- The Premier Italian American Newspaper Since 1931 -

They Call it Gravy; WE Call it SAUCE! Performs in Jersey

Last Local Run for Broadway-Bound Musical

An original musical written, produced and directed by Lenny Gatto, a Kearny-born, Lakewood-raised New Jerseyian will take the stage in New Jersey this season for three final performances before moving to Broadway.

“They Call it Gravy; WE Call it SAUCE!” depicts a first-generation Sicilian-American girl disowned by her Sicilian father and embraced by her fiancé’s Jewish family. The musical was nominated for the prestigious Perry Award for Outstanding Original Musical. It is a story of familial love and loss, conflict and commitment, regret and redemption.

A talented cast of actors, singers and dancers bring to life events based on real life characters and actual events. Three generations of Sicilian-Americans living in New York’s little Italy set the stage for the tale of a Sicilian father, who banishes Rosa, his unmarried daughter, after she announces that she is pregnant. Twenty-years later Rosa’s daughter and her Brooklyn-born Neapolitan fiancé attempt to reunite the broken family.

After sold out performances at the Strand Center for the Arts, Middletown Arts Center and Union County Performing Arts Center’s Hamilton Stage, this passionate musical will come to NJ in November for a limited run at the Rosen Performing Arts Center in Wayne.

Gatto, a musician since the age of twelve, has performed in New York, on television and in film. He founded Music Jar Productions in 2004 and produced an album entitled “No Boundaries…An Hour with Lenny Gatto.”

Gatto served in the Viet Nam war and was a broadcast journalist with the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service and retired from the U.S. Navy after more than 20 years. He also spent many years living in Sicily and Italy. He has dedicated the production to his late wife, Rosa, as well as to his friend and co-lyricist, Tom Jansing. “They Call it Gravy; WE Call it SAUCE!” will be performed on November 30th December 1st and December 2nd. Tickets are $35 when reserved at [email protected]. And $45 at the door. Call (609) 303-2013 for more information.