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Many Pittsburghers turn out to celebrate August Wilson's latest opening
Tuesday, May 01, 2001 By Christopher Rawson, Post-Gazette Drama Editor
NEW YORK -- Playwright August Wilson, director Marion McClinton and producer Ben Mordecai, sporting black homburgs like a cross between Blues Brothers and rabbis, glowed happily as their long journey reached its goal Sunday night when "King Hedley II" opened at Broadway's Virginia Theater.
The party that followed at the Copacabana, a spacious old-style nightclub, was joyous as such affairs go, partly because there was no threat of reviews arriving to dampen the gaiety, but mainly because the universe of August Wilson is like an extended family. The party was replete with Pittsburghers, both theater people and Wilson's relatives, and with alumni of the University of August Wilson -- the many actors who have populated his plays countrywide.
There's no word yet whether "Hedley" is a critical triumph, because the official opening was postponed until tonight. (Reviews, including the Post-Gazette's, appear tomorrow.) Brian Stokes Mitchell, playing the title role, had to sit out last week's performances because of a voice problem, delaying the critics' previews.
But the stars turned out for Sunday's celebration as planned -- Henry Winkler, Gregory Hines, Marin Mazzie, James Earl Jones, Bobby Short and playwright Terrence McNally, to name just a handful. None was more luminous than Mitchell's co-star, Leslie Uggams, who plays his mother, Ruby, and who arrived at the party gleaming like a jewel in a deep crimson cape.
"I must have died and gone to heaven" is how she described her first Wilson play. She traced her involvement to Pittsburgh, when she was playing the Witch in the CLO's "Into the Woods" and saw "Jitney" at the Public Theater. "I'd like to work with that director some day," she thought. That was McClinton, who later called her to read for Ruby. She loved the process: "August likes to watch his actors. He'll see or hear something in rehearsal and he'll incorporate it."
"Hedley's" journey began with its Pittsburgh premiere 16 months ago, followed by productions in Seattle, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington. Each city saw cast changes. The only actor left from Pittsburgh is Charles Brown, playing Elmore. "Me and that damn cat!" he chortled, referring to the feline whose many lives have symbolic weight in the play. "It's been a long road."
In Pittsburgh, Elmore had several giant monologues that contributed to the play's 3 1/2-hour length, but along the way, Wilson kept cutting and adding as Broadway loomed. Stephen Henderson, who plays Stool Pigeon and who was the nosy Turnbo in "Jitney," says "amazing work was done between Kennedy Center and here -- 40 minutes were cut. You cut me close to the bone," Brown told Wilson -- but there's solid bone left, about three hours including intermission.
The native Pittsburgher in the cast is Monte Russell (Homestead, Steel Valley, Pitt, Kuntu Rep), playing Mister. With him was his wife, Tonia, an elementary school teacher, and his mother, Millofred. Wilson's immediate family was much in evidence: his costume designer wife, Constanza Romero, their daughter Azula, 3 1/2, and his older daughter, Sakina Ansari.
The crowd seemed somewhat less heavy on Broadway money men than usual, although there were some Broadway heavyweights. Todd Kreidler pointed out the artistic or managing directors of all the theaters where "Hedley" played along the way.
For Kreidler, the opening was a sad milestone. Once Eddie Gilbert's assistant at the Public, he became Wilson's assistant on "Hedley" and he's been with him ever since, with a short break to direct "Macbeth" for the Public's Young Company last summer. So for 18 months, he and Wilson have been together in theaters, on street corners or in diners, where breakfasts could run from two to six hours. "Usually the lunch hour would signal how long we'd been there," Kreidler said, citing the old saying that for theater folks, every city is just the stretch of sidewalk between hotel and theater. Now that ends. Struggling to put it into perspective, Kreidler said, "It's not bad to have had an 18-month stretch when you could never take a day for granted."
With Kreidler was Pittsburgh actress Erin Annarella, now living in Manhattan. Other Pittsburghers at the party were Kuntu's Vernell Lillie; Wilson's sister Freida Ellis and many more of his relatives; Sarah Zeitler, a staffer at SFX, accompanied by "Hedley" set designer David Gallo; "Hedley" costume designer Toni-Leslie James; and Veneda Truesdale, a dresser on the show, a 24-year theater veteran now making the move into costume design. Pittsburghers in the alumni group included Leland Gantt and Wilson's old friend, director Claude Purdy, who first suggested he move to St. Paul, Minn., where his playwriting really took hold.
The Public was represented by managing director Stephen Klein, relaxed and freshly ruddy from a vacation in Sicily, and former artistic director Gilbert, with his wife, actress Deborah Kipp.
Having a very good time indeed were "the Ellis girls": Marlene Ellis, unflappable house manager at Pittsburgh's City Theatre; Tiffany, director of marketing for Aaron Davis Hall, Harlem's performing arts center; and lovely Monica, bassoonist with Manhattan's Imani Winds, a woodwind quintet that makes its Carnegie Hall debut Nov. 4. In response to the hoary old question, she said, "You win a competition."
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