Nicole Kidman To Headline Sweet Bird Of Youth RevivalYesterday,
it was initially reported by
New York Post's
Michael Riedel (henceforth known here forever as "Dearest Wheedle") that
Nicole Kidman would return to Broadway as Alexandra Del Lago (or Princess Kosmonopolis) in the second-ever Rialto revival of
Tennessee Williams'
Sweet Bird Of Youth.
Dearest Wheedle describes the choice role as "an aging, drunken and sexually voracious movie star. The character is one of Williams' great stage monsters."
Later yesterday,
The New York Times'
Patrick Healy (sorry, no new nicknames I know of for this reliable reporter as of yet)
confirmed that the production would move forward in the fall of 2011, adding that it would be under the watchful eye of estimable director
David Cromer.
This production will mark Kidman's first Broadway appearance since her notorious debut in
The Blue Room (1998-99). If
Yank! comes to fruition during Broadway's 2011-12 Theatrical Season, then Cromer will have two major works on the Great White Way next year. As Cromer
proved to Chicago audiences earlier this year, he has a gift for pinpointing and illuminating Williams' emotional core.
The
first Broadway production of
Sweet Bird Of Youth in 1959 was directed by
Elia Kazan and starred a 34 year old
Geraldine Page opposite the similarly aged
Paul Newman as Chance. That luminary cast also included
Sidney Blackmer as Boss Finley and such future stars as
Bruce Dern,
Diana Hyland and
Rip Torn. Kazan, Page and Torn would also receive Tony nominations (Torn received a Theatre World Award for his portrayal of Tom Junior). The mounting would enjoy a 375 performance run at the
Martin Beck Theatre (now the Al Hirschfeld), opening on March 10, 1959, and lasting through January 30, 1960. Page would go on to earn an Oscar nomination for the 1962
film version.
The first and only
Broadway revival of the work came nearly 35 years ago for a very brief 48 performance run at the
Harkness Theatre (which was razed in 1977).
Edwin Sherin's direction tilted the show with a lopsided disparity in its leads' ages, pitting the 61 year old great
Irene Worth opposite a relatively youthful 32 year old
Christopher Walken. While the show was short-lived, Worth would earn her second of three Tony Awards.
With such a plum acting role capable of attracting acclaim and laurels, could Kidman see a Tony in her future? Stay tuned around June 2012.
This is
Steve On Broadway (SOB).
In keeping with the new that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post. Labels: Broadway, David Cromer, First Word On New Show, Geraldine Page, Nicole Kidman, Play, Revival, Sweet Bird Of Youth, Tennessee Williams
A Streetcar Named Desire (The SOB Review) - 325 Tudor Court Theatre, Writers' Theatre, Glencoe, Illinois
**** (out of ****)
Genius. Pure, unequivocal genius.
In an absolutely enthralling yet haunting revival of
Tennesee Williams' 63-year old
A Streetcar Named Desire, director
David Cromer has done it again.
Once again, as in his
Our Town and
Brighton Beach Memoirs, Cromer has carefully pulled back the cover on what we know about an enduring stage classic. In doing so, he's expertly pinpointed its deepest emotional core with exacting precision. The revelations, even for someone who's seen the work countless times before, are at once astounding and exhilarating.
As with those two other works, he has shrewdly reassembled this masterpiece to perfection. The result here is
A Streetcar that ingeniously illuminates Blanche duBois' desires and repulsions, often at the very same moment. It is a rare production that sends chills tingling through my body once, let alone in spades the way this exciting revival has done. I had goosebumps from near the top of the second act right through its heartwrenching conclusion.
Cromer's vision in mounting this work is aided tremendously by the incredibly intimate
Writers' Theatre space itself, with audience completely encircling the stage, which
Collette Pollard has marvelously designed to evoke the smallish New Orleans home of Stanley (a magnificent
Matt Hawkins) and Stella Kowalski (a stellar
Stacy Stoltz). While fellow patrons for this theatrical event sit opposite you across the stage, they merely blend into the Kowalskis' invisible wallpaper as it becomes nearly impossible to take your eyes away from the acting brilliance unfolding before your eyes.
In fact, if this
Streetcar were any more accessible, the audience would be sitting in the Kowalskis' two-story home with the cast. Never before has this play seemed more genuine or real. And there's not a weak member to be found among this outstanding ensemble.
