A view of dancers at the opening night party for "The Wedding Singer" as seen from the DJ station at Crobar in Manhattan. Click photo for larger image.

NEW YORK -- At the end of Act 1 of the Broadway musical of "The Wedding Singer," there's a scene set in what my notes identify as a "scary disco club" bathed in garish neon. So it was fitting that Thursday's opening night party for "Wedding Singer" should take place in just such a club, but much more impressive -- the huge, pulsating Crobar, so far west on 28th Street that the neighborhood doesn't even seem to have a name, unless it's North Chelsea.

The Meatpacking District, lying farther south, would be more appropriate, since that's just what you do in such a club -- pack everybody in, bathe them in colored spotlights and bombard them with the kind of disco/rap/metal beat that makes you feel your inner organs. My daughter tells me Crobar is where the Paris Hiltons of the world hang out. It was certainly the biggest Broadway opening night party I've been to -- not that I'm a regular habitue.

	Choreographer Rob Ashford, with his parents, Larry and Kathy Davis, at the opening night party for "The Wedding Singer." Click photo for larger image.

Having seen "Wedding Singer" the previous day, I arrived at the party late from the more serious "History Boys," so it took me a while to get into the percussive, neon-bathed, Danteesque mood. But I was able to wend my way through the gyrating mob, down, around, up and into an inner sanctum, where I found "Wedding Singer" choreographer Rob Ashford with his parents, Larry and Kathy Davis, now of Florida but originally from West Virginia.

As I told them, their son counts as a Pittsburgher with us, having gotten a degree at Point Park and then teaching there and working at the CLO and elsewhere in town before going on the road, often to work as assistant to the Pittsburgh Marshalls, Rob and Kathleen. And work he does: After winning his own choreographer Tony for "Thoroughly Modern Millie," Ashford has been constantly in demand, as the PG has chronicled.

In fact, that very day he had flown in from London for the opening and party, and he would fly back the next day. He originally left for London the day they "froze" the last minute changes in "Wedding Singer," a week before, in order to start work choreographing the first London revival of "Evita," which will open in June.

	Christina Sivrich and Matt Stocke at the opening night party for "The Wedding Singer." Click photo for larger image.

Ashford says this will differ from the original, iconic Hal Prince production in being a more authentic, Argentinian "Evita." That's partly because more people know Argentina than when the show was new, but mainly because the lead is actually Argentinian. Unlike American or English performers, she grew up regarding Eva Peron as a saint, which Ashford promises will give the show a different feel. He's grateful, however, that he first came to know "Evita" at Pittsburgh CLO, as a performer under Michael Lichtefeld, who had been part of Prince's original company.

Following "Evita," Ashford begins work on another new musical, "Curtains, which will try out in Los Angeles in August.

Among those at the party were Kathleen Marshall, who's riding high now as director/choreographer of the hit revival of "The Pajama Game," and her parents, longtime Pittsburghers Bob and Anne Marshall. Ashford has long been like another member of their family.

Elsewhere in the crowd I found Joe Schulz, a former Pittsburgher who acts regularly at City Theatre and Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre, and Dan Barnhill (Pitt 1990), who was there because his girlfriend is one of the stage managers.

I also ran into New Yorker critic John Lahr and expressed surprise at seeing a New York critic at an opening night party. "It's OK when you're not reviewing," he said, so I guess someone else is doing this one. It wasn't surprising at all to encounter Michael Riedel, celebrated bad boy theatrical gossip columnist for the Post. I always find him smart and entertaining, but maybe that's because I needn't fear being skewered in his column.

	Bethel Park's Michael McGurk is old enough to drink liquor. But here's he's sucking on two vanilla milkshakes. Click photo for larger image.

Mainly, I spent time with the three Pittsburghers in the cast: Matt Stocke, Christina Sivrich and Michael McGurk. It was hard to miss Stocke, shaved head gleaming, resplendent in a white tail coat and dancing up a storm on the stage above the pulsating throng. For the Green Tree native, CMU '95, this is his fourth Broadway show ("Titanic," "Full Monty," "Boy from Oz"), and clearly he knows how to enjoy an opening night party.

It's the second Broadway show for McGurk, a Bethel Park native, who remembered that his first opening was six years before to the very day, in Susan Stroman's "Music Man" revival. (The first time I saw him perform was more than 10 years ago at Seton-La Salle High School.) In "Wedding Singer," he's a swing, covering seven "tracks" -- three dancers and four singers -- and he's also an assistant dance captain.

Last summer, McGurk was playing the effusive dog in the original company of the CLO's touring "Dr. Dolittle," but he was let go with the rest when Tommy Tune took over, then bounced back fast with this Broadway booking.

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He remembers when Ashford called in September to tell him he had made the cast and that he wanted him as one of the dance captains -- a new responsibility, the kind that sometimes leads on to choreography.

"My job really starts tomorrow," McGurk said. Director John Rando, Ashford and the assistant choreographer leave, and it's up to the stage managers and dance captains to keep the show in shape and train replacements. And of course McGurk has to be ready to perform, too. He hadn't been on yet, but from all the hard partying under way all around us, I wouldn't be surprised if he had to so the next day.

McGurk is high on "Wedding Singer," as you'd expect, particularly because he figures it's a Broadway show that will attract a new audience, people like his brothers, Brian and Adam, and their girlfriends. I missed his proud parents, Bob and Debbie, who'd just left the party -- maybe their somewhat older ears, like mine, were hurting from the joyous din.

But gradually the scene came to feel friendlier. Then I discovered the suspicious little shot glasses of milky white liquid being passed around were vanilla milkshakes (with home-made Oreos on the side), and I felt much more at home.

	East McKeesport's Christina Sivrich celebrating her Broadway debut in "The Wedding Singer" with her parents, Peggy and Nick. Click photo for larger image.

This is the Broadway debut for Sivrich, from East McKeesport, Point Park 1998. She said the whole day had "felt like Christmas day as a child." She loves working for Ashford, who approaches choreography from an acting standpoint. But it wasn't their Point Park connection that got her the job. Amazingly, she was the only one cast out of a "chorus call" where hundreds of hopefuls sang just eight bars each. She figures it helped her make the first cut that the writers knew her because they'd written material she'd performed on a Disney cruise line. The series of call-backs took just two weeks, but then she had to go back to her restaurant job for several months until rehearsals began.

Talking with Sivrich and meeting her parents, Peggy and Nick, shining with pleasure and excitement, was the peak of the party for me. "I've been working so hard," she said; "it's a dream come true." Well, Broadway is built out of such dreams.