Douglas Hughes, artistic director of the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Conn., has a reputation in New England for being a turnaround artist of epic proportions.
Since Hughes took over at the long-troubled Long Wharf from Arwin Brown in 1997, he has raised huge sums of money, renovated the building, cut the theater’s hefty debt and increased annual fundraising by 80 percent. Hughes has also upgraded the Long Wharf’s national profile and artistic product (next year’s season includes the world premiere of a play by ex-Chicagoan Theresa Rebeck).
One of the reasons for Hughes’ sudden East Coast popularity is his ability to forge links with other regional theaters — most notably the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. The Chicago troupe’s revival of J.M. Synge’s venerable Irish classic, “The Playboy of the Western World,” not only will be directed by Hughes here in Chicago (opening night is Sunday), but also the entire production will move to the Long Wharf for an East Coast reopening on Oct. 2.
Increasingly common in regional non-profit theater, such production sharing saves money for all concerned and gives the actor a longer stream of continuous work and the oft-appreciated chance to toil at a classic text like “Playboy” over a much heftier period of time. And, thanks in part to the draw of Steppenwolf, Hughes has lined up an impressive cast for his version of Synge’s play, including Jim True and Martha Plimpton.
Written in 1907 and first performed at the Abbey Theatre (where it provoked riots), “Playboy” tells the story of Christy Mahon, a shy young man who thinks that he has killed his father. Recounting the story in his village, Christy wins the love of Pegeen and, perversely, becomes a hero. Like all of Synge’s plays, “Playboy” is written in Synge’s distinctive lilting prose.
Hughes, an intensely self-assured fellow with a clipped mid-Atlantic accent, says that any revival of Synge must compete with what Hughes calls the “Irish Tourist Board version of the play, fitted out for export.”
“Even though the original production was very provocative,” Hughes says, “subsequent revivals have tended to present a Disneyfied version, in which everybody is clean and poverty looks innocuous and quaint.”
The romantic Ireland of the themed Celtic pub will not be on display here. “I want,” says Hughes, “to get back to the dirt under everyone’s fingernails.”
True (who plays Christy) says he’s most attracted to the “dangerous side of the play” (a typical comment from a Steppenwolf ensemble member). “The play’s core of hard, brutal conflict needs to be realistically rendered,” says the actor.
Plimpton, last seen at Steppenwolf in “The Libertine,” says that this is the first Irish play she has ever done. But the busy and accomplished film actress is full of praise for her return Steppenwolf experience in the role of Pegeen — and frowns with brief but dismissive irritation only when she’s asked when she can be expected to join the famous ensemble on a full basis.
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Until the death of Frank Sinatra this spring, Ron Hawking could not persuade any theater owner or producer to return his calls. The Chicago-based actor, singer and voice-over artist had been pushing his idea for “His Way: A Tribute to the Man and His Music,” a large-scale celebration of the Chairman of the Board in which Hawking would sing Sinatra’s well-known hits in front of a Sinatra-sized orchestra, interspersed by video interludes of the singular balladeer’s films and concert appearances.
“But then Frank died,” Hawking said wryly over lunch recently, “and everything suddenly changed.”
From Hawking’s perspective, the most important development was the sudden willingness of owner Michael Cullen to book Hawking’s Sinatra show into the Mercury Theatre (the tribute opens Saturday). But even with all of the hype surrounding Sinatra’s demise, Hawking was still unable to find an investor, and “His Way” thus represents a significant outlay of the performer’s own cash. (Aside from paying for an appropriately moody setting by Chicago Scenic Studios, Hawking has also sprung for the services of Bill Rogers, who’s coming in from Las Vegas to conduct the 14-piece orchestra.)
Hawking was so anxious to point out that he is not impersonating Sinatra that he must have so noted five times in less than an hour. “This is a loving and affectionate tribute from me as myself,” he said. “I am not trying to do Frank — just the music he made famous.” (There is a very brief section of the show in which Hawking does impersonate Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and, for one number only, Frank himself.)
Hawking’s determination to make this distinction no doubt comes in part from his participation — in the role of Sinatra — in “The Pack is Back,” a financially disastrous evocation of the Rat Pack produced by John DuBiel in a custom-designed space at Pipers Alley two seasons ago. For 30 days, Hawking impersonated Sinatra in “Pack,” but at the very mention of this previous project, he turned somber. “I don’t want to talk about that other show,” he said, softly.
By contrast, “His Way” is being produced entirely Hawking’s way. The Mercury’s Cullen notes that advance ticket sales are “very good.” A few producers have promised to take a look at the show with regard to a future tour. And Hawking says that this project will fulfill a lifelong dream, regardless of the size of the audience.
