‘THE GLASS MENAGERIE’: Lizzie Annis & Victor Alli. Photo: Johan Persson.

THE GLASS MENAGERIE
Written By Tennessee Williams
Directed by Jeremy Herrin
Through August 27, 2022
The Duke of York’s Theatre
St. Martin’s Lane

London, United Kingdom
(0333 009 6690), www.theglassmenageriewestend.com

By David NouNou

Set in St. Louis, Missouri, The Glass Menagerie is Tennessee Williams’ classic memory play and was one of the original “dysfunctional family dramas” before there was such a thing. Seeing the latest revival in London with Amy Adams is truly an event. The play focuses on Amanda (Ms. Adams), the delusional mother who clings to the memories of her youth and the beauty she once was. She keeps reminding her daughter, Laura (Lizzie Annis)— who had pleurisy when she was younger and is now left with a club foot—that, on a particular Sunday, 17 gentlemen callers came to call on her in one afternoon on her father’s plantation in Blue Mountain, Mississippi. Her constant haranguing of Laura is not meant out of spite but as an incentive that Laura’s complexes can be overcome by grace, and she should always be ready for her own gentlemen callers.  Amanda’s delusions of her past and the disappointments of the present are ways of coping and surviving with the cards life dealt her.

Amanda’s problems with her son, Tom (Tom Glynn-Carney), are of a different nature. Her husband (the handsome and reckless one of the 17 gentlemen callers) abandoned her and the family 15 years earlier one night while going to get a pack of cigarettes. As a result, she is very clingy and demanding of Tom. She’s at the point of suffocating him, wanting to know his every move; where he’s going and what’s he doing. She is in mortal fear he might abandon her and Laura just like his father did.

Those familiar with The Glass Menagerie know that there are only four characters in the play: Amanda, Tom, Laura and Jim O’Connor “the gentleman caller” as well as the ever-looming picture of the patriarch of the family who abandoned them 15 years earlier. British/European directors love to tinker with American classics. Tom is both narrator and a character in the play. Tom the Narrator (Paul Hilton) is the poet of the piece. He is Mr. Williams’ voice. For some unfathomable reason, director Jeremy Herrin has decided to split the part of Tom in two: the narrator being much older, recalling the goings on in a haze of smoke and liquor, and the younger Tom, who is in the action of the play.

The third and most poignant act of the play is “The Gentleman Caller.” Amanda has implored Tom to bring a friend from work to get to meet Laura. She has fussed and spent all their money to make a special evening out of this meeting. Tom brings fellow worker from the shoe factory Jim O’Connor (Victor Alli). Jim is easygoing and affable but Laura is terrified to come out and meet him because Jim is the guy she had a crush on in high school. A power outage occurs after dinner and Jim and Laura are left to talk and reminisce about high school. Jim tries to help Laura overcome her complexes and tries teaching her to dance. In the process, he steps on a glass unicorn, Laura’s favorite animal from her menagerie. Jim soon leaves awkwardly, saying he won’t be coming back because he is engaged to be married. As both Laura and Amanda are devastated, watch Amy Adams explode and unleash on Tom.

With the exception of the horrific 2017 Broadway version—with Sally Field and Joe Mantello, abominably directed by Sam Gold—The Glass Menagerie is always a treat to watch because of its impeccable writing. However, directors do find a way to foul things up due to their artistic vision,  and Jeremy Herrin is no exception. Theatre turns illusions into reality. When the curtain rises, that’s when the magic begins. In this case there is no curtain and there is no magic. As you walk into the theatre and take your seat, for some reason you see all five actors milling around the stage whispering to each other, getting themselves ready, walking across the stage, looking out beyond the audience, etc.

The set by Vicki Mortimer is a mystery. It is not of an apartment that has seen better days, but an apartment that should be condemned. The Wingfields are poor, but not destitute and on bread lines. However, smack dab in the middle of the set is this enormous lit glass showcase that has what seems to be Lalique crystal animals on it. First question that arises is if the Wingfields are that destitute, how can Laura afford this?  As written, Laura has a few small pieces of glass animals in a little showcase by her side that she likes to look at to cheer herself up; not a showcase at the Louvre.

Another inexplicable directorial choice is the dividing of Tom. Since this is a lyrical memory play, in every version Tom is first seen recalling the events that led him to leave his family, like his father did, and the difficulty of leaving his sister Laura to join the merchant marines. Now the play starts with Tom as a total bum, hustling men for cigarettes and liquor and just meandering around St. Louis in various stages of stupor, never seeing his family again.

