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Stage

Musical applauds theater's founder

The Francis Wilson Playhouse in Clearwater marks its 75th anniversary with a tribute to its namesake, an early Broadway legend.

By MARTY CLEAR
Published June 8, 2006

It seemed like a natural idea, Gil Perlroth said, to create a musical about Francis Wilson to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Clearwater's Francis Wilson Playhouse.

Most people around these parts probably don't know that Wilson, besides being one of the founders of the theater, was one of Broadway's leading song-and-dance men in the early 20th century. So playwright-composer Perlroth figured he could craft an entertaining and educational show about Wilson's life.

"In 2002, I had done a show (at the Francis Wilson Playhouse) called After the Ball, about Cinderella and Prince Charming," Perlroth said. "I knew a little about Francis Wilson, so I said, 'Why don't I do a little research and come back to you with a few songs on spec?' "

Soon after he started that research, Perlroth realized that Wilson was a major figure in the history of American theater and a rich source of material for a musical.

Wilson was one of the founders of Actors Equity, the union for professional stage actors, and served as its first president. He spearheaded a successful strike that shut down Broadway for several weeks in 1918 and led to improved conditions for actors.

"I went down to Actors Equity headquarters in New York, and they worship him there," Perlroth said. "There are portraits of him everywhere. Once I found out that he had been the first president of Actors Equity, that opened up a whole new direction for writing."

The new show, simply titled Francis Wilson: The Musical, opens tonight at the theater Wilson helped form 75 years ago.

Perlroth, who lives in Gulfport, has written several musicals for local theaters, including Sex and Sensibility, which was at hit at Tampa's Gorilla Theatre.

For Francis Wilson: The Musical, he has created a show within a show. The action starts in the present, at the Francis Wilson Playhouse, where actors are working on a show to celebrate the theater's 75th anniversary. The ghost of Wilson shows up to help the actor playing Wilson.

From there, the show goes back and forth in time to visit two story lines: one about Wilson's career on Broadway and with Actors Equity, and the other about his work with theater in Clearwater.

Wilson had a vacation home in Clearwater and helped form a group called Little Theatre of Clearwater in 1930. Four years later, construction began on the company's home, Francis Wilson Playhouse. Wilson was on hand for the beginning of construction but died suddenly before it was completed.

That theater burned down in the 1940s, and the one that stands today was built.

Perlroth said he thinks one of the most compelling story threads in the musical concerns Wilson's close friendship with George M. Cohan, perhaps the only Broadway singer of the era whose fame eclipsed Wilson's.

"They had a falling out because Cohan was against Equity," Perlroth said. "He thought it was a terrible idea for actors to unionize."

But several years after their estrangement, Wilson showed up unannounced at a tribute to Cohan and delivered a moving speech that was reprinted in Cohan's autobiography and is re-created in Perlroth's play.

Wilson and Cohan remained friends until Wilson's death in 1935.

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Francis Wilson: The Musical

June 8 through June 18 at Francis Wilson Playhouse, 302 Seminole St. in Clearwater, 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. $23 for adults and $10 for students. Call (727) 446-1630.

[Last modified June 6, 2006, 13:02:07]