‘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.

Theatre at St. Clement’s

423 West 46 Street, NYC 10036
www.LaFemmeTheatreProductions.org

Directed by Austin Pendleton

WIN 2 FREE TICKETS or BUY NOW ONLINE AT A DISCOUNT to this unique tragicomedy, featuring four women in Depression-era St. Louis. They live and work together in a valiant effort to stave off loneliness and despair. And, along the way, they uncover false idols – and maybe even themselves.  La Femme Theatre Productions presents the revival of Tennessee Williams’s A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, featuring Kristine Nielsen, Annette O’Toole, Jean Lichty, Polly McKie.

HOW TO ENTER

Email editor@stagezine.com and include your name and email address before 12 noon on Friday, September 21, 2018. We will select one winner at random and the winner will receive a voucher for two tickets to the show. Also please follow StageZine on Twitter and tweet this page using our handle @StageZineEditor and #ALovelySundayforCreveCoeur to let all your friends know.

SPECIAL OFFER:

$35 tix (reg. $55) from 9/14 to 9/22
$39 tix (reg. $65) from 9/26 to 10/21

• ONLINE: Visit www.LaFemmeTheatreProductions.org and use code LOVELYRED
• PHONE: Call (866) 811-4111 and mention code LOVELYRED

RESTRICTIONS: All sales are final – no refunds or exchanges. Offer subject to availability. Not valid in combination with any other offers. Normal service charges apply to phone and internet orders. Performance schedule subject to change. Offer may be revoked or modified at any time without notice.

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‘THE GLASS MENAGERIE’: (left to right) Madison Ferris, Sally Field & Joe Mantello. Photo: Julieta Cervantes

THE GLASS MENAGERIE
By Tennessee Williams
Directed by Sam Gold
Belasco Theatre
111 West 44th Street
(212-239-6200), http://glassmenagerieonbroadway.com/

By Scott Harrah

Tennessee Williams is consistently revived on Broadway because he’s one of the greatest American playwrights of all time. His first play is also his most delicate and quite accessible, so even in a minimalistic revival like this, the story is timeless. The dialogue is so seamless and the characters so real that one can almost overlook director Sam Gold’s unorthodox staging, with almost no set and few props. Williams purists, be forewarned: This production isn’t The Glass Menagerie you probably fell in love with in high-school English or drama class.

Mr. Gold first mounted this revival in Amsterdam, and utilitarian, avant-garde retooling of American drama classics is common practice in Europe these days. While this may be great overseas, it does not always work on Broadway. However, Mr. Gold isn’t the first to create a nontraditional staging of Menagerie.  Less than four years ago in fall 2013, director John Tiffany and scenic designer Bob Crowley brought the show from the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Broadway (starring Cherry Jones as Amanda Wingfield) and were nominated for a Tony Award, recreating the 1930s epic of a St. Louis family with a reflecting pool of water and a stylized set featuring a tower of fire escapes (a crucial part of the original script). This revival also does not include—as is often featured in other productions and the script—the large portrait of Mr. Wingfield, the father who left the family years earlier.

The casting here, along with Wojciech Dziedzic’s costuming (which seems more 1950s or 1990s than ’30s), is also atypical. In addition, because there is not much to Andrew Lieberman’s set, other than a dining room table, the black stage often metaphorically swallows the actors whole.

Sally Field is powerful as Amanda Wingfield, the domineering harpy of mother. She gives a new interpretation of Amanda, the faded Southern belle who clings to tradition and unrealistic goals for her children. Whether she’s nagging her children or recalling her glory days in Mississippi, we hear the sounds of desperation in every syllable she utters.

It is great to see Joe Mantello (now better known as a director than actor) as Tom, the protagonist and narrator. He is appropriately nervous and high-strung, arguing with his mother or talking about the drudgery of working in a shoe factory and spending mysterious nights at the movies, but with his gray hair, he seems more like Amanda’s brother or Laura’s father.

