Patrick Wilson, fresh from starring in the movie The Phantom of the Opera, is
leading a concert to benefit Florida hurricane victims tonight in Clearwater.
He and his high-profile Tampa Bay area family have been planning the concert
for a while, but they debated expanding the scope of it a few days ago. Wilson
spoke with with his father, John, the Channel 13 news anchor who also is
performing, about whether to raise money for tsunami victims, too.
In the
end, the Wilsons decided that charity begins at home and kept the focus on
hurricane relief.
"The reality is there are still a lot of Floridians that don't have their
homes," Patrick Wilson said. "I guess you have to pick and choose your
charity. We'll certainly say something about tsunami relief."
Wilson, 31, will perform songs from Broadway musicals he has been in during
his fast-rising career, including Oklahoma!, Carousel, The Full Monty and the
Gershwin revue Fascinating Rhythm. He'll be joined in selections from Phantom
by Sarah Uriarte Berry, another Broadway performer who was his co-star in the
Carousel tour. Berry recently landed a leading role in the much-anticipated
New York premiere of Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas' musical The Light in the
Piazza.
Wilson's parents, John and Mary K., a popular local duo, will sing Love
Changes Everything and other numbers. His brother Paul, a community
actor-singer and public relations consultant, will do a Sinatra set. There
will be patriotic and inspirational songs such as You'll Never Walk Alone.
Patrick's other brother, Mark, also a Channel 13 news anchor, will emcee.
Proceeds go to the Florida Hurricane Relief Fund
(www.flahurricanefund.org) set up by Gov. Jeb Bush to assist communities
in rebuilding from devastation caused by Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and
Jeanne. The Wilsons and other performers, including the 55-piece Suncoast Pops
Orchestra, conducted by Robert Romanski, and the Plant High School chorus,
donated their fees. Music publishers donated scores. Ruth Eckerd Hall donated
the venue and services.
John Wilson said he was hoping to raise $50,000. "I'll be surprised if the
hall is not full or close to it," he said.
Patrick has been following the financial figures for Phantom, which opened
three days before Christmas, with satisfaction. "We made $16-million in two
weeks on 600 screens, which is great," he said. "We're in the Top 10,
competing with movies that opened up on over 3,000 screens."
To be in a box office hit has been heartening. Wilson's first movie, The
Alamo, in which he played Col. William Travis, bombed despite an all-star cast
that included Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Quaid. He was also in HBO's starry
Angels in America, along with Al Pacino and Meryl Streep.
Phantom had relative unknowns in the leads, but its status as the world's
most popular musical guaranteed a big audience for the movie. The reviews have
been wildly varied, ranging from raves to revulsion.
"If there's anything negative that's said, I don't really care," Wilson
said. "I just love the way it was shot. I really feel like Joel (Schumacher,
the director) had the right take on it. There are moments that are real and
organic and natural, and there are moments that are completely over the top.
It's a shameless old-fashioned musical movie. If you don't like musical
movies, then okay."
Wilson plays Raoul, the Phantom's rival for the chorus-girl-turned-diva,
Christine (Emmy Rossum). One of the movie's highlights is All I Ask of You, a
tender duet by Raoul and Christine on the snowy rooftop of the opera house.
"It was much more freeing," Wilson said of singing on film as opposed to
onstage. "You're able to sing softly. You don't have to worry about playing to
the back of the house."
Wilson's first big New York theater credit was the 1999 off-Broadway rock
musical Bright Lights Big City, based on the Jay McInerney novel, in which he
starred as a cocaine-sniffing magazine fact-checker. It flopped, and there was
never a recording of the show. But this year Sh-K-Boom Records is releasing a
studio version with Wilson and a strong cast.
"We did it like a rock concept album," he said. "I learned a lot from doing
that show. It was very close to my heart."
Wilson, who lives in Brooklyn, has plans to return to Broadway, but it may
not be in a musical. Next fall, he'll likely be in a revival of the Neil Simon
comedy Barefoot in the Park, which ran on Broadway from 1963 to 1967 and then
was a popular movie with Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. He'll play the Redford
role.
"Not that I don't want to do another musical on Broadway. I certainly do,"
Wilson said. "But I guess I just want to go back and do a play."
Now, though, he's looking forward to tonight's benefit. It's his first
public performance in the bay area since the Carousel tour in 1997. It has
been even longer since he did a concert with his whole family. "I can't
remember the last time we all performed together," he said.
John Fleming can be reached at 727 893-8716 or
fleming@sptimes.com
PREVIEW
Patrick Wilson, family and friends perform a benefit concert for the
Florida Hurricane Relief Fund at 8 tonight at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater.
$20, $40; free parking. 727 791-7400;
www.rutheckerdhall.com
