Hartford Stage Bids Farewell to Michael Wilson with Star-Studded Tribute

"I don't want realism.  I want magic!  Yes, yes, magic!  I try to give that to people."  Blanche DuBois's cry as Mitch tears the fragile paper lantern covering the harsh light hidden within were among the first words uttered at Hartford Stage when a young Michael Wilson pulled into the town in 1998 with A Streetcar Named Desire.  Those lines may be a mantra for a madwoman, but they also encapsulate Wilson's personal manifesto and his 13-year tenure at the Tony Award-winning theatre that drew to a close last evening with a star-studded tribute.  Rather than turning up the lights and exposing the theatre to a merciless glare, event producer Harriette Holmes, director Maxwell Williams and writer Christopher Baker treated Wilson to one more evening of Hartford Stage magic that had the audience and the honoree vacillating between laughter and tears.

The evening began as Betty Buckley strode out onstage in black and aubergine to deliver her signature "Meadowlark" from The Baker's Wife.  When she hit the lyric "a beautiful young man appears before me saying 'come, oh won't you come?'," she aimed it squarely at Wilson seated in the front row before she directed the man who directed her in Tennessee Williams' Camino Real in 1999 to "fly away, oh meadowlark."  Later, Buckley would return to the stage to reminisce about her time as "one of your girls," before she sang "Violets," a song constructed around Williams' Camino text.  "Something, something delicate, unreal and bloodless.  The sort of violets that could grow on the moon."

There were two propulsive video montages of productions created during Wilson's tenure showing the depth and breadth of his Artistic Directorship projected on screens.  A series of funny and heartfelt video tributes were delivered by friends and artistic collaborators in absentia via a giant projection of Wilson's ubiquitous iPhone.  Kind words from around the globe poured in from Hal Holbrook, Eve Ensler, Estelle Parsons, Robert Brustein, Kate Mulgrew, Christopher Shinn, Malcolm and Johanna Morrison, Jeremy Cohen and Henry Hodges, the young man who appeared recently in Wilson's staging of The Orphan's Home Cycle, among others.

Friends and collaborators were also amply represented onstage with testimonials, scenes from plays and musical numbers.  First at the lectern were actors Alyssa Bresnahan (currently appearing in Lincoln Center's War Horse) and James Colby, a couple that met during Wilson's production of Streetcar and later married (evidenced by their lovely new daughter Shannon, named after the character Colby played opposite Bresnahan in Wilson's revival of The Night of the Iguana).  A choked up Colby was very funny throughout his speech noting that Wilson and his partner, the set designer Jeff Cowie, are "the keepers of the flame of what we accomplished here."  A poised, elegant Bresnahan thanked Hartford Stage for introducing her to her four loves: Colby, Tennessee Williams, Jeff Cowie and Michael Wilson. 

The pair were succeeded at the lectern by Chrissie Ripple, former Hartford Stage Board President, who recalled how Wilson almost did not make the cut as the company's fourth Artistic Director (replacing Mark Lamos) until he asked for an interview do-over, returning to Hartford to wow the search committee and cinch the position.

Tony Award-winning Broadway producer Jeffrey Richards, who oversaw the transfer of Wilson's Enchanted April from Hartford to Broadway, announced that Wilson would be helming the 2012 revival of Gore Vidal's The Best Man before introducing the star of the most recent revival of that drama, Elizabeth Ashley.  Striding up to the lectern with hand fan in tow, a head full of tumbling curls and a tequila-stained voice, Ashley had the audience in stitches with a barely-scripted reminiscence ("I have no speech.  I have trouble remembering my lines.  As many people will tell you.").  She recalled Wilson's full-court press to woo her back on stage after "theatre broke my heart."  After confessing, "I'm really old.  Every inch of every mile I wear like armor," she talked about her first meeting with "this child.  12 years old.  That was Michael Wilson.  In short pants."  After bonding over Jose Cuervo Gold in her Evening Shade dressing room, "He nailed me. He got me for the first time in years.  Without Michael I would have never come back to the theatre...Thank you for the richest part of my career.  Thank you for being my friend.  And thank you for putting up with my bullshit."

Annalee Jefferies, undoubtedly Wilson's artistic muse, came out on stage to recreate a monologue from her shattering portrayal of Williams' most tragic heroine, Blanche DuBois, a fitting bookend to Michael's career at Hartford Stage.  Having appeared in over a dozen Wilson productions in Hartford, Houston, New York and North Carolina, Jefferies is a beating, bleeding, breathing heart on stage and her affection for Wilson flowed over the audience.  She looked at a room full of Wilson collaborators and stated, "These people will walk across coals for you to be a part of what you create."  The Texan actor also took a moment to acknowledge Cowie, who created many of the indelible sets she performed upon, as "a wild warrior galloping bareback across the universe."

