Harvey Fierstein "Conversation" at Zipper Theatre

Attended "A Conversation with Harvey Fierstein" last night at the Zipper Theatre on W. 37th St. sponsored by The American Theatre Wing (the Tony Award folks) of whom I've been a member for years but never get a lot out of my membership except for the occasional celebrity-laden cocktail party. Last night the numbers must have been down for this event...probably less than 100 people showed up, including a few theatre celebrities and bold-face names from the columns. You could tell how many people were no-shows by the enormous number of name tags left on the check-in table.

As soon as I entered I ran into Pia Lindstrom, and across the empty room I saw Harvey Fierstein hanging up his coat. Pia, who always looks fabulous, is on the membership services committee at the Wing, along with Barbara Toy and others. She said the Wing is perceived by many young theatre people as being full of an older, moneyed crowd but that they want to do more outreach to the members, the Off Broadway community, and younger theatre-goers. Informal events with major theatre personalities like Fierstein is part of that outreach. No matter how often I meet celebrities such as Pia, I always remain calm and collected on the outside, but on the inside I'm screaming "OH MY GOD, YOU'RE INGRID BERGMAN'S DAUGHTER!!!!!!"

During the 5:30-6:30pm cocktail hour I chatted with legend Marian Seldes who grabbed me and hugged me after I told her I had seen her for years in everything since DEATHTRAP as well as theatre events and parties, but had been too intimidated to say anything because I didn't want to come off as a "silly fan." She looked at me with a piercing stare, smiled, hugged me and said: "Nonsense...now we are friends...and colleagues!" Such a lovely woman...and still the total pro as she turns 80 this coming August!

I was button-holed momentarily by an elderly queen I knew years ago (and he was boring then) who immediately tried to monopolize me and tell me about the last 20 years. Not meaning to be rude, I simply said "Arthur, darling, I have people to meet! We'll catch up later!" I chatted with a couple of actors and producers and one of them, a major name, said she lived at 88 Central Park West..."Oh," I said..." that's where Lorne Michaels, Sting and Celeste Holm live and didn't Robert DeNiro just move in there?"
"Oh my," she said, "You really know your stuff! Actually we're not supposed to talk about DeNiro being there...the co-op board has informed all tenants to ignore his presence. He abandoned Tri-Beca apparently for Central Park West! But interestingly, DeNiro gets his mail under an assumed name...just like Garbo used to! If a visitor asks the doorman for DeNiro, or if a delivery comes for DeNiro, the doorman is instructed to say he doesn't live there! Totally crazy! The building is full of celebrities and we don't pull that nonsense! Didn't Garbo pull that too?"

After cocktails, we went into the Q&A with Harvey Fierstein and even though the evening was officially called: "A conversation with Harvey Fierstein" they could have re-named it: Harvey Fierstein does non-stop promotion for his new show A Catered Affair. All he did was talk about the show and its journey from film to San Diego's Old Globe Theatre to Broadway. He mentioned Debbie Reynolds (the girl in the film) was present opening night in San Diego and gave the show her blessing.

It was obvious they were trying to control the questions, but it was SUCH a low turn-out they had to take all questions, good or bad. The first question was obviously a plant, from Harvey's good pal, actress-writer Julie Halston, who sat front and center. She basically said "Tell us ALL about A Catered Affair," which gave Harvey license to launch into a lengthy monologue. Actually, I was interested in hearing about the show's progress and it is based on one of my all-time favorite films.

My question was very simple: "Is the music any good? Is anything memorable?" and the question was of course, dodged. When I finally pressed for an answer, young producer Jordan Roth, wunderkind son of producer Daryl Roth, said something about this being John Bucchino's first effort for the stage, and "the songs being a vehicle for the emotions of the characters to come thru" blah blah, blah. In my experience, this is Broadway double-speak for "unmemorable score." But we shall see when previews begin in late March. I hope I'm wrong. I see EVERYTHING on Broadway and have for the past 20 years...it's one of the biggest problems with big Broadway musicals today...totally unmemorable musical score. You leave the theatre humming the scenery and costumes. It's a shame...it's so obvious....a MUSICal should first and foremost, have good MUSIC! That's why revivals are so popular...because older shows have better songs....standards in many cases.

Just remember the old Richard Rodgers comment: "I don't care what the critics say: if I leave the theatre and hear the audiences whistling my songs, I know I have a hit!"

EXACTLY!