gift, but knowing that you will also move them and enlighten them

and let our audience know that they're not alone in how they feel about their lives

That's kind of the magic of theater right there. That's the whole thing. This has just restored my faith in the best part of this business and Broadway

That in this day and time, with so many different things, and money being the issue, and Broadway having changed a lot

especially in the last 10 years, that this kind of peace lives that can be a mirror for other people