Newcomer Madison Ferris (an actress who uses a wheelchair in real life) makes her Broadway debut as Laura, the painfully shy, emotionally and physically challenged character who relates only to her glass animal collection and words of encouragement from her brother and mother.  Ms. Ferris’ Laura is authentic and touching, portraying an about-to-blossom flower when the famous Gentleman Caller (Finn Wittrock) arrives. Mr. Wittrock is amusing and natural as the man Tom invites over for dinner, after Amanda insists on finding a suitor for “Sister.”

It is always a thrill to see Tennessee Williams’ plays revived, but this bare-bones production falls flat in comparison to the excellent John Tiffany-directed version or even the 2004 production with Jessica Lange and Christian Slater. Mr. Gold brings a new spin indeed to the show, but because the set lacks key elements of the show to anchor the story, this Glass Menagerie seems more like a first week’s dress rehearsal than a full-fledged production, lacking the polish needed to make the classic truly shine.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published March 9, 2017
Reviewed at press preview performance on March 4, 2017

‘THE GLASS MENAGERIE’: Finn Wittrock & Madison Ferris. Photo: Julieta Cervantes

‘THE GLASS MENAGERIE’: Sally Field & Joe Mantello, Photo: Julieta Cervantes

‘THE GLASS MENAGERIE’: Joe Mantello & Sally Field. Photo: Julieta Cervantes

‘THE GLASS MENAGERIE’: Joe Mantello & Sally Field. Photo: Julieta Cervantes

‘THE GLASS MENAGERIE’: Joe Mantello, Sally Field & Finn Wittock. Photo: Julieta Cervantes

The post A minimalist revival of ‘The Glass Menagerie’ appeared first on StageZine.

Masterworks Theater Company
47^th Street Theater- 304 West 47^th Street (between 8^th and 9^th Avenues)
www.MasterworksTheaterCompany.org
May 8^th through May 30^th

Masterworks Theater Company’s Inaugural Season premieres this May with Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie. This beloved American Masterwork tells the universal story of a Southern single mother striving to secure a future for her two grown children.  While her cripplingly shy daughter escapes to a world of glass, her aspiring writer son dreams of a world beyond the confines of St. Louis. Any hope of salvation is pinned on the visit of a “Gentleman Caller” for the girl, but it seems he may only shatter their fragile fantasies. This production, under the helm of director Christopher Scott, will feature a multicultural cast and bring the plight of the American Family to a new generation through this exciting and edgy new production.

The Glass Menagerie will feature Saundra Santiago (“The Sopranos”) as Amanda, Richard Prioleau (HBO’s “The Normal Heart”) as Tom, Olivia Washington (Lee Daniels’ The Butler) as Laura, and Doug Harris (The Found Dog Ribbon Dance) as Jim.

The goal of Masterworks Theater Company is to present accessible, professional productions of theatrical and literary heavyweights that are widely produced and studied in educational settings at affordable ticket prices to help ignite the audience for live theater for the next generation. A major part of our mission is casting culturally diverse; we strive to amplify the universality of these masterworks by reflecting the face of a new America.

Special Offer:

$49 (reg. $65): Orchestra Seats

$39 (reg. $50): Balcony Seats

THREE EASY WAYS TO REDEEM:

 ONLINE: Visit TicketCentral.com and use code BI4939

PHONE: Call 212-279-4200 and mention code BI4939

 IN PERSON: Bring a print out of the offer to Ticket Central Box Office – 416 W 42nd Street (Between 9th and 10th), New York, NY, Noon to 8pm 7 days a week.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE: Tuesdays through Thursdays at 7 PM, Fridays at 8PM, Saturdays at 3PM and 8PM, Sundays at 3PM. No performance on Wednesday May 20^th. Added 11AM Matinee on Thursday May 21^st.

