"I Do! I Do!" and Westchester's Long-Married Couples

It’s not every day that a Rye writer finds his name and photograph in lights on Broadway –the Westchester Broadway Theatre in Elmsford, that is.

But there I am with my wife Stephanie. our long-ago life-sized wedding day photo (Oct.15, 1960)  smiling down on the stage as part of a then and now as we look today. We are part of a rotating visual display featuring ten of Westchester’s long-married couples.

The visuals are part of an ongoing promotion for WBT’s latest musical, “I Do, I Do,” Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s musical adaptation of the Jan de Hartog play, “The Fourposter,” which traces a young couple from their first innocent night together to their not-so-innocent late life as they share what happens during 50-years of marriage.

Pia Haas, WBT’s Director of Press and Public Relations, came up with the idea of inviting Westchester area couples who have been married 50 years or more to see the show as WBT guests at the dinner theatre.

It is an ongoing offer that involves your sending the WBT a brief story about your marriage (including how you met) with then and now photos for display before the show starts and during intermission (details on how to apply at end of story).
 Your comments will also be posted on the WBT blog. I’ll share mine in a jiffy.

But first some back story.

I may be the only journalist who has covered almost every opening at WBT, starting with their first performance of “Kiss Me Kate” July 9, 1974 back in the day when they were known as An Evening Dinner Theatre and served buffet matinee lunch and dinner shows.

I was writing for The NY Daily News then. And An Evening was evolving into the full service restaurant/dinner theatre WBT that what would become the longest-running, year-round equity theatre in the history of New York State, 168 productions and counting.

We have both come a long way since, I'm now long-retired from The NY Daily News and still writing regularly for regional and national publications (including Rye Patch) and WBT as the only year 'round theatre in Westchester where Broadway performers, directors and designers gather to regularly stage top flight Broadway musical revivals.

So when WBT contacted me with my reviewer’s invitation to “I Do, I Do,” I suggested inviting two other long-married Rye couples I had written about recently for Rye Patch, John and Bess June Lane (married more than 50 years) and John and Dorothy Carolin (wed more than 60 years) with both couples leading community volunteers.

“Let’s do it,” said Haas.

But both the Lanes and Carolins requested a rain check, the Lanes because John is undergoing chemotherapy and must stay out of crowds because he might pick up a virus in his weakened condition and the Carolins because they are in their 90s and would like to wait until the weather improves.

But when I mentioned to Haas that Steph and I had also been married more than 50 years, she asked us to be part of the “I Do, I Do” visual presentation by sending her then and now photos and a short blurb about how we met and our thoughts on how to stay married for the long run.

That’s how we became part of the visual display, our photos beaming down on the audience from stage left and right for the run of the performance well into March. And that’s how we happened to be introduced to the audience on opening night this past Thursday.

We had seen “I Do, I Do” at WBT twice before (in 1975 and 1982). We had also caught the original Broadway production on its second night (it opened Dec.5, 1966 with Robert Preston and Mary Martin as the original leads). And each time we saw “I Do, I Do” with its cast of two, it brought back so many memories of our life together, including four now no-longer young children (two boys, two girls, ranging in age from 40 to 48, and four grandchildren).

 This WBT production (starring Lauri Landry and Mark Zimmerman) also stirred many show biz memories.

 Carol Lawrence and Gordon McRae, for example, replaced the original leads. Carol Burnett and Rock Hudson starred in a national tour. Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy became one of the first husband and wife acting teams to play the role on stage. Rex Harrison and Lili Palmer starred in the film version. And Preston, who was initially reluctant to take on the male lead, wound up winning a Tony Award for his performance.

But it was two pivotal behind the scenes characters that stand out most in my mind. It was producer David Merrick who coaxed Schmidt (music) and Jones (book and lyrics) to adapt “The Fourposter” into “I Do, I Do” after their initial success with “The Fantasticks” (which went on to become the longest-running production in the history of the American stage and one of the most frequently produced musicals in the world).

The Broadway production of “I Do, I Do,” directed and choreographed by Gower Champion, went on to run for 560 performances. But Champion and Merrick would make Broadway history for a different reason.
Following the opening night curtain of a different production, “42nd Street,” now another WBT staple,  Merrick stunned the audience during the curtain calls by stepping forward to announce that Champion, the show’s director and choreographer, had died that afternoon but he had kept the news from the cast rather than disrupt their performance.

That's part of what came flooding back into my mind when I read the credits for the WBT "I Do, I Do."

That’s what happens when you have been writing professionally for more than half-a-century, every curtain rises on a lifetime of memories and associations. Especially if you have interviewed the Schmidts and Joneses, Merricks and Champions, Streisands and Tennessees along the way as someone who still sees and writes about everything opening on Broadway as well as a lot of off and way off Broadway.

Here’s how you or someone you know can see “I Do, I Do” —which runs through March 20— as guests of WBT if you or they have been married 50 years or more:  Call 592-2268, extension 804, Facebook, Westchester Broadway theatre group or e-mail: Piahaas@cloud9.net.

As or what I wrote that is appearing on the WBT blog, here it is:
"Steph and I met at a College of New Rochelle event. I was there for a literary discussion to discuss Tennessee Williams and Shakespeare and thought I could shake up the Ursuline nuns at the all-girls college by showing how Billy Shakespeare's writing was every bit as violent and filled with love, forbidden and otherwise, back in the day as Tenn's was in ours. "

Afterwards, there was a social mixer, and Stephanie was serving eggnog and one of my Fordham buddies on the track team with me commented on how beautiful she was and said he was going to ask her to dance. Out of sheer competitiveness, I cut him off (I used to run lead off leg on the mile and two mile relays for Fordham as a track scholarship athlete). 

"I asked Steph to dance and we have been dancing together ever since. That was in December, close to Christmas (hence the eggnog) of 1957. I was a junior English/Journalism major out of Little Italy off Fordham Road in the Bronx, she was a sophomore speech major from Van Houten Fields in West Nyack who went on to become president of CNR's Props and Paints theatre group. We married a year after her college graduation from CNR (Steph graduated in 1959, we kiddingly used to say CNR stood for the College of No Romance) when I was fresh out of the Army (direct commission from enlisted man to first lieutenant) and at the start of my career with The NY Daily News, going on to become, among other things, a globe-trotting, nationally-syndicated travel writer, columnist, editor, arts critic (including theatre and ballet) and more. 

Our wedding date: Oct.15, 1960 (I had trouble getting off from work because of the World Series). Steph was a speech therapist for a while in Rockland, then stayed home to raise our four no longer kids (a college professor, creative copy writer, nurse and psychologist, two boys, two girls, ranging in age from 40 to 48 at what I used to say was two year Jesuitically spaced intervals). 

"As the kids grew up,  Steph went on to become an IBM executive as well as the author of a best selling book called 'The Daily Reader of Contemplative Living,' now in its fourth printing (at least). We both, by the way, are also senior aerobics instructors for various area YMCAs including Rye. I am long-since retired from The NY Daily News. I still write regularly for regional and national publications and host a weekly 15-minute area cable TV show called 'Rye Eye on Travel, Theatre & the Arts,' among other things, including writing for Rye Patch. And Steph, an ex-dancer, also teaches Zumba, the aerobics dance craze.

Our secret to a long & happy marriage, if there is one, is to accept one another as we are, not as we'd like each other to be. We forgive if not forget but conveniently develop amnesia about some things. We focus on the positives. We appreciate the ongoing adventure of getting to know one another better every day. We are continually amazed by the bond that comes from having children and grandchildren. And our shared experiences have led to a love that surpasses all understanding."