Why You Should Catch A Catered Affair On Broadway!

By Author: Al Terry
Total Articles: 781
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A Catered Affair seems to be the musical on everyone's must-see list. A lot of people just want to see the amazing Faith Prince sink her teeth into another musical in her signature manner. Others are keen on watching a little story that's awfully big on heart. But the play has a lot of other things going for it too.

Enough Wedding Films!

Let's face it- Hollywood likes to churn out wedding flicks. Movies like My Big, Fat Greek Wedding and Father of the Bride have laughed all the way to the bank, cashing in on the foibles of putting a wedding together. So what makes a Catered Affair so different? While it's true that the play centers on a wedding, it's not about grumpy in-laws, wedding dress mishaps or cold feet. The play delves a little deeper and touches on the real tension and turmoil that happens to each character.

Unlike most wedding stories, this play gives us a handful of well-defined characters in a pretty simple situation. Jane Hurley is about to get married to her boyfriend Ralph. Jane seems to be opting for marriage more as an escape from her family. Apart from that, she certainly doesn't want a ...
... big wedding because she knows her folks can't afford one. So it should all just be a matter of heading down to City Hall and saying 'I do', right? Wrong.

Guilt And Regret

As the story of A Catered Affair unfolds, things rapidly become more complicated. Jane's mother begins to feel guilty since she has always made Jane live in the shadow of her now-deceased brother. Instead of letting her daughter get married at City Hall, she insists they have a big wedding with a lovely dress and all the fixings. But Jane's mother isn't the only one with issues. Jane's father has spent his whole life working hard as a cab driver. He now has enough money to buy his own taxi- unless, of course, he uses that money to pay for Jane's wedding.

As the big day closes in and tiny mishaps begin to snowball, each family member must confront his or her own feelings of guilt and regret. The play quietly but effectively explores the bonds that bind a family together- it shows how they can cause problems and also bring everyone together.

A Catered Affair doesn't boast of any high-level production numbers. Instead, the audience is treated to some real hummable, toe-tapping tunes that have memorable lyrics to boot. Unlike other shows, where each song has a very obvious introduction, the characters here almost imperceptibly break into a song. In the end, the show is a simple story that musically binds its rather complex characters together. An added plus-point of the current production is the fact that it has Tom Wopat, Faith Prince and Leslie Kritzer in the lead roles. Harvey Fierstein, who wrote the book A Catered Affair, also has a role in the play. It's a show that you certainly don't want to miss. If you don't have the time to wait in line for tickets, you can always order them online. But make sure that you are dealing with an authorized ticket vendor first.