Playwright: Harvey Fierstein; Composer/lyricist: John Bucchino . At: Porchlight Music Theatre at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. Tickets: 773-327-5252; www.porchlightmusictheatre.org; $38. Runs through: April 1
It's easy to see why the 2008 musical A Catered Affair didn't last too long on Broadway. Out playwright/actor Harvey Fierstein and composer/lyricist John Bucchino's musical adaptation of the 1956 film The Catered Affair is so intimate and personal that it would seemingly get lost on Broadway that is often geared more toward tourist trade rather than serious theater lovers.
Thankfully, Porchlight Music Theatre is presenting the Chicago premiere of A Catered Affair in a wonderfully intimate space at Stage 773, allowing the musical's heartfelt family drama to blossom and sing in up-close quarters. Porchlight's A Catered Affair is also strong all-around in large part to the insightful emotional guidance of director Nick Bowling and music director Doug Peck.
The main conflicts in A Catered Affair arise when grown daughter Janey Hurley ( Kelly Davis Wilson ) plans a quickie and no-frills wedding to longtime boyfriend Ralph Halloran ( Jim Deselm ) to take advantage of a borrowed friend's car for a cheap cross-country honeymoon. While Janey's cash-strapped parents initially agree to the speedy wedding, mother Aggie ( Rebecca Finnegan ) starts strong-arming her taxi-driving husband, Tom ( Craig Spidle ) , and others to make sure that the wedding will be an expensive, traditional wedding and reception ( in part to make up for Aggie and Tom's neglect of their daughter in favor of their now-deceased military son, Terrence. )
Fierstein and Bucchino's musical adaptation flows from song to speech in a near seamless fashion, heightening the working-class drama set in New York's South Bronx in the 1950s. Yet Fierstein and Bucchino also bring modern relevance to the musical, particularly in refashioning the Hurley bachelor uncle, Winston ( Jerry O'Boyle ) , into an openly gay man who isn't afraid to speak up. Some may argue that Winston would have been more closeted in the era, but the addition of a gay uncle makes a strong statement about how all kinds of family members should be included.
There is a lot of kitchen-sink dramatics for the cast to chew upon, and they all bite into the material with gusto and emotion. Finnegan and Spidle, in particular, shine as a couple re-examining the simmering resentments and long-held disappointments in their hardscrabble marriage.
If there are complaints to be leveled at Porchlight's A Catered Affair, one could take issue at how clean and tasteful Brian Sidney Bembridge's set design looks ( especially when compared to the grimy and cramped look of the film that inspired the musical ) , and with the patchy sound design of Victoria ( toy ) Deiorio on opening night.
But otherwise Porchlight's A Catered Affair is a deeply affecting musical that offers rich emotional drama on an intimate scale. Thank goodness for theater companies like Porchlight offering A Catered Affair another chance to shine.