The witty and erudite playwright David Grimm, who saw the world premieres of his plays The Learned Ladies of Park Avenue and Chick, the Great Osram under Wilson's direction at Hartford Stage, started his speech with his usual tart humor:  "A playwright is like a mushroom.  Most of the time you are kept in the dark, but every now and then someone comes in and dumps a bucket of shit on you."  He also noted, "13 years.  13 seasons.  That makes this night your bar mitzvah."  His tribute was, like his plays, beautifully written, heartfelt and smart, smart, smart.  Why no theatre in Manhattan has pounced on the sparkling The Learned Ladies of Park Avenue is beyond comprehension.  Maybe from Wilson and Cowie's new berth in New York City as guns for hire, they will make this criminal oversight a reality.

Actors Michelle Hendrick and Natalie Brown quietly entered the stage holding hands to begin singing the plaintive "Barbara Allen."  Gradually, from the wings, their castmates past and present from the 13-year-run of A Christmas Carol joined them in the mournful song.  Hartford radio broadcast legend Brad Davis entered the stage with actor Bill Raymond, a pioneering member of the avant-garde troupe Mabou Mines who is best known in Hartford for playing Ebenezer Scrooge for 11 of Wilson's 13 seasons.  What ensued was a touching reminiscence from the cast of the most lucrative production in the theatre's 48-year history.   They departed the stage bidding Wilson, "a Merry Christmas." 

Actress Penny Fuller, who appeared under Michael Wilson's direction in Foote's Dividing the Estate on Broadway and its subsequent transfer to Hartford Stage, came center stage to deliver a powerhouse rendition of William Finn's "Infinite Joy."   She was succeeded by "the smartest man in Hartford," Hartford Stage dramaturg/producer Christopher Baker who talked about Wilson's attraction to Tennessee Williams' "Fugitive Kind," the outsiders, outcasts and outlaws who make up Wilson's inner circle.  Baker queried, "How does he do it?  He has an endless capacity for love...and it shines through."

Composer, Sound Designer and frequent Wilson collaborator John Gromada echoed Baker's sentiment that Wilson seems to be a magnet for eccentrics and "wounded birds," noting that Wilson creates a nurturing environment where these birds can take flight.

Actors Bill Heck and Maggie Lacey entered the stage to recreate a scene from their award-winning triumph in The Orphans' Home Cycle, the 9-play Horton Foote epic that was the great playwright's final masterpiece.  Wilson created the production in Hartford before moving it New York's Signature Theatre.  The winsome scene between Heck and Lacey gradually segued into a comic skit involving Wilson's uncanny ability to make love blossom among his castmates (Heck and Lacey were one of several couples onstage that were brought together off-stage by Wilson).  The two actors were followed by Hallie Foote, who received a Tony nomination for appearing in her late father's Dividing the Estate with Wilson's guidance.  "I'm feeling bereft because this place is home to me and my father," noting that her Academy Award-winning father stated of Wilson, "sometimes that boy can be pushy."   Hallie Foote also made mention that Wilson was responsible for her father's late-career resurgence.

Hartford Stage Managing Director Mike Stotts, Wilson's partner in steering the company for the last 5 years, arrived bearing kind words for his peer and a proclamation from Mayor Pedro Segarra declaring June 20, 2011 "Michael Wilson Day in the City of Hartford."  He also presented a photo montage of the dozens of productions launched during Wilson's tenure, plaques remembering two of Wilson's dearest friends and Stage Managers - Wendy Beaton and Pat Hodge - that will be installed backstage near the call boxes.  The final speaker was Paul Bourdeau, President of the Board of Directors, who gifted Wilson with a watch (as Wilson had lost his during the tech rehearsal period for The Orphans' Home Cycle).

Wilson took the lectern and promised that "brevity was the soul of lingerie" and that tonight he was not going to be wearing his longjohns.  Clutching the plaque dedicated to the late Wendy Beaton, who shepherded him through many a production, Wilson stated, "I cannot tell you how hard it was to sit and watch an evening I hadn't produced or directed myself."  He went on to thank the actors, playwrights, designers, directors, staff and board for his remarkable tenure at Hartford Stage.  A throne was brought on stage for one final surprise - a performance by drag superstar Varla Jean Merman.  The towering diva who appeared at Hartford Stage in The Mystery of Irma Vep serenaded Wilson, turning Sarah McLachlan's "I Will Remember You" into "I Won't Remember You."  Filled with jokes about Wilson's time in Hartford, the performance brought the house down.

It was a fitting final night for Wilson who brought much theatrical magic to Hartford, a community that wished him well.  The performance was followed by champagne in the theatre's newly renovated lobby and a last chance to toast Wilson before he himself to flight.  It is now up to Wilson and Cowie to follow another Williams mantra found in Camino Real: "Make voyages!  Attempt them!  There's nothing else."