Here to Support the Bride and Groom

Some time ago, in a short span of two weeks, Nancy Cassaro attended four weddings and no funerals. At the time, the budding New York actress with a penchant for experimental work was struck by the wealth of theatrical material inherent in weddings and wedding receptions. “I remembered that my family’s weddings were incredible,” says Cassaro, “I decided I wanted people to experience the insanity of Italian weddings.”

So she brought together a dozen college and acting-class buddies for workshops to develop “Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding.” In 1988, they brought the play to the paying public with the help of a $15,000 loan from the producer’s brother. A make-believe ceremony was performed in a real church, with a home-baked ziti wedding dinner served nearby.

Cassaro played Tina Vitale, Mark Nassar played Tony Nunzio; the cast took on roles in the wedding party, ad libbing to the wedding guests--played by compliant audience members.

The production has since moved uptown to the New York theater district (St. Luke’s Church on 46th Street) and has logged some 4,200 performances in New York. It has been performed in about 60 other U.S. cities and 12 countries in locations as disparate as Sydney, Frankfurt and Tokyo.

Cassaro and Larry Pellegrini, director of that first “Tony n’ Tina” and an original workshop member, recently took a break from rehearsals at the Henry Fonda Theatre, where L.A.’s second incarnation of the show--the first came in 1989 to the Park Plaza Hotel--is scheduled to open this week.

“We had no idea!” Cassaro says when asked if she had any inkling of the phenomenon they launched a dozen years ago. “We were just doing weird environment pieces of theater.”

“It was the time we were just doing things we loved,” Pellegrini says. “It was almost the naivete that led to the success. If you really ever sat down and asked, ‘Is it a good idea. . . .’ ”

“When we added the element of the audience coming into our reality, what would happen? It was very exciting and also incredibly nerve-racking,” Cassaro interjects. “Is this really gonna work--or is it gonna bomb?”

It didn’t bomb. In New York, Pellegrini says, the show is still packing them in. Worldwide, some 5 million people have seen it, according to Howard Perloff, who is producing the L.A. show.

Where apropos, adaptations in story line are made to suit a venue. In San Francisco or Sydney, Tony and Tina are part of the local Italian community. In Puerto Rico, they had Italian backgrounds but spoke Spanish.

This year, a production was mounted at the Four Seasons Hotel in Tokyo--quite upscale for the working-class Tony and Tina. There was no attempt to localize, says Pellegrini, who also directed that production, “because there was no way we could do it really.”

The leads became two New York Italians who happened to have their wedding in Japan--bringing their family with them. They imported American actors, adding a miked translator who would provide occasional explanations of the exotic goings-on.

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And goings-on there are aplenty. For the uninitiated, the show revolves around the wedding of Tony Nunzio and Tina Vitale. In the first act, the audience sits through the ceremony and goes through the receiving line, meeting the characters whose antics explode in Act 2--the dinner and dance.

As the play progresses, the audience learns that the Nunzios and Vitales are at war with one another, that Tony’s father has arrived with his stripper girlfriend, that Father Mark is a lush, and that Tina’s ex-boyfriend still holds a torch for her. Fights and confrontations take place amid the eating and ballroom dancing, which the audience is welcome to participate in. And, yes, a meal is included in the price of admission.

“Everything that you wouldn’t want to happen in a wedding happens in this one,” Perloff says. “It’s funny because it’s not your wedding.”

In Japan, Pellegrini found that language was no barrier to audience participation. “The cast began talking to people in English, the Japanese responded in Japanese, and it was amazing!”

The creators also worried that the Japanese, given their reputation for public diffidence, would not join in the dancing. But their fears proved unfounded.

“When the first song began,” Pellegrini recalls, “they came up to the dance floor like a typhoon and never sat down!”

“A lot of the show is you’re sitting here and you’re watching across the room,” Cassaro adds, “so a lot of it is just images--you can pick up so much from body language.”

“I think that the play is a lot about feeling, enjoying the environment,” Pellegrini says.

Though the show is designed to be interactive and the actors meander about, there is a working script that sets forth key speeches and outlines the sequence of events. Because every character has a back story, the script opens with a page or two on each character, providing telling moments or histories that the actor incorporates into the character. And during the Los Angeles rehearsals, soul-searching discussions about the who, what and why of each character take place under the guidance of Pellegrini, surrounded by a very attentive and enthusiastic cast of 29.

A few changes have been made for the latest adaptation. “The story line doesn’t change; what changes is the environment,” says Cassaro, “and we acknowledge the generation shift” with such touches as updated music.

This year, Perloff, who also has “Tony n’ Tina” productions running in Philadelphia and San Francisco, agreed to a co-production with James Nederlander, who had been looking for something to fill the Henry Fonda Theatre. Auditions got underway in August, and the theater was slowly converted for its new use. Most seats in the orchestra area have been removed, replaced by a platform to create a space that can serve as both a church for the wedding ceremony and, after an intermission drink in the lobby, as Club Sparks for the reception.

Now the story goes that Tony (James Grimaldi) has had to make a quick getaway from New York (reasons unclear), ending up in Los Angeles, where his father (George Georgiadis) has been for the last five years--running a strip joint in Van Nuys. Tina (Jackie Tohn) has joined Tony, and when they decide to tie the knot, they think Club Sparks, run by former child star Sparky (David Storrs), would be the coolest place for a banquet.

“To Tony and Tina, a star owns the place, it’s ground zero,” Cassaro, now a Los Angeles resident herself, says with a broad smile on her face. “They think Hollywood Boulevard is cutting edge.”

“We’re very excited about doing it here,” Pellegrini says of the return to Los Angeles. “We believe in it so much.”

“We believe in the experience we first had when we did the show,” Cassaro explains. “There’s something about the way an audience responds when the show is done with this absolute reality. I’ve had experiences when I was performing Tina that I will never forget.”

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Once a real Tony and Tina--a couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary--attended a performance in New York. When the make-believe Tina got a little wild at one point, the real Tina sat her down to give her some marital advice. “That line between reality and illusion blurred,” Cassaro recalls. “She said to me, ‘You just have to stay married, you have to stay with it!’ ”

Cassaro has been married for 12 years to Christopher Fracchiolla, one of the original cast members--although their wedding was a more somber, Buddhist ceremony, followed by a country club reception on Long Island. “Yeah, I’m an Italian Catholic Buddhist girl from New York,” she quips. “Go figure.”

She still loves weddings and always cries when the bride comes down the aisle, whether or not she knows her. “I’ve just recently been to four weddings again--two of my nieces got married,” Cassaro says. “I love the ritual of families coming together and celebrating a special occasion. There’s all this promise of possibility and joy.”

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“TONY N’ TINA’S WEDDING,” Henry Fonda Theatre, 6126 Hollywood Blvd. Dates: Opens Friday. Plays Thursdays-Saturdays, 7:30 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. except Dec. 24. Ends Jan. 28. Prices: $75. Phone: (800) 660-8462.