Dany Margolies – The Daily News If you had a perfectly happy childhood with ideal parents, good for you. Tennessee Williams did not, and this led to some of literature’s most-affecting, most-enduring plays. Many in his audiences didn’t, either, and that’s why we keep coming back to his classics, particularly “The Glass Menagerie.” Indeed, its … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw As a film, Baby Doll was a little too racy for segments of America when it premiered in 1956. Its poster featured a scantily clad (by that era’s standards) young woman in a slip, curled up in a crib, sucking her thumb. Directed by Elia Kazan from a screenplay by Tennessee Williams … Read more
Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze No doubt avid theatergoers and especially those fascinated by playwright Tennessee Williams will have already bought tickets to his rarely produced “Kingdom of Earth,” running at West Los Angeles’ Odyssey Theatre. Read more… Now running through August 14
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw Eccentricities of a Nightingale was Tennessee Williams’ 1951 rewrite of his earlier Summer and Smoke. It was supposedly his preferred version of the story, and one can see why. The main character of Alma is more clearly delineated, and the drama springs more from her choices than from fate. The current production … Read more
Bob Verini – Stage Raw In the vast scheme of Tennessee Williams’ long career, the 1978 Vieux Carré stands as one of his lesser plays, derivative and ill-shaped. Among the works of his final two decades, however, it’s one which can still credibly command a stage if given a vigorous and mature production. Read more… David C. … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw This play, which provided Tennessee Williams with the first great success in his spectacular but ultimately blighted career, is astonishingly rich, simple, and forthright. That it requires only four actors and a single set has deluded many actors and directors to think it is an easy play to do. But … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw The published text of Tennessee Williams’ play is rife with stage directions insisting that it’s not a realistic play, but its production history suggests that Williams didn’t trust his own creation. When it’s performed with honesty and simplicity, as it is here, debates about realism vs. memory seem merely academic. Read … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw The current production of Tennessee Williams’s classic A Streetcar Named Desire by The Group Rep at the Lonny Chapman Theatre is a pleasant surprise, a robust take on the material that features a strong ensemble, an outstanding Blanche, and smart direction that brings the material to vibrant life. Read more… Now playing through … Read more