On Stage and at School, Valentine’s Twists

Planning something special for your Valentine? Betcha can’t top what Gov. Pete Wilson did for his wife, Gayle.

Wilson is not widely viewed as a sentimental, mushy sort of guy. Indeed, many a critic would insist that his passion, at least publicly, is limited to politics.

But on Wednesday night, the governor of the sprawling Golden State climbed on a stage, sat beneath a spotlight and gently romanced his beloved for nearly two hours--in front of 275 people.

In what must surely be a first for a sitting governor and his wife, the Wilsons were making guest appearances in A.R. Gurney’s two-person play, “Love Letters.”

The poignant, two-act play traces the lifelong friendship and on-again, off-again love affair between a Republican U.S. senator and his troubled childhood sweetheart. Its brief run here features a string of celebrity couples donating their talents to raise money for the Sacramento Theatre Company.

When word slipped out that the governor would be taking a turn on stage, snickers abounded in the capital. Wilson is not considered a gifted speaker, and has been oft-referred to as “wooden” and “bland.”

His voice, moreover, is fragile and prone to cracking, despite three corrective throat surgeries in two years. How, the critics wondered, would Wilson fare in a dramatic role?

Quite well, it turns out.

“He was excellent--so natural--and the love he feels for Gayle added a beautiful, powerful touch to the play,” said Stephen Rothman, the theater’s artistic director. Rothman--a lifelong Democrat--was so impressed that he vowed to vote Republican forevermore.

As for the playwright, he declared himself “delighted” that Wilson had agreed to perform, calling the governor’s decision one that “took a lot of guts.”

“It would have been easy to say no, so I admire him for doing it,” Gurney said Thursday. Adding that Wilson “kind of looks the part,” Gurney had one question about the governor’s performance:

“Did he say the four-letter words?”

Answer: Some of them.

“Love Letters,” which premiered in New Haven, Conn., in 1988 and vaulted quickly to Broadway, has a format that works well with amateurs. The tale is told as the actors sit side by side at a table and read a script made up of letters the characters have written to each other over a lifetime, from the teasing days of grade school, through the awkward necking of adolescence and onward to weddings, births, divorces, alcoholism, and, ultimately, death.

On stage, Gayle Wilson stayed strictly in character as the brooding, suicidal Melissa Gardner. The governor, playing Andrew Makepeace Ladd III, occasionally broke into a more casual mode, seemingly playing to the highly partisan crowd for laughs.

In one spicy exchange, Melissa expresses regret that Andy has declared himself a Republican.

Melissa: I’m terribly disappointed. I love all politicians, but I find Democrats better in bed.

Andy: I’m a liberal Republican with a strong commitment to women’s rights. Doesn’t that count?

Melissa: Depends on your position.

As the audience roared with laughter, Wilson glanced out at the sea of faces, letting a half-grin creep across his face.

Through the years, a richly diverse group of actors have taken a turn as Ladd and his spirited, doomed sweetheart. During a 16-month run in Los Angeles, the duos ranged from Ben Gazzara and Gena Rowlands to Whoopi Goldberg and Timothy Dalton.

This week in Sacramento, the stars include Ed Asner, Sally Struthers, Erik Estrada, Troy Donahue and the Tony-award winning team who pioneered the roles, John Rubinstein and Joanna Gleason.

Madison Mason, a stage veteran and cast member from TV’s “Dynasty,” performed the Wednesday matinee with Tippi Hedren and hung around for the Wilsons’ show that night. At intermission, Mason proclaimed their work “impressive.”

“Their timing is quite good,” he said. “I’m an actor, so I sort of pulled out all the stops. . . . His version is more understated, but it works.”

The Wilsons’ performance was special in several respects--beyond the fact that he’s the governor, and governors (Ronald Reagan excluded) don’t normally act.

Because they are married, their acting gave the play a certain verisimilitude, Rothman said, and “helped them really make magic on stage.”

More intriguingly, the governor bears a striking resemblance to the WASPy fictional gent named Andy Ladd. Like Ladd, Wilson attended Yale University. Like Ladd, he served in the military. Like Ladd, he went to law school. And also like Ladd, he served in the state Legislature and went on to become a Republican member of the U.S. Senate.

There are other, almost eerie similarities. At one point, Andy complains to Melissa that his “throat is sore all the time from where they cut out my tonsils.” Wilson’s tonsils are fine, but his vocal chords aren’t--a nagging problem that helped to short-circuit his bid for the White House during the last campaign.

“When I first read the script, I said, ‘Wait a minute, this is too close to home,’ ” Wilson said in an interview. “But the material is very touching, very moving. I found it more powerful every time I read it.”

“Love Letters” marked the Wilsons’ most prominent foray into entertainment, but it was not their first. When Wilson was mayor of San Diego, they appeared together in a Junior League musical production. The lovebirds have sung duets at his inaugural balls and enjoy hosting friends at home around the karaoke machine.

“We thought this would be a good thing to do for the theater company,” Wilson said. It was also a mutual Valentine’s gift, he added, and “it was fun.”

Indeed, as they came out to take a second bow, the standing ovation ringing in their ears, the Wilsons looked supremely content.

And perhaps, if only for a moment, they wondered this: If a second run for the presidency isn’t in the offing, might there be a new life to pursue on the stage?