One of the things I love is attending a show the night after it wins the Best Musical Tony. It’s so exciting to see a cast who can’t wait to do it for you, so it can demonstrate each and every reason why it deserved to win. I’ll always remember the excitement that respectively came from the Palace and the Golden at the performances immediately after Tony Sunday, when The Will Rogers Follies and Avenue Q emerged victorious.

But around 8:35 on Tuesday morn, I realized I’d have just the opposite experience that night. Days earlier, I’d made plans to revisit A Catered Affair on May 13. Now I’d see it less than 11 hours after it made a disappointing showing at the Tony nominations. While In the Heights undoubtedly started making plans for ads that will say, “13 Tony nominations, including Best Musical,” A Catered Affair was not planning to buy newspaper space that says, “3 Tony nominations, excluding Best Musical.”

When I first saw the show last month, a few days before it officially opened, I saw a number of problems and a greater number of strengths. (Click on the calendar to the upper right of this column to April, and then select the 18th to see what I wrote.) Remember, I saw it before it opened, and I thought, “Even if this gets out-and-out raves, it’s going to be an awfully hard sell.” And, as you know, the raves did not flow forth. Even decent notices didn’t.

So what would Tuesday’s performance be like, given that A Catered Affair was buffeted in the musical, score, book, and direction categories? Sure, Faith Prince and Tom Wopat got nods as Agnes and Tom Hurley, but Leslie Kritzer didn't as their daughter Janey. More to the point, Harvey Fierstein didn’t -- either for his performance as Uncle Winston or for his libretto. All of them – and more – scored in last week’s Drama Desk nominations, racking up more than any other show, but now, the story was sadly different.

I’ve attended a number of performances the night after the reviews were published. I recall the joy from the Crazy for You cast, the despair of too many others to mention, but also Nick & Nora after its pans -- when Barry Bostwick and Joanna Gleason came out and did the show with gusto, as if it were the biggest hit Broadway had ever had. I’ve always admired them for that.

Everyone in the theater knows that shows don’t start until at least seven minutes past the announced starting time, but A Catered Affair didn’t start until nine minutes had passed. Was Fierstein, the leader of every show he’s done, busy giving everyone a two-minute pep talk? Were cast members congratulating Prince and Wopat, or were they talking to the others about the injustices of it all? We’ll never know.

But finally, the lights dimmed, and Fierstein made his entrance – to applause -- Which, incidentally, he didn’t get at the performance I attended a month ago. Did it come from pity? Did the crowd just simply recognize him and feel like clapping? Or was it an endorsement meant to right a wrong?

On the other hand, how many had even heard about the nominations and knew about the snubs? Not everyone cares the way we do, of course, and we’ve got to assume that vast majority came in knowing nothing about it. Yes, across the street Boeing-Boeing already had its sign up stating that it had landed a Best Play Revival nod, and perhaps some theatergoers noticed that no such sign was hanging from the Kerr marquee. But I don’t think so, and I don’t think you think so, either.

The lights finally dimmed, and from my G-2 seat, I saw that everyone in the cast appeared to have tired eyes. Had they been crying? On the other hand, it’s possible that even the most happy cast members on Broadway tonight had tired eyes -- for most everyone got up earlier than usual this morn to switch on New York 1 by 8:30 a.m. – or were awakened a wee bit later by press agents with the good and/or bad news.

And, truth to tell, with a quiet show such as this -- one that stresses a family that already feels defeated when the lights come up -- telling whether the cast’s energy was lower was going to be difficult. Sure, Kritzer’s Janey should be overjoyed that she’s getting married, but the character has a lot on her mind, must worry about finances and hurt feelings, and is old before her time. Granted, there is a good deal of money on the horizon, but suddenly I was thinking, both this show and In the Heights involve a sudden windfall – but Heights has it happen through sheer blind luck, while the Hurleys get their money the hardest way of all: From having a son die in the war. Yes, there’s a death in In the Heights, too, but from someone who lived a long life, which Terry Hurley did not.

The audience gave the first number applause that sounded and seemed polite. That could have also been because some audience members heard before they arrived that they were about to see a Tony also-ran. People who attend losers often feel as if they’re losers just for attending one. But if that were the case, it would be up to the cast to change their minds.

I’m happy to say that it delivered a performance that seemed identical to the one I saw a month ago. Sure, one could attribute that to the show being frozen, but under the heat of the cast’s anger, it could have melted and wilted. No one did.

Along the way, I felt the audience members stay with the show, and become increasingly involved. Every now and then when a funny line happened, they responded immediately with a genuine laugh. Immediately – because they’d been paying rapt attention. And when they had a chance to applaud – they didn’t have many, because A Catered Affair asks for very little – their hand-clapping was always louder and faster than it had been the previous time.

Still, performing on Tuesday had to be difficult for the cast members, considering some of the lines in the script inadvertently commented on their situation: “So afraid we got it wrong.” “Why am I enjoying this so much?” “Be happy, Jane.” “We had the curse of money over us.” Yes, indeed, with nearly 1,000 seats to fill eight times a week, the cast sure does have that curse.

The real test would come at the curtain calls, when every actor could no longer hide behind his character’s emotions, but would have to come out as himself. What troupers: Each of the 10 came out with smiles that looked genuine, not glassy. Prince got the last bow, and distinctively raised her eyebrows, as if to say, “Pretty good, wasn’t it?” Then she threw her arms back with Evita-force, and had the other nine join her in a hand-holding. Kritzer was singing along quietly, but joyously, with the music the orchestra was playing.

These people seem secure in knowing that what they have is this year’s thinking man’s musical, one that explored its complex characters and their all-too-real problems in ways that eclipsed the original film. It offered meat, but when the Tony nominators were asked to pick Best Musical, in at least two instances, the majority of the voters went for cheese.

In an age where the response that most Broadway musicals seek -- and get -- are “Whoos!” and “It blew me away!” here’s a show that’s never sought such reactions. It took a chance on being quiet, and now, with too few nominations about which it can crow, it will probably be quieted soon. There used to be a famous Broadway expression, “Critics don’t close shows; producers do.” In recent years, a lack of Tony nominations and wins speed up most closings. No one can possibly expect this show to win any of its three nominations, so how long will it be able to hold on? But here’s betting that every audience that attends A Catered Affair will see a focused and sharp cast that matches the integrity for which the musical aimed.

You may reach Peter Filichia at pfilichia@aol.com