Hartford Stage Connects With Broadway’s “The Best Man”

When the revival of Gore Vidal’s “The Best Man” opens on Broadway Sunday, April 1 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre there will be more than a few connections to Hartford Stage.

The most obvious one is the director — Michael Wilson — who for 13 years was the artistic director at the Hartford not-for-profit theater.

Five cast members are familiar faces to Hartford Stage audiences, including Curtis Billings, James Lacesne, Corey Brill, Angelica Page and Bill Kux. (Full disclosure: Kux is my husband.) Many in the design team are also Hartford regulars, including sound designer John Gromada and projections designer Peter Nigrini.

They support a starry group of headliners in the 20-actor play, which include James Earl Jones, Angela Lansbury, John Larroquette, Eric McCormack, Candice Bergen, Michael McKean, Kerry Butler and Jefferson Mays. (Mays will be starring in the world premiere of the musical “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” at Hartford Stage in the fall. Veteran theater-goers will also note that Lansbury performed at Hartford Stage in Edward Albee’s “Counting the Ways” and “Listening” in 1978, directed by Albee.)

“It’s nice when you’re able to be at a company as long as I was — not only you build a body of work but build these relationships and collaborators that can be extended into these new arenas,” says Wilson, during a recent break in previews in New York.

Fifty Church Street

But the Hartford involvement goes beyond the directing and acting credits. About half of the dozen or so members of an investment group — Fifty Church Street Productions, which is the address of Hartford Stage — are former or current board members.

Richard G. Costello, who is on the theater’s board of governing directors, heads the investment group. He is also a senior vice president for finance at The Hartford.

Costello says his Fifth Church Street grew out of an effort to provide producing support to take Hartford Stage’s three-part, nine-hour epic of Horton Foote’s “The Orphan’s Home Cycle” to Broadway after its Hartford and off-Broadway run nearly three years ago. That endeavor didn’t happen but interest to produce “was awakened” by some of the participants.

“It also comes from deep affection in the community for Michael Wilson and for what he did for Hartford Stage,” says Costello.

Costello on his own was an investor or co-producer (bundling a group of investors) in the national tour of “Hair,” the Broadway production of “Hamlet” with Jude Law, “The Mountaintop,” “The Motherf—–with the Hat,” “American Idiot,” “Lend Me a Tenor,” “Catch Me If You Can” and the upcoming revival of “Annie.” He is also involved in developing new works such as the new musical “Like Water for Chocolate.”

“More than half of the investments were successful,’ says Costello, an above batting average for commercial theater, where only about a quarter of Broadway shows earn their money back.

Costello says that the involvement of his group does not take away anything from Hartford Stage.

“We are being incredibly careful about this,” says Costello, who says “every single investor that I’m working with, their first order of business is to Hartford Stage.”

The money for his group comes from people’s investment or equity portfolios. “We’re not competing with people’s charitable donations to not-for-profits. These are high risk investments but they’re investments.”

Costello points out that the theater may financially benefit from this and future projects that he is co-producing with Hartford Stage folks. He says he is committed to donating 10 percent of those profits to the theater.

Regarding his decision to co-produce for “The Best Man,” Costello says “it’s a perfect time for a revival of what is arguably the best political play out there. Fortunately or unfortunately, a lot of the issues in the 52- year-old play are still germane today.”

Second Revival

This is not the first time the 1960 play has been revived on Broadway. Jeffrey Richards, the lead producer of the current production, performed similar duties in 2000, another election year. That production starred Spalding Gray, Chris Noth. Elizabeth Ashley and Charles Durning.

Vidal, 86, set the play at a national convention where two candidates are vying for their party(1)s nomination during the primary season. Some of the plot points and details bear shocking relevancy to the current presidential race, including discussions about birth control as a dividing political issue. Vidal also wrote the screenplay for the 1964 film that starred Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson and Lee Tracy.

The box office during the revival’s previews have been solid and climbing since performances started in early March, with grosses now over $700,000 a week. The show is capitalized at about $3.5 million but the size of the cast and the multiple sets means that running costs are also higher than normal for a typical play.

The show marks Wilson’s fourth Broadway directing credit, following “Enchanted April,” which premiered at Hartford Stage, a revival “Old Acquaintance” by the Roundabout Theatre Company, and “Dividing the Estate,” which played Hartford after its New York engagement.

“Everything I’ve done until now has helped me prepare me for this project,” says Wilson, “in particular, ‘The Orphans’ Home Cycle’ and the way that ambitious epic was mapped out.”

The high profile cast for this Gore play revival began with film and stage icon Jones, 81, fresh off his success with “Driving Miss Daisy” on Broadway and London. Next came Lansbury, the grand dame of the stage with five Tony Awards and at 86, the senior member of the company.

“You always want to be 100 percent on top of your game but in a situation like this you need to be 300 percent,’ says Wilson. “We have stars and we also have many actors making their Broadway debut and they all deserve attention. The job at hand is to be completely present at all times for all of them.”

Working together with the entire cast has been ‘a complete joy,” says Wilson.

“This production has been a great gift and I say to myself, ‘Be thankful for this now’ because you don’t know if something like this will ever happen again … everyone has felt the specialness of the group and the project.”

Wilson’s future projects include a workshop of the Hartford Stage commissioned Elizabeth Egloff’s “Ether Dome” at La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla, Calif. in May; in July San Diego’s Old Globe will open a full production of “Divine Rivalry,” which had its world premiere last year at Hartford Stage. Wilson will also stage an American premiere yet to be announced at a regional theater in the fall and a revival of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” is still in the works.

THE BEST MAN is now playing at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 45th St., New York. The limited-run engagement plays through July 8. Information: http://www.thebestmanonbroadway.com

Read Frank’s blog on theater, the arts and entertainment at http://www.courant.com/curtain and catch him talking about what’s on stage on FOX/CT’s ‘Morning Show” on Fridays during the 9 a.m. hour. And be the first to know by following Frank on Twitter at http://www.Twitter.com/ShowRiz.

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