Natasha Lowe provides the ultimate incandescent performance as Blanche, whose past hangs more vividly than a specter over her pretense. In Lowe, nuance knows no bounds as her Blanche completely captivates, particularly when disclosing to her potential paramour Mitch (the gentle, affecting
Danny McCarthy) how her last real relationship abruptly came to its end (bravo here to
Heather Gilbert for her subtle and masterful lighting design). It's the first of many harrowing discoveries that took my breath away as no other previous revival I've seen.
Speaking of nuance, Hawkins and Stoltz add significant shades of depth to Stanley and Stella, respectively. Hawkins' electrifying performance humanizes Stanley to the point where you reconsider everything you've ever thought about his boorish behavior. As Stella, Stoltz more than holds her own, becoming more than just a mere pawn in the battle between her husband and sister.
If there's such a thing as
beyond excellent, this
A Streetcar Named Desire is it. Do whatever you can to get to Glencoe, Illinois, prior to July 11 to see this classic as you've never seen it before.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
In keeping with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post.Labels: A Streetcar Named Desire, Chicago, Danny McCarthy, David Cromer, Matt Hawkins, Natasha Lowe, Play, Revival, Stacy Stoltz, Tennessee Williams, The SOB Review, Writers' Theatre
A Streetcar Named Desire (The SOB Review) - Harvey Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, New York
***1/2 (out of ****) The hottest ticket in New York right now is for a little show over in Brooklyn. And with good reason.
Director (and onetime actress)
Liv Ullmann is mounting a crackling revival of
Tennessee Williams'
A Streetcar Named Desire. By that, I mean one that expertly finds each of the fissures and cracks in Blanche DuBois, arguably Williams' most artfully drawn character.
The revival becomes a must-see event not only because it stars the magnificent
Cate Blanchett, indisputably one of the world's greatest living actresses, but also because it so forthrightly showcases this classic work for what it is -- one of the best plays ever written.
As Blanche DuBois, the superbly luminescent Blanchett leads a strong cast that includes fellow
Sydney Theatre Company ensemble members
Joel Edgerton as her menacing brother-in-law Stanley, and
Robin McLeavy as Blanche's doormat of a sister Stella.
But at its center, this play is all about that unbalanced woman in the middle named Blanche, and Blanchett offers a remarkably balanced portrayal that evenly teeters from one extreme to the other. Unafraid to embrace Blanche's sensually needy side, Blanchett demonstrates that there's still plenty of red left in this faded rose. Yet the thorns are also very evident.
There's a reason why New Yorkers are using every conceivable mode of transportation to witness this
Streetcar. Ullmann's import from the Sydney Theatre Company makes Williams' work both fresh and vital. No wonder
there are the beginnings of a clang, clang, clang to bring this to Broadway. Whether Brooklyn remains its final stop remains to be seen.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: A Streetcar Named Desire, Brooklyn, Cate Blanchett, Joel Edgerton, Liv Ullmann, Off-Broadway, Play, Revival, Robin McLeavy, Sydney Theatre Company, Tennessee Williams, The SOB Review
Opening Night: Cat Begins Fifth Life On BroadwayThis evening, the fourth Broadway revival of
Tennessee Williams' classic
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof opens at the
Broadhurst Theatre. The original, Tony-nominated
1955 production earned the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Proving there is more than one
ducking way to skin Williams'
rutting Cat, director
Debbie Allen is infusing this production with some of the playwright's
intended language. But the bigger news perhaps is that
this particular incarnation of the show made it here at all, given all the lives it has had, giving it a backstory worthy of the drama itself.
Even though
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof was
last produced on the Great White Way a scant four years ago, this all African-American cast is about as stellar as can be. As Brick, acclaimed film actor
Terrence Howard is treading Broadway's boards for the very first time, alongside three Tony Award-winning actors:
Anika Noni Rose (
Caroline, Or Change) as Maggie,
Phylicia Rashad (
A Raisin in the Sun) as Big Mama and the voice of
CNN and
Darth Vader himself
James Earl Jones (
Fences).
