Nicholas Martin Having the Time of His Life
Final Season as Artistic Director of Williamstown Theatre Festival
By: Charles Giuliano - Jun 30, 2010
A year had passed since I last sat in a small office at the Williamstown Theatre Festival to talk with its artistic director, Nicholas Martin.
Quoting Billy Crystal I said to him “You look marvelous.”
He gave me that wonderfully engaging Nicky smile. “I feel great” he said.
There was a day and night difference from his posture and mood a year ago. Following his second season, in the fall of 2008, Martin suffered a stroke. He has come a long way since then. There was much of the former energy and humor.
This week starts rehearsals for Thorton Wilder’s Our Town. The Main Stage show is part of the American Season which is to be his third and last. In addition to renowned skills as a director one senses that Martin is a great and generous teacher.
At the end of a too brief but remarkable interview I stated that I will miss our chats.
“Oh, I’ll be back next year” he assured me.
In what capacity I wanted to know?
“I will direct a play” he said.
May I quote you? “Yes Charles, all right, you’re the first to know.”
The interview follows.
Charles Giuliano Legacy?
Nicholas Martin Gosh. There were never illusions about how long I would be here. I would be happy to expire at WTF and sometimes it felt like I was about to.
CG That’s funny but with typical Nicky irony and humor there is always an element of truth in your jokes.
NM As I always say I am never more serious than when I make a joke.
I feel that I don’t want to sound too coy but I was hired to reinvigorate the festival At the time when many resources from financial to creative seemed to have waned, let us say. My legacy involves the high standard of artists who were hired and an intensified focus on the young people and their contributions to the Festival. It is often said that they are the life blood of the Festival and I feel they are. I feel their energy and curiosity. Their experience with professionals is a kind of euphoria that I call, perhaps cornily, the Williamstown spirit. That is an important part of it. This could also be described as a family, the Williamstown family. A friend has said that the secret of being artistic director at WTF is in making 400 people who are being paid nothing want to work for you. That’s a clumsy sentence you can do better. But that’s a big part of this.
I’m having a wonderful summer because of the fact that it’s the last season of having all of the responsibility. So I have been enjoying it more than any summer since Dead End.
CG What’s Dead End?
NM That was a play I directed about 15 years ago. Look it up.
CG In Sondheim on Sondheim which we saw this season on Broadway one sensed a very private and isolated man. He spoke about theatre as his family. The individuals he works with on productions. You seem to be saying something similar.
NM As Sondheim said theatre is family. Exactly. No question about it. I completely agree as I agree about most things that Stephen says. I saw Sondheim on Sondheim and agree that the most interesting thing about the play was the video interviews with him and biographical material. But I want to add that it’s dangerous to make the theatre your family because it isn’t really a family you know. It’s as close as those of us who don’t have families, I don’t want to sound pathetic, but it is as close as we can get to having a family. I have a particularly large extended family within the business. I prefer to work with those people creatively.
CG Like Present Laughter which ran on Broadway this season.
NM Yes, Present Laughter. Victor (Garber the star of the Noel Coward comedy which Martin originated at the Huntington Theatre) and I spend holidays with each other for example.
We talked about how Present Laughter was passed over for a Tony nomination.
NM And how.
This was followed by a discussion of how he has lost faith in the Tonys and a general decline of the quality of theatre especially the change to Juke Box musicals. When Scarlett Johansson won for best actress he knew that “We were in for another night of Hollywood.”
Jessica Hecht was also nominated for a Tony. She is a regular member of the Williamstown Family and will appear this summer in Our Town. A cast of Williamstown regulars will join Martin for his final directing turn as the Festival’s artistic director.
In addition to Campbell Scott, the cast features Dylan Baker (God of Carnage) and Tony nominee Jessica Hecht (A View from the Bridge) as Mr. and Mrs. Webb, Becky Ann Baker (All My Sons) and Tony winner John Rubinstein (Children of a Lesser God) as Doc and Mrs. Gibbs, Brie Larson (TV’s United States of Tara) as Emily Webb, Will Rogers (From Up Here) as George Gibbs, Kevin Cahoon (The Wedding Singer) as Joe Stoddard, Nancy E. Carroll (Present Laughter) as Mrs. Soames, Bryce Pinkham (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) as Sam Craig, Graham Rowat (Guys and Dolls) as Constable Warren and Jon Patrick Walker (High Fidelity) as Simon Stimson.
