Prologue
As A Wedding begins, Rita Billingsley, the wedding “directrix,” is at the mixing bar lecturing the bartenders about drink-serving policy, and exhorting the maids to put out the flowers—all the last minute details of preparing a wedding reception in a grand North Shore villa (Now remember, you of the bartending crew).
Act I: The church and in and around the Sloan mansion
Scene 1. The curtains part on a church sanctuary, where the wedding of Muffin Brenner and Dino Corelli is about to begin; the whole pageant is completed to a grand Wedding March. A more ostentatious, overdone, showy, lily-bedecked sight can scarcely be imagined—a triumph of pricey ecclesiastical taste.
Scene 2. We return to the master bedroom of the Sloan mansion. Nettie Sloan, the formidable matriarch of the demesne, is gravely ill but leaves her bed to be nearer to the birds outside (Goldfinch and warbler). She is caught at the window by her daughter, Antonia Goddard, and her husband, Jules Mackenzie Goddard, who have just returned from the wedding ceremony. Jules, a retired doctor now an art dealer, exhorts a rebelling Nettie to return to bed. Soon enter Antonia’s (or Toni’s) sisters—the youngest, Diana Sloan, unmarried, and Victoria Corelli, Dino’s mother, physically weak and led supportively by her husband, Luigi. Nettie, at once proud of and nettled by her family, sends them all out. Enter Randolph, the Sloans’ Caribbean butler, to tell Nettie some distressing news about the impending reception. Once again alone, Nettie is chagrined but relieved that the wedding is at least over. Rita enters the bedroom to tell her about the just-arrived grand cake and receives no answer.
Scene 3. Downstairs in the ballroom of the mansion (this scene begins with a gentle samba from the full orchestra), Jules orders a drink while trying to avoid Victoria’s pleas for attention. Rita meets Victoria for the first time; Randolph tries to bring Jules to see Nettie but is brushed aside. Muffin and Dino, the newlyweds, arrive, followed by the Brenners, including Tulip’s unmarried sister, Candace, and the mysterious Buffy, Muffin’s older sister, who looks meaningfully at Dino; Toni looks askance at the family of new in-laws (That’s the father of the bride?/Yes, the F.O.B.). The affable Luigi Corelli, the Italian-born father of the groom, hustles all the men to his “grotto” for a drink but not before Jules falls suddenly for Tulip, so different from his executive, businesslike wife.
Scene 4. In the mirrored powder room, Buffy stares dreamily at her many reflections. Candace bursts in, searching for the toilet. Tulip’s attempt at chitchat with Victoria fails; Diana explains that her sister is not feeling well.
Scene 5. In Luigi’s grotto, a replica of a Roman trattoria, Luigi pours Jules and Dino wine he made himself; he attempts to pour a glass for Snooks, who refuses (There was a time I was a drinker and a smoker, in country-rock tempo).
Scene 6. In the ballroom, Rita fusses with the photographers. The guest, William Williamson, enters (I’m a guest from the agency). All pass by the receiving line, then it is time for the dance, a local band. (Rita: Ladies and gentlemen, we follow tradition). The bride and groom are the first to dance, to “their” song, followed by Luigi and Muffin, Dino and Victoria, and so on in the normal wedding-dance order. Jules cuts in on Tulip and Dino, barely able to contain his sudden infatuation for her. He is interrupted again by Randolph: Victoria needs him—it’s an emergency—and Jules finally agrees to go. Diana tries to detain Randolph; she is madly in love with him.
Scene 7. Victoria is alone in a small dark room. Jules enters and deals with her emergency.
Scene 8. Back at the ballroom, Snooks dances with Muffin, Tulip standing nearby. Jules rushes in and whirls Tulip out of the ballroom to a secluded spot. Except for an interrupting bartender, they are alone. After Jules tells her of his odyssey from medicine to art dealing (Pollock, de Kooning, and Kline), he finally cannot contain it any longer: he loves Tulip! She runs away in confusion.
Scene 9. Stumbling into the mirrored bathroom, Tulip encounters Victoria, who again leaves hurriedly. Alone, she contemplates herself in the mirrors (the emotionally intense This Jules Goddard, who is this me he sees?). To her shock, Jules enters the powder room with a rose and demands she declare her love for him, too. They decide to tryst in two weeks (Heaven, Tallahassee), and Jules dashes out of the bathroom blissfully, leaving Tulip again stunned and panting (Lord God Almighty!). Candace comes to find Tulip, warning her that it is time for the cake-cutting. Tulip dashes out of the powder room.
Act II: In and around the Sloan mansion
The orchestral introduction depicts a lone motorcycle on its way to the Sloan mansion; on it is Breedley, Dino’s best man, late for the wedding.
