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 "The boat comes on stage left and sometimes it doesn't make the turn downstage and just goes VROOOM!" stage songs because he is known for his stage career. Recording at Abbey Road was a special experience for Wilkinson. In a Cockney accent, Wilkinson says: "This guy goes 'Hey, mate. See that lamp there? John Lennon asked for those lamps to be brought in so he'd get a bit of atmo for that last take. 'You'd go to sing a song and you could pratically hear the trumpets in 'Penny Lane.' It has that special sort of vibe. But when you're in the middle of a project, you get on with what you're doing." "It took us three weeks to do the album which is a phenomenal amount of time. We put the orchestra tracks down in a week, I did the vocals approximately in a week, and mixed it in a week. Doing sixteen tracks in a week is a lot of singing. We were working flat out. It was a lot of pressure. I remember we mixed until three o'clock in the morning at Abbey Road, then delivered it to the record company the next day. That's how tight it was." Album arranger Mike Batt's wife Julianne gave the project it's direction, Wilkinson recalls: "She said 'You don't exactly play juvenile leads or lovers in these things. You play very heroic characters. Why don't you call the album Stage Heroes?" And the minute she said that, it all locked into place, 'Stage Heroes' gave us a line and a direction. So all the songs became heroic songs." Wilkinson is an Irishman; in conversation he is fun-loving with a touch of the Blarney--quick to laugh or pull your leg. Unlike his stage voice, he speaks softly with a musical lilt. His heart still belongs to rock and roll, rooted in gospel and the rhythm and blues of such idols of his as Ray Charles, Mahalia Jackson, Little Richard and Brook Benton. Born in the Dublin suburb of Drimnagh as one of ten children in a musical family, he begain playing in bands when he was sixteen. In 1960, he begain touring with a band called The Witnesses. He was into the big-time as Judas in Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar and also sang the part of Che` Guevara on the album of Evita. Rice, a long-time friend, recommended Wilkinson to Les Mizdirector Trevor Nunn, who was searching for a Jean Valjean. The role rocketed Wilkinson to international musical theater stardom. In London, he was nominated for a Best Actor Olivier Award. While in New York he won the Helen Hayes Award, the Outer Critics' Circle Award, a 1987 Theature World Award and a Tony nomination. In preparing for a role, Wilkinson relies on his musical roots. "I get totally carried away," he laughs. "I become that person onstage. Don't ask me if it's Stanislavski, the Method stuff, Lee Strasberg. I love it; I've not studied it. I've read An Actor Prepares and thought, after twelve chapters, 'Okay, good luck,'" he says, tossing the imaginary book into a wastebasket. "It's off-the-wall time. But you must go out and believe. I don't know any other way of doing it. Once the music takes you, that's it. The honesty once you get to the core of the music, that's where it's all at." Phantom is an easier role than Jean Valjean which demands that the actor sing each night for almost two-and-a-half hours. Wilkinson, however, draws a parallel between the two roles. "Valjean rears Cosette as his daughter," he explains. "He thinks that this child will always be a child and will always stay with him. And than, Marius enters the scene and Valjean suddenly realizes that she is a young lady and she's going to leave with this guy. Valjean is angry, hurt and very sad. "Initially, the Phantom is obsessed with Christine's voice. He wants her to sing his music. But then Raul enters and there's something else. He's physically attracted to her. He suddenly gets very angry. "The biggest problem with both characters is winning the audience's empathy. Valjean is a convict; the Phantom is a deformed murderer. He's psychotic. I have to take the elements that are humanly possible to portray on stage. I have to take the elements that are credible." Another challenge facing Wilkinson is the show's special effects. He must disappear through a trap door and reappear suspended from the proscenium arch high above the orchestra. "The mechanics here are great," he enthuses. "The trap is very fast. And the chandelier is ridiculously fast. I think it's down to four seconds." But is it safe? "'Oh yeah,' he said, his lips trembling with insincerity," he laughs. "I'm not afraid of heights. I obviously don't like singing in suspended in mid-air. Who does? Maria Bjornson is just an incredibly imaginative designer. This show is so technically complex, that when it works, it's absolutely brilliant." It doesn't work all the time. Wilkinson's co-star Rebecca Caine, who performed as Sara Brightman's alternate in the London production, revealed that the famous gondola scene screws up frequently when the radio controls malfunction. "The boat comes on stage left," explains Caine. "Sometimes, it doesn't make the turn downstage and just goes VROOM! And the poor Phantom is hanging onto it and you come on backwards or you don't come on at all. Your're doing all this trance-like Phantom acting. Sometimes, you have to get up and walk through the water. It can be a living nightmare, but it's quite funny." Wilkinson is commited to the Canadian production for at least the next nine months, possibly a year. He has recorded a concept album for a new musical about Jekyll and Hyde and is also being courted for a London production of Man Of La Mancha. And Alan Parker (Mississippi Burning) will begin production of the film of Les Miserables in 1991 and wants Wilkinson to screen test. Wilkinson's wife and four children, aged six-and-a-half to nineteen, have moved to Toronto with him. He is considering moving from Dublin to either Toronto or the United States to advance his career. "When I originally came here 20 years ago, I had picked Toronto as a place where I might settle even then," he says. "It is a place where I think I can pursue what I want to do. I find Toronto has all the elements of Dublin, New York and London in one. I find it very open and free." By Dennis Kucherawy |
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