by James Judd
Film, television, and Broadway star Bryan Batt will perform highlights from his critically acclaimed one-person show Dear Mr. Williams at this year’s Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival Gala. What began as a letter a teenage Bratt wrote to Tennessee Williams has grown into a coming out story described as equal parts hilarious, ironic, tragic, contemplative, and rousing.
In a review of an earlier production, Rob Levy of BroadwayWorld.com wrote, “There’s an earnest tenderness in Batt’s confession of how his introduction to Tennessee Williams’ work at the age of 13 opened his soul to a world of shadows and bright lights.”
Most fans recognize Batt, still defining debonair at 62, from his standout role as the closeted art director Salvatore Romanoin the AMC series Mad Men. On the ninth episode of Mad Men’s third season, Don Draper fired Salvatore at the request of a male client whose advances Salvatore had rejected. It was especially shocking to the LBTQ fans who could relate to the injustice of his dismissal. While many fans hoped Salvatore would reappear successful and happy, it never happened.
“It took a moment to recover,” says Batt, who is nonetheless grateful for the opportunity and fortuitous way he landed the job. He was in rehearsals for a new off-Broadway production of the Medea story starring Lypsinka, titled My Deah, when his agent called and said the producers wanted to see him as soon as possible.
“I wasn’t focused on it at all but decided to go in on my lunch break and read for them,” says Batt. “I think because I wasn’t pursuing the role I was relaxed and confident. Later that same day I got the news that I’d booked it. That never happens.”
So where does Tennessee Williams fit into the narrative of Batt’s career trajectory? At the age of 13, full of inner conflict to the point of ruminating on suicide and not knowing where to turn, Batt reached out to Williams by writing him a letter. The letter was returned as Williams died before it reached him—a dramatic move right out of one of his plays.
Batt, whose hypnotizing New Orleans drawl naturally evokes the cadence of so many of Williams’ characters, still had his returned letter in 2005 when New Orleans was struggling after Hurricane Katrina. The producer of a Le Petit Theater, a 100-year-old venue in the French Quarter, asked him to write something for a benefit to aid hurricane-affected performers.
“I drew from his plays, movies, letters, novels, poetry and everything,” says Bratt. “I’ll go in and out of Tennessee and his work that helps guide me and teach me and helped me get me out of the closet.”
Although Batt has appeared in many television and film roles, including the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave and last year’s Provincetown-centered indie film High Tide, he was and still is in demand as a musical theater leading man, including having covered just about all of the male roles in the original Broadway production of Cats.
“I never took ballet classes but I can sell a combination,” says Batt on landing all those fiercely coveted dance roles on Broadway. “I’m persistent and the audience will never know how long it took to get it right.”
Batt scored a home run when he was cast as Darius in the much loved, lauded, and discussed off-Broadway hit Jeffrey. He would go on to play Darius, who just happens to also be a Broadway dancer in Cats, in the film version starring Sir Patrick Stewart.
Later, Batt played several roles in the original Broadway production of Sunset Boulevard starring Glenn Close, which won the Tony for Best Musical in 1995. He also was the understudy for the lead male role of Joe Gillis, but the actor who played him never got sick or went on vacation. But when Close left the production and previews for Betty Buckley’s soon-to-be acclaimed Norma Desmond began, the actor finally decided to take a day off.
Batt still recalls the jolt of nerves that beset him when he finally got “the call.”
“I ran to the theater to learn all of the changes that were being made,” says Batt, who had only the remainder of the day to prepare to share the stage with a living legend the next night.
“The next night as I was backstage getting ready to go on, Betty Buckley walks up to me backstage with a huge bouquet of flowers and says, ‘You are going to be magnificent.’”
Wouldn’t Tennessee Williams have loved that moment?
The Spring Performance Gala to benefit the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival, featuring Bryan Batt, will take place at the Harbor Hotel, 698 Commercial St., Provincetown, on Saturday, June 7, 2 – 4 p.m. General Admission tickets are $200 and VIP tickets that include a meet and greet with Batt prior to the Gala are $250. The event also includes Williams-inspired cocktails and mocktails, hors d’oeuvres, a silent auction, and the announcement of the full production of shows for the twentieth and final season of the Festival this September. For tickets and information visit twptown.org.