Scene 1. Arriving at the mansion, Breedley finds Dino with the couple’s wedding present from Snooks Brenner, a new Mercedes, which Breedley immediately covets.
Scene 2. The gift table in the ballroom. Nettie’s sister, Aunt Bea, enters in poncho and pearls, with a large wrapped painting, which she sets down while carrying on a spirited argument with Rita. The Sloan/Corelli family enter with the Brenners, Randolph, and William Williamson, and Aunt Bea unveils her work with a flourish, a painting of Muffin that shocks the gathering (It’s my interpretation of our social condition); Williamson defends her art, Bea and Toni clash, and Rita calls everyone to the cake table.
Scene 3. With the band’s help, Rita shows Muffin and Dino how to cut the cake. Breedley watches in disgust (Stark raving married, sung with the ensemble) and decides on mischief, telling Tulip’s sister Candace of Dino’s prior involvement with Buffy. Tulip, getting lost en route, shows up late; when Candace tries to tell her the gossip, Snooks, breaking in, takes Tulip off to see the offensive painting.
Scene 4. Alone in the grotto, Luigi bemoans having left his native land (Italia, Italia). When Victoria enters, he tries to tell her of her mother’s passing; she responds strangely (It was at a table like this in the sun, remember?).
Scene 5. Donato, Luigi’s brother from Italy, sneaks into the gift-table area where Rita stops him, thinking him a burglar (Red alert). Randolph takes his passport—he really is Dino’s uncle—but Luigi, enraged to see him, tries to throw him out. When Jules explains that since Nettie’s death the situation has changed, Luigi suddenly embraces the puzzled Donato, who has brought a huge sausage from their favorite pizzecheria (Prosciutto, mortadella). The scene ends in a celebration, Italian-opera style.
Scene 6. Toni, entering Nettie’s bedroom, discovers her mother’s death and has Jules call a family conference to tell the sad news. All leave afterward but Aunt Bea. William Williamson pops his head in the room (Just looking around, in recitative), and the two discover their affinity (I’ve got a lot of lawn to mow, a duet in English country-dance tempo).
Scene 7. The shower room. Breedley is feeding drinks to Dino, who sings drunkenly of his new, happy marriage (Desire is the last thing I need, in Platters-style rock-and-roll tempo) and collapses, passed out. Breedley drags him to the shower (Stark raving married and stark raving drunk!). Meantime, Muffin, on a staircase in travel clothes, sings of her first meeting with Dino across the country club swimming pool (Blue-green beautiful chlorine, a lyrical ballad). She is confronted on the stairs by Rita in an upsetting way and runs up to the shower room, where Breedley is trying unsuccessfully to sober Dino up. Breedley climbs out of the shower, grabs Dino’s trousers, and runs out, leaving Muffin to take on the task.
Scene 8. Candace tells Snooks that Buffy is pregnant, and Snooks calls a family conference. When confronted with her past, which does not include only Dino, she mimes a silent aria of counting (accompanied by flutes, horns, and bassoons).
Interlude for the orchestra before Scene 9.
Scene 9. Snooks, furious, wants to leave, calling to Randolph for their cars. Tulip, in tow, runs into Jules and greets him secretively. Suddenly, we hear the sound of Muffin and Dino’s new Mercedes speeding off; have they left without saying goodbye? Accusing them of having alienated Muffin’s affections, Snooks berates the Sloan family for their supercilious airs (Nothin’. That’s how you people see me). A loud crash is heard: the Mercedes has hit a tree! No one in the car is alive. Brought together by grief, the two families sing a chorale (Loving husband, loyal wife). Muffin and Dino appear (Are they from the dead? Who was in the Mercedes?); Snooks, to his wife’s surprise, orders champagne to celebrate. Everyone begins to dance for joy, not stopping for Rita, who has entered with the photographer.
Scene 10. People begin to leave. Jules awaits Tulip in the mirrored bathroom, presenting her with a rose on her arrival (Ah, Tulip, Tulip, in a French pas-de-deux ballet style). When she leaves, Jules goes out to the hall, yelling for a drink; Luigi enters, telling him he is leaving with his brother for Italy, and ducks out of sight when Victoria comes onstage (Jules, I need you).
Scene 11 (Finale). Luigi comes to the bedroom to say goodbye to Nettie’s body (So, Nettie, you can rest now). Diana and Randolph enter (Randy, we can marry now, in a quasi-bluesy duet), then leave, making an agreement to carry on as usual, rather than to try to make something “unnatural” at work. Luigi, leaving the house, finds Donato. The brothers depart together, as do the newlyweds. Rita and Tulip, coming out from inside the house, sing a duet (Weddings are the happiest events); Tulip, called by Snooks and Candace, goes to their car, and the Brenners drive off, leaving Buffy behind by mistake; she is the last person we see as the curtain falls.
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