The redemption to this piece is the glorious Amy Adams: a movie star of the first magnitude with six Oscar nominations, she is a beauty, and one of the best actresses of the 21^st Century. We first see her coming onstage with her flowing mane of hair and regular street clothes, transforming herself into the part of Amanda Wingfield. You know she can transform herself as matronly as evidenced by the 2020 movie Hillbilly Elegy. You might ask yourself isn’t she a bit young and too beautiful to play the part of Amanda? Yes, but she is also a daring actress, and likes to push the envelope and test her capabilities.

It is truly delightful watching Amy Adams do the scene of renewing magazine subscriptions to her customers to make some extra money. She pleads, teases, cajoles, and calls them “Christian martyrs,” anything to renew their subscriptions. There is also the scene where she comes out in this ridiculous frilly dress from 30 years ago to impress the gentleman caller, and then tries to stuff Laura’s flat chest with “gay deceivers”. Finally, she pulls all the stops out in her final scene when she discovers Jim is to be engaged, and she spent all their money on this useless evening; the venom, anger and disappointment she unleashes on Tom is phenomenal.

Despite misguided choices made by the creative team, The Glass Menagerie remains a riveting poignant lyrical drama, the likes of which you don’t see much anymore. It is still a must-see for anyone visiting London— just to see Amy Adams on stage.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published July 14, 2022
Reviewed in London on June 15, 2022.

‘THE GLASS MENAGERIE’: Now playing at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London. Photo: StageZine.

‘THE GLASS MENAGERIE’: Lizzie Annis & Tom Glynn-Carnie. Photo: Johan Persson.

‘THE GLASS MENAGERIE’: Amy Adams. Photo: Johan Persson.

The post Amy Adams in London’s ‘The Glass Menagerie’ appeared first on StageZine.

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE: British stage & TV star Felicity Kendal plays an aging West End actress spending a weekend in the country in Noël Coward’s ‘Hay Fever’. Photo: Nobby Clark

HAY FEVER
Written by Noël Coward
Directed by Lindsay Posner
Through August 1, 2015
Duke of York’s Theatre
St. Martin’s Lane
London, United Kingdom
(0844 871 7623), www.atgtickets.com

By Scott Harrah

Noël Coward was one of the most celebrated British playwrights of the 20th century. From Private Lives to Blithe Spirit to Design for Living, Mr. Coward wrote the epitome of upper-crust, class-conscious comedies that were the antithesis of the working-class “kitchen sink dramas” by John Osbourne and the like that were popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Most of the humor still holds up in the majority of Mr. Coward’s plays, and one wishes the same could be said for Hay Fever, written in 1925.

This West End transfer of Hay Fever, which was mounted at Theatre Royal Bath in 2014 and also toured Australia, arrived in the West End earlier this spring. Ms. Kendal is no stranger to British audiences, first making a name for herself in the 1970s TV sitcom “The Good Life” and then making quite an impressive U.K. stage career in the West End productions The Real Thing, Heartbreak House, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, among others. As an American who has always been a fan of Mr. Coward’s plays, I was excited to see one of his classics in London, the city where they first made a cultural impact.

There is no question Ms. Kendal is a true professional with a commanding stage presence. She has razor-sharp coming timing, from the way she elegantly delivers Mr. Coward’s numerous bon mots to the expressive emotions on her face with its patrician-like features. Whenever Ms. Kendal is on stage, her presence is overpowering, and she almost overshadows the rest of the cast.

Ms. Kendal plays Judith, a recently retired West End actress who is having difficulty adjusting to the bucolic life in rural England. Still, Judith yearns to return to the London stage. Her novelist husband, David (Simon Shepherd), and children Sorel (Alice Orr-Ewing), and Simon (Edward Franklin), have very little stage chemistry with Ms. Kendal.

The paper-thin plot revolves around the Bliss family bringing uninvited guests to the country estate for the weekend. As one can imagine, predictable mayhem ensues as love interests and hormones swirl around all over the place.

Despite some gorgeous sets by designer Peter McIntosh and associate set designer Simon Anthony Wells, and delightful period costumes, the plot is so calculated and—dare I say it?—trite, that there are few surprises. Unlike Mr. Coward’s better plays, there are few surprises or shocks here. The dialogue also lacks the wit of Mr. Coward’s later efforts. Perhaps director Lindsay Posner could have done some script tweaks to make this 90-year-old comedy a bit more modern.

Noël Coward is one of the all-time greats of the British theatre, but Hay Fever (written when Mr. Coward was in his 20s) is devoid of the timeless genius of Private Lives and Design for Living and his other plays.

FAMILY TIES: (left to right) Alice Orr-Ewing, Felicity Kendal & Edward Franklin. Photo: Nobby Clark

‘Hay Fever’: (left to right) Celeste Dodwell & Michael Simkins. Photo: Nobby Clark

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published July 6, 2015
Reviewed at June 18, 2015 performance in London

The post Noël Coward’s ‘Hay Fever’ a classic but dated appeared first on StageZine.