Wightman had earlier appeared in two other works of Williams produced by Kondazian, Sweet Bird of Youth with Ed Harris, and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award winning production of The Rose Tattoo, which was praised by Williams himself who said he had never seen the play better directed than by Clyde Ventura.
Sylvie Drake in the Los Angeles Times singled-out "the excellent Robert Wightman" as Edgar in LATC's King Lear, and Hoyt Hilsman writing for Backstage praised his "lovely and mysterious" portrayal as Budge in the dark comedy The Day Room by Don DeLillo.