Restrictions: Not valid May 14^th. Subject to availability. Not valid on prior purchase. Offer cannot be combined with other discounts or promotions. Additional blackout dates and restrictions may apply. No refunds or exchanges. Offer may be revoked at any time.

The post ‘Glass Menagerie’ Discount Tickets appeared first on StageZine.

BLOW OUT YOUR CANDLES, LAURA: Celia Keenan-Bolger meets ‘gentleman caller’ Brian J. Smith in ‘The Glass Menagerie.’ Photo: Michael J. Lutch

THE GLASS MENAGERIE
By Tennessee Williams
Directed by John Tiffany
Booth Theatre
222 West 45th Street
(800) 447-7400, http://theglassmenageriebroadway.com/

By Scott Harrah

Note to any producers in the future, thinking about a Broadway revival of an American classic:  This is how it’s done.  Tennessee Williams’ first play is also his most delicate, and some might argue, surprisingly accessible.  This epic of a St. Louis family in the 1930s has none of the vivacity of his later plays, but its simplicity makes it particularly heartbreaking and timeless. It only works with the right cast, without gimmicks. Despite some noticeable changes only purists might argue over, this is the most authentic Tennessee Williams production (of any of his plays) on Broadway in decades.

Director John Tiffany and scenic designer Bob Crowley have made some stylistic enhancements to The Glass Menagerie, from a reflecting pool of water to a stylized set featuring a tower of fire escapes, but nothing is distracting, and Williams’ simplistic yet florid dialogue and tragic story remain intact. The production recently transferred to Broadway from the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA.

The vulnerability Cherry Jones brings to Amanda Wingfield, the domineering mother, is both refreshing and true to the character.  Whether she’s nagging her children or recalling her glory days in Dixieland, we hear the sounds of desperation in every syllable.

Zachary Quinto’s take on Tom, the protagonist and narrator, is powerful in all the right places:  Sometimes nervous, ill at ease, with hyperactive movements. Whether he is arguing with his mother or talking about the drudgery of working in a shoe factory and spending mysterious nights at the movies, he displays an impressive range of awkward longing and raw emotions.

Celia Keenan-Bolger’s Laura is perhaps the strongest asset of this production. As written, the crippled, painfully shy character can easily be seen as fragile, but not terribly interesting.  However, Ms. Keenan-Bolger adds new dimensions here and thrives as a pretty but mentally and physically damaged being, relating only to her glass animal collection and words of encouragement from her brother and mother.  There is plenty of life in Ms. Keenan-Bolger’s Laura, and she really shines as an about-to-blossom flower when the famous Gentleman Caller (Brian J. Smith) arrives. Mr. Smith is entertaining as the man Tom invites over for dinner, after Amanda insists on finding a suitor for “Sister.”

The main thing missing here (often featured in other productions) is the large portrait of Mr. Wingfield, the father who left the family years earlier. But we don’t miss it, for it’s more realistic to not see the person who hasn’t been seen for ages in this doomed household.  These subtle directorial choices by John Tiffany, combined with the exceptional acting, make this a perfectly polished Glass Menagerie we may never see again.

REVIVAL REINVENTS ‘GLASS MENAGERIE’: (left to right) Zachary Quinto, Cherry Jones & Celia Keenan-Bolger in Williams’ superb memory play. Photo: Michael J. Lutch

MOTHER & DAUGHTER DISCORD: (left to right) Celia Keenan-Bolger & Cherry Jones in ‘The Glass Menagerie.’ Photo: Michael J. Lutch

The Glass Menagerie – 7 Tony Nominations, including: Best Drama Revival, Best Dramatic Actress – Cherry Jones, Best Dramatic Supporting Actress – Celia Keenan Bolger, Best Dramatic Supporting Actor – Brian J. Smith, Best Director – John Tiffany, Best Set Design, & BEST LIGHTING DESIGN – NATASHA KATZ.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published October 4, 2013
Reviewed at press performance on October 2, 2013

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