When
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof first debuted in 1955 under the direction of
Elia Kazan, the production caused a sensation in its depiction of a Southern family's attempt to cope with one spouse's latent homosexuality. All in all, the production would play 694 performances and score four Tony nominations. The cast included
Ben Gazzara as Brick,
Barbara Bel Geddes as Maggie,
Mildred Dunnock as Big Mama and
Burl Ives as Big Daddy.
It took nearly twenty years before the
first Broadway revival was staged, but in 1974,
Michael Kahn directed
Keir Dullea as Brick,
Elizabeth Ashley as Maggie,
Kate Reid as Big Mama and
Fred Gwynne (television's Herman Munster) as Big Daddy. This
Cat lived 160 performances and earned Ashley a Tony nomination.
The third Broadway production of
Cat came in 1990 with the 149 performance run directed by
Howard Davies. It would also be the only one to win a Tony -- for
Charles Durning's celebrated turn as Big Daddy, alongside
Daniel Hugh Kelly's Brick,
Kathleen Turner's Maggie and
Polly Holliday's Big Mama. All totaled, the production earned three Tony nominations.
My first kick at the
Cat was through the 2003 revival when I caught the final preview. In the scene where Big Daddy (
Ned Beatty) is receiving his gift and asks "What's this?" A giddy voice came from somewhere near the front of the audience screaming enthusiastically, "Kitties!"
I kid you not! Fortunately for the audience, Beatty and the rest of the cast -- including
Jason Patric (Brick),
Ashley Judd (Maggie) and the breathtaking
Margo Martindale -- maintained their composure and didn't skip a beat. Yet it only earned one Tony nomination, running for 145 performances.
So will critics think that this all-star
Cat has a life? Find out tomorrow as I share my critics' capsule (I'll be seeing the show myself a little later this month).
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:The Onion: Ask The Stage Directions To Tennessee Williams' Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (February 11, 2008)
Black Cat Has More Than One Life (April 11, 2008)
Labels: Anika Noni Rose, Broadway, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad, Play, Revival, Tennessee Williams, Terrence Howard
The Onion: Ask The Stage Directions To Tennessee Williams' Cat On A Hot Tin RoofI've always loved great parody and smart satire.
That's one of the reasons why I regularly tune in to "
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "
The Colbert Report." But long before either of those shows hit the airwaves, there was
The Onion. No one does ironic humor quite as well as this purveyor of intelligent wit.
So imagine my pleasant surprise in thumbing through the current issue and finding a highly inspired column called "
Ask The Stage Directions To Tennessee Williams' Cat On A Hot Tin Roof."
With nuggets like this, it's pure genius:
Dear Stage Directions to Tennessee Williams' Cat On A Hot Tin Roof,
Because of the stock market's recent tumble, I am in a financial rut. Should I reinvest in mutual funds, or should I stay with my old stocks and wait it out?
–Financially Fazed in Florida
Dear Financially Fazed,
(Different characters enter and exit. All of them talk in excited southern accents that may only exist in my plays. Big Daddy enters. He is big and southern. He crosses upstage to his son, Brick. Big Daddy shoots everyone else on stage a look suggesting, "Get out of here. I want to talk to my son." Everyone immediately exits stage left because people are typically intimidated by a character named Big Daddy. He speaks…)
BIG DADDY (in a tone conveying that he thinks his son is a homosexual):
BRICK (in a tone knowing that his father wants to ask him if he is a homosexual):
(Curtain. End of Act II.)
Who knew that all we need do with
any personal issue is confront Tennessee Williams' iconic script itself. I just wonder if
Debbie Allen looked inside for her
unanticipated financial questions.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for Cat On A Hot Tin Roof tickets.Labels: Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Satire, Tennessee Williams, The Onion
Black Cat Has More Than One Life
After Riedel's column appeared this morning -- all but saying it was over due to "'inexperienced, inept and insane' producing" that resulted in planned star
Forest Whitaker and director
Kenny Leon withdrawing from the project --
The Playgoer argued forcefully that any attempt at such a production "seems like a classic case of something
August Wilson once decried as fake black theatre."
