The legend of James Kirkwood's play Legends! is nearly as legendary as its subjects. Even after touring the country twice over the course of 23 years with such stars as Mary Martin, Carol Channing, Joan Collins and Linda Evans, the show still hasn’t enjoyed the glitzy premiere one would expect for such a famous work. But next week, for one night only, Legends will finally enjoy its New York debut in a benefit reading for Friends In Deed, starring John Epperson (otherwise known as Lypsinka) and Charles Busch as the dueling divas, Whoopi Goldberg as the servant Aretha, and Broadway’s own Bryan Batt as producer Martin Klemmer.
Batt, who has achieved recent fame as closeted ad designer Salvatore Romano on AMC’s hit TV series Mad Men, got involved with the project ten years ago, when he was starring in Saturday Night Fever on Broadway. “John Epperson asked if I’d be interested in doing the reading at the Bay Street Theatre,” he remembers, “and when I heard that John DeLuca was directing, the decision was definite. I didn't think it would go well, but audience ate it up!” Other readings followed, and when the chance came to organize a benefit production, Batt was formally invited by both Epperson and Busch.
“I always had wanted to work at the Bay Street Theatre,” Batt says. “My friend Gary Beach had originated the part, and many people think we were separated at birth.” (Perhaps there’s some kismet to the casting: Batt stood by, and frequently went on, for Beach in the recent revival of La Cage Aux Folles.) “The tales and lore of the first production in which Kirkwood has written in ‘Diary of a Mad Playwright’ are quite legendary themselves,” he continues. “If you've read the book, it’s even funnier. For some reason people like to see two old movie stars sparring...and if a wig flies, so be it!”
Since appearing in Mad Men, Batt says, he gets recognized more frequently—“Hey, has anyone told you that you look like that guy on Mad Men?”—although some people refuse to believe that he really is the actor they’re thinking of. The biggest difference between performing in a live show and a TV series, he says, is the uncertainty. “With a TV show, you don’t know your scenes for the episode until just a few days before you film,” he says. “There is virtually no rehearsal, so you must be completely immersed in the character and improvisationally ready…With a musical, [it’s] a complete different warm-up.” Also, he adds, actors in live productions have “the luxury of rehearsal,” repeating and repeating to get the show as close to perfect as possible. “Every performance is another chance to get it right,” he says. “In live theatre it’s all about maintaining the performance and keeping it fresh eight shows a week. Both are challenging, but in different ways.”
As an actor, singer, dancer, and businessman in three different cities, Batt is constantly on the move. (“I fly a lot more,” he understates.) His greatest challenge, he says, is maintaining his energy level. “I am so used to appearing at the theatre ready to go...Your life is centered on those hours before and after curtain. In TV, your call times change drastically each week: Some days are easy and some are long with hours of just waiting. I have tried to gage and be able to turn the energy on and off [and] actually relax in the trailer.”
In addition to performing, Batt also runs Hazelnut, a home furnishings store in his hometown of New Orleans with his partner Tom Cianfichi. “I’d like to open a few more locations and really get into product development,” he says. “The shop is really one of the best things that ever happened to me, because when Tom and I opened it five years ago, I knew nothing else but theatre—and honestly, I had gotten to that point in my career where I was defining myself by what show I was in. Then a series of industry disappointments literally were the impetus for us to follow another dream and open the shop. [It was] quite freeing to realize that there is another world besides show business. The minute we opened the shop and it was up and running, and I could breathe, the calls started coming.”