NM For an example of paternity I would cite Christopher Fitzgerald who is the template for a theatre career. He began in WTF as an apprentice moved on to The Second Company and then on to the Non Equity Company and then landed on stage as an Equity member. Since then he has gone on to play leading roles here and on Broadway. He’s coming back this season and I’m happy to present him this summer in the staring role of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum directed by his wife the great Jessica Stone another great WTF alumna as well.
CG Let’s talk about Sondheim and that difficult music. In my review of Sweeney Todd at Barrington Stage Company I tried to convey the experience of hearing his lyrics and music. I wrote “That signature Sondheim music dissonantly wrenches its way through our ears into our brain, twisting and turning its way down through our guts, resulting in a steaming dung heap of turgid emotion.” Those are not the kind of songs you sing in the shower.
NM Sweeney Todd is an example of that. But A Little Night Music or Company or Follies have specific numbers you can readily recall. He’s written those songs too. “No One Is Going to Harm You” in Sweeney Todd is the kind of song that could appear on the Hit Parade.
CG For your final season why did you decide to produce Forum?
NM Forum is one of the classic comedies. The book for it is imperishable and its humor is universal and enduring. To get a really good farce and then add Sondheim’s musical and lyrical genius to the mix makes it one of the handful of perfect musical evenings. Every tune in it is hum able and the lyrics while intricate are perfectly in tune with the farcical spirit. I have never said any of this shit before. You know Sondheim may be the last end of an era in musical theatre. Now that those horrible juke box musicals have taken over and some rather good rock musicals have been successful. I’ m done with the Tonys. When nominations are made. It makes me laugh when some people win.
Martin elaborated on some productions and performances this season on Broadway which he viewed as duds and bombs. I asked if he had seen Fela. He hadn’t but asked if I had seen Memphis? Yes. He commented that he would see it if someone handed him a ticket. He mentioned Fela and Memphis as the kinds of musicals that didn’t interest him. But that’s comparing apples and oranges between the experimental and ambitious Fela, with choreography by Bill T. Jones, and the entertaining but pedestrian Memphis. For Martin, in comparison to the classical musicals represented by Sondheim, Fela and Memphis strike him as cut from the same cloth.
We agreed on Red. Which he thought was very powerful. But I added that knowing a lot about Rothko influenced how I experienced the play. I commented that too often plays and films about artists miss the mark. Although Ed Harris channeled Pollock in the scenes that depicted him in the act of painting.
CG Do you know Sondheim? Have you met?
NM I know Sondheim is a fan but we have never met. It has just never happened. We have been invited to the same parties but for some reason one or the other of us has not shown up. I have never been at my shows when he went to them. I’m not the kind of guy who batters his way into somebody’s life. From what my friends tell me there has been a great and wonderful change in Steve’s last ten years. He is comfortable with his career, with people, and his life.
CG You mean he is in a relationship.
NM He has a companion.
At this point I asked Martin about his private life. Is it ok to go there I inquired? As always Nicky was amazingly frank and open. He has never refused to answer any question I have asked in the past few years. But what he revealed was painful. So much so that he asked not to be quoted. But he made a general statement about dealing with adversity in his life. It was stunning. I asked him if I might quote that. After a moment of reflection and some misgiving he agreed. To be clear and precise I read the following statement back to him. He listened carefully and nodded assent. Hey, that’s life and not much we can do about it.
NM My life has had some drama. How to put it in a way that does not look self pitying? My life has been full of suicides and alcoholism. I’m ok with that. Well, not full of but (he paused to find the right word) marked by alcoholism, suicide and a general sense of personal loss.
CG How did you deal with it?
NM With friends. It becomes a part of you. Also fate played a part and my going through that, at the time the darkest of my life, my career as a director took off. I was fifty then and am now 72. So I was able to deal with it. While that (professional success) did not replace the sense of loss it certainly made up for a great deal of it.
It was a riveting moment. I commented that while many of our lives entail tragedy the unique gift and opportunity of an artist is to make those experiences a part of the work. In view of this information I observed that he is known primarily for humor.
NM I feel that life has equal measures of comedy and tragedy. But that is not a very unique idea.
It is however, as Martin has clearly opted, the comic that helps us to deal with the tragic.