Later this afternoon, producer Stephen Byrd's pronouncement appeared on Playbill.com indicating that the show must -- and will -- go on. While Leon is out,
Debbie Allen (pictured) is
in at the helm, while her sister
Phylicia Rashad will portray Big Mamma. In lieu of Whitaker, Byrd is hoping to lure
Danny Glover to play Big Daddy; screen star
Thandie Newton would take on Maggie. According to Byrd,
Blair Underwood and
LL Cool J are being discussed for the pivotal role of Brick. Certainly an all-star cast, but not necessarily one chock full of stage veterans (save for Rashad and Glover).
While critics were quick to remind us of the scant seven years that have passed since the last
A Moon For The Misbegotten revival, I can only imagine how catty they might become over a new
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof incarnation, coming a mere
three years after the
last "all-star" revival hit the Great White Way.
One does wonder what Messrs. Wilson and Williams would have thought.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: August Wilson, Broadway, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, First Word On New Show, Phylicia Rashad, Play, Revival, Tennessee Williams
Did London Critics Offer Bouquets For Rose Tattoo Revival?Last evening, the
National Theatre's revival of
Tennessee Williams'
The Rose Tattoo opened in the company's Olivier Theatre. With the late
Steven Pimlott and
Nicholas Hytner sharing direction credits (Pimlott died one week into rehearsals) and the estimable
Zoë Wanamaker leading the cast, critics were mixed. However, they agreed that Wanamaker was superb and admired Hytner for soldiering on.
The Times'
Sam Marlowe offers what is arguably the most favorable review: "The production makes the play’s intensely feminine world teem with colour without overcrowding the central drama....It all has a seductive dreaminess, and Zoë Wanamaker’s Serafina is an irresistible creature of sensuality....There’s a madness to this writing, but it is the joyous madness of love and of life. Hytner and Pimlott are true to the wildness of Williams’s spirit, and make no attempt to tame its excesses. That might make the whole seem a little crazy; it’s also what makes it a creation of ripe, shameless, full-blown beauty."
Dominic Cavendish of
The Telegraph is mostly positive: "Nicholas Hytner, filling the shoes of a longtime friend (Pimlott died one week into rehearsals), could have paid no greater tribute than the production that he has brought, apparently untroubled and wholly delightful, to the stage....It's a mark of just how great an actress Zoe Wanamaker is that she negotiates the play's uneasy mixture of laughter and tears, absurdity and poignancy without showing the slightest strain - the force-field of her personality holds the contradictions in place."
Proclaiming this a "buoyantly comic celebration of life and its inexhaustible capacity for breaking free from the past,"
The Independent's
Paul Taylor provides a review that is ultimately upbeat: "The idea of the play seems like it might be more enjoyable than the actual experience of watching it. English actors don't find it easy to plug into hot Latin passion, and the portrayal of the community has a rather deliberate and unspontaneous feel here, with the half-hearted gaggle of kids and chorus of squabbling women....True, this play that is rampant with rose-imagery peers at the world through rose-tinted spectacles, but by the end it, it would be a hard heart that failed to surrender to its generous adult fairytale vision."
Claiming that
The Rose Tattoo "gives the illusion the play is better than it is" in his three-out-of-five star review,
The Guardian's
Michael Billington manages praise for Wanamaker: "[W]hile one applauds the play's affirmation of life and Williams's sly humour, the exposition is lazy, the rose-symbolism wildly excessive and the parallels between Serafina and her daughter, who finally conquers an improbably virginal sailor, over-contrived. Never mind. Williams created a great character in Serafina that produces from Zoe Wanamaker the performance of her career."
Not so impressed was the
Evening Standard's
Nicholas de Jongh, who gave the production two out of five stars: "The idea has been to treat Williams's overblown romanticism with reverent faithfulness. It does not work. An air of preposterousness and contrivance clouds the dusky, cicada-laden scene which is dominated by
Mark Thompson's revolving bungalow set....Other irritations accumulate. Devil-substitutes in the shape of
Rosalind Knight's long-haired, gym-shoed Strega and a real-life goat keep intruding together with gawping village women and kids. Too much of the dialogue, usually Williams's strong, poetic suit, sounds like eerie premonitions of lyrics for a
Lloyd Webber musical."
With such a mixed lot,
I turn to the West End Whingers for the last word on the production -- let's just put it this way, the production got their goat.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets. Labels: Critics' Capsule, London, Nicholas Hytner, Play, Revival, Tennessee Williams, The Rose Tattoo, Zoe Wanamaker
