Wolfe Dumps ‘Marisol’ for ‘Angels’ : Stage: The director could face legal action for rejecting a commitment to the show to take Taper production to Broadway.

Producers of the Broadway production of “Angels in America” announced Thursday that George C. Wolfe will direct the show, which will open April 25 at the Walter Kerr Theater. But Wolfe, currently one of the hottest directors in the stage world, is facing a possible lawsuit over a prior commitment to another production.

Wolfe was slated to direct the Hartford Stage Company production of Jose Rivera’s “Marisol” next February, but he has abandoned the project to take on “Angels,” which just finished an acclaimed run at the Mark Taper Forum under the co-direction of Oskar Eustis and Tony Taccone. Wolfe’s move leaves Hartford scrambling for a replacement and aggrieved parties mulling legal action.

“George Wolfe has had a commitment to Hartford Stage and to Jose Rivera since late spring (‘92) to direct ‘Marisol’ for this theater,” said Hartford Stage artistic director Mark Lamos and managing director David Hawkanson in a prepared statement issued Wednesday. “Now, only five weeks before rehearsals were to begin, he has chosen not to honor that commitment.”

“We spent six months dealing with each other in terms of the play and we’ve been talking about it as a fact since August,” says Rivera, author of “The Promise,” which was produced at the Los Angeles Theater Center in 1988. “I pursued no other directors when it became clear that George was available (for Hartford).

“The night George called to tell me, I was so stunned that I had to sleep on it to understand that he was abandoning our project,” Rivera says. “It was the equivalent of artistic piracy. I expected more from (‘Angels In America’ playwright) Tony Kushner, knowing the moral tone that is set by the man and his work.”

“We have not threatened any legal action,” said Hartford spokesman Howard Sherman, although he declined to rule out the possibility that such moves were under consideration. Nor has Rivera filed suit so far, although he could play that card. “I have talked to a lawyer who has recommended legal action,” Rivera says. “But I haven’t decided yet whether to take the lawyer’s advice. I will say that the lawyer is hopping mad.”

By his own account, Wolfe first became involved with “Marisol,” Rivera’s darkly futuristic comedy-drama about a Latina Everywoman abandoned by her guardian angel, two years ago. At that time, he had encouraged the Joseph Papp Public Theatre to produce the play, which had its world premiere at this year’s Humana Festival of New Plays in Louisville.

Hartford announced Wolfe as the director of “Marisol” last Spring and has been selling tickets for the event. Wolfe was also asked to direct the La Jolla Playhouse production of “Marisol,” which was mounted in September of this year. Wolfe declined to direct that outing, although he did fly out to see Tina Landau’s staging.

“There were various productions I was supposed to direct, like La Jolla, but technical complications kept on happening,” says Wolfe, the writer and director of “Jelly’s Last Jam,” which has been on Broadway since April and won three Tony Awards earlier this year. “There have been many stops and starts on it.”

Wolfe admits to having been involved with “Marisol,” but will specify neither the duration nor the extent of that work. “I made a commitment to it but I don’t remember the exact date,” Wolfe says. “It’s such a messy dynamic that I want to be as clear and as clean as I can. There’s so much emotion, hurt and confusion. I don’t want to add to it.”

According to Rivera, he returned from a working visit with Wolfe in New York in mid-November and proceeded with rewrites. When two weeks went by with no word from the director, Rivera found it unusual.

It was during this time that near unanimous rave reviews about “Angels” caused the show’s producers to consider taking the production directly to Broadway instead of off-Broadway’s Public Theatre, where it was originally scheduled. (Ironically, the Broadway production will be presented “in association with” the Public, where Wolfe serves as an artistic associate, and where he is also slated to direct “Marisol” in the spring.)

Around the first of December, Rivera received a call from his and Wolfe’s mutual agent saying, in effect, that Wolfe had an offer to direct “Angels in America.”

Wolfe and Rivera did not discuss the matter face to face until this past weekend, when Wolfe visited Rivera in the latter’s Hollywood office. “George informed me that he was going to take the (‘Angels’) job,” Rivera says. “He wanted me to say that I would release him from his obligations, and he hoped Hartford would say the same. He was telling me that he’d made his decision. I understand the most shallow reasons for doing this, but now we have no cast, no designers and the holidays coming up.”

Although Wolfe notes that he had not signed a contract with Hartford, the company says that Wolfe’s agent is in receipt of a written agreement. It is frequently the case in regional theater practice that contracts are not inked until a production is open, or even closed. Since Wolfe was at work on “Marisol” and has conceded a “commitment,” though, he might be legally bound.

According to a Connecticut attorney familiar with art law--who asked to remain anonymous because of unfamiliarity with specifics of the case--an oral contract is just as binding as a written contract. The attorney added that Hartford Stage might have a valid argument, especially since the theater had moved forward with the project based on Wolfe’s word.

Times staff writer Don Shirley contributed to this article.