Lately, Tennessee Williams’s plays have enjoyed great popularity on Broadway, to various degrees of success. In 2012, a multi-ethnic adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire was staged at the Broadhurst Theater, but it failed to match the depth usually present in Williams’s plays, instead overlooking much of the nuances of the play and favoring a more openly violent approach. In early 2013, an intense production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof graced the Richard Rogers Theater, starring Scarlett Johansson and Benjamin Walker as the troubled couple dealing with marital issues and family tensions. Set in the bedroom of a Southern plantation, the show pulled viewers into the world of the desperate and determined Maggie. And most recently, a work from the later half of Williams’s career, The Two Character Play, was revived off-Broadway over the summer at New World Stages.
The Glass Menagerie, one of Williams’s classics, opened in September at the Booth Theater under the direction of John Tiffany. This sensitively rendered production weaves the memory-style play together delicately, reflecting the fragility of the characters. The four-character play stars Cherry Jones as the overbearing mother, Zachary Quinto as her impatient son waiting to break out of the oppressive atmosphere of his home, Celi Keenan-Bolger as the cripplingly shy Laura, and Brian J. Smith as the gentleman caller who pulls Laura out of her shell.
The minimalist set where the action unfolds is reduced to a dining room table, a small living room space with a few articles of furniture, and the fire escape where Tom spends many hours sitting and smoking. As the narrator, Tom sets the tone for the play: “Everything is sentimental and not realistic,” Tom explains to his captivated audience. But the characters spellbind us, until we can imagine that these are people we actually know.
Although the characters were expertly played, Laura’s physical handicap often seemed a bit too forced as she limped around the stage, her foot uncomfortably turning inward with each step. While Laura is meant to be fragile, like the glass menagerie she keeps, she seemed mostly awkward and ungainly.
The play pulls at the viewer’s heartstrings, and it is difficult to watch Laura’s mother constantly encouraging her to be all the things she quite obviously cannot be – charming, vivacious, popular. Her mother’s failure to accept her as herself seems to be what is crippling Laura emotionally, and it is only when her first gentleman caller sits down for some quality time with her during which he dispels some of her social fears that Laura’s personality begins to flower.
While the Laura onstage is only a ghost of Tom’s imagination years later, her story is as real and present to the viewer as it is to the Tom who is reminiscing about the family he left behind. Ultimately, this production does justice to the nuances and emotional depth of Tennessee Williams’s original play. It is meaningful, direct, and emotionally engaging, providing a satisfying experience for the viewer, presented by a team of actors who are amazing at what they do.
The Glass Menagerie is currently playing at the Booth Theater (222 West 45th Street) through February 2014. Student rush tickets are available.