University of Michigan grad talks about his original web series, "The Battery's Down"
Not through the usual means — Wilson is still waiting and hoping to make his Broadway stage debut one day — but by way of a popular Web series he created and stars in called, “The Battery’s Down.”
Employing a documentary style that combines scripted situations with improv, the show follows Wilson as he navigates his way through often-humiliating auditions, day jobs, and bad dates in New York City. Each 20-minute episode includes production numbers — performed in locales like the subway, Sardi’s, and Ellen’s Stardust Diner — with original songs provided by up-and-coming musical theater composers.
But what made Wilson pursue the project? “I was just auditioning and hanging out with my friends and seeing things not come to fruition,” said Wilson.
Originally inspired to do a parodic riff on rapper R Kelly’s “Trapped in the Closet” video series (called “Broadway Gangsta”) — “I realized that would be funny for about two minutes, and then it would get really old,” Wilson said — Wilson instead decided to enlist both U-M friends and some New York theater stars to help tell the story of a young actor trying to break into show business.
Former Wolverines (and songwriting team) Benj Pasek and Justin Paul contributed the show’s theme song, but a tune performed in the first episode, “This is Your Life,” by Ryan Scott Oliver and Kirsten A. Guenther, has become the hit that echoes and resonates through subsequent 'Battery' chapters. When it’s initially introduced, U-M musical theater grads dance and sing along in various New York locales — not that that was the original plan.
“The entire number was all going to be in front of the Virgin sign (in Times Square),” said Wilson. However, this was precisely when Wilson and his cast got thrown out of the famous thoroughfare. Wilson was told that he needed to acquire a permit to film in Times Square; yet because he constantly struggles to fund the monthly series by himself, he couldn’t afford the permit’s $6,000 price tag. “Since then, we’ve always operated under the assumption that we’re going to be kicked out of any location we’re filming in, at any time,” said Wilson. “We always tell everyone, ‘We’ll probably get two takes in before we’re kicked out.’”
Wilson was the show’s producer, director, cameraman, star, choreographer, writer, and just about everything else when "Battery" launched on February 1, 2008. But as the series grew in terms of its production values and popularity, Adam Wachter came aboard as music supervisor, and Connor Gallagher became the show’s director/choreographer.
Early on, though, Wilson depended on friends and connections to line up cameos by the likes of Cheyenne Jackson, Jackie Hoffman, and Mary Testa (“Xanadu”); Jonathan Groff (“Spring Awakening”); Matthew Morrisson (“Hairspray” and “Light in the Piazza”); and Ann Harada and John Tartaglia (“Avenue Q”), among others.
This parade of Broadway stars provided the fledgling, independent series with legitimacy and also established it as a cult hit within the New York’s theater community.
“People know who I am now,” said Wilson. “People in the theater community recognize me all the time.”
This is partly because season one (nine episodes) featured tons of inside jokes about musical theater, so insiders embraced it. Fans included Rosie O’Donnell, who invited Wilson and his castmates to come along on one of her cruises, where they filmed episode seven, “Ro Ro Ro Your Boat.”
Yet when it came time to start work on season two, Wilson cast his eye toward expanding the series’ accessibility to a wider audience. His character, after landing a role in a musical titled “Rollercoaster Highway,” crashes and burns with the show as it opens in Alaska (filmed in Albany); and in 'Battery''s 13th, and most recent, episode, Jake agrees to temporarily trade apartments with his sister (played by “Urinetown” star, and U-M grad, Jennifer Laura Thompson) in Los Angeles.
So currently, Wilson is in the City of Angels, shopping "Battery" around to television execs while also trying to plan the second season’s last three episodes. “It’s really hard, financing the entire show on my own,” Wilson said. “The idea that I have the bank account to support this is just so laughable. I babysit and I’ve worked on and off a few places, but making this show is a full-time job.”
Wilson has tried, throughout the show's run, to make time for auditions, too, but he's hoping "Battery" will now become the means of launching his career.
“Here in L.A., it feels like I’m starting from scratch again,” said Wilson. “But I feel like this is where I need to be to get the show off the ground, so here I am.”
The trailer for the second season of "The Battery's Down":
Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. She can be reached at jennmckee@annarbor.com. Follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.