BROADWAY SNAP-SHOT
by Russell Bouthiller

Dateline: 15 November 2003

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF

Maggie the Cat prowls the boards again in Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer-winning play, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, now at the Music Box Theatre. Directed by Tony-winner Anthony Page (A DOLL'S HOUSE), this new Broadway production aims to boost box office receipts with Hollywood star-power, casting heartthrob Jason Patric as the brooding Brick, stalwart Ned Beatty as Big Daddy and the sleek Ashley Judd finessing the feline role.

In a director's note, Page gives us a brief history of the three versions of the playwright's favorite work. Williams submitted a first draft to Elia Kazan, director the original 1955 Broadway production, who asked for some changes. Wanting to please Kazan, alterations were made and two versions of Act III appeared in the first printed publication with an explanation from the playwright.

"If you don't want a director's influence on your play," Williams wrote, "there are two ways to avoid it, and neither is good. One way is to arrive at an absolute final draft... saying, 'Here it is, take it or leave it!'... The other way is to select a director who is content to put your play on the stage precisely as you conceived it with no ideas of his own."

Williams must have harbored second thoughts about these changes and, in 1974, he instituted further revisions. Page uses this later edition of the play which has "franker language" and "additions to clarify the gay confessional call from Skipper," Brick's deceased friend. The issue of homosexuality, one that shocked the Eisenhower audiences, was obscured for the 1958 film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman, the production most people know best and Williams liked least.

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, Williams reflection on "mendacity," takes place in the single setting of Brick and Maggie's bedroom, part of a grand Mississippi plantation home owned by Brick's self-made father. The couple has only recently learned that Big Daddy is dying of cancer, though he thinks he's suffering from a spastic colon. Not even Brick's mother, Big Mama (Margo Martindale), knows the truth.

Eldest son, Gooper (Michael Mastro), and his wife, Mae (Amy Hohn), are well aware of Big Daddy's prognosis. They also know that Brick is Big Daddy's favorite and probable heir. Gooper and Mae set out to present themselves as the better candidates by showing off their brood of children, those "no-neck monsters," and to discredit Brick and Maggie for their shortcomings in the bedroom.

Brick, a former sports figure, has no intention of competing for his father's affections, nor will he accommodate his wife's physical needs and desire to provide Big Daddy with a grandchild. He blames her for his friend Skipper's suicide. To escape his agony, Brick loses himself in the bottle, waiting for that "click" to occur when the liquor nullifies his pain.

Ashley Judd's performance as Maggie garnered an overall negative reception from the New York critics. Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote "As Ms. Judd gulps down a breath before taking on the next ornate hurdle of a sentence, you can imagine the penciled markings in her script." Charles Isherwood of Variety opined, "You almost have to admire the thorough manner in which the actress pummels all the poetry out of the writing."

These commentaries on Judd's talents are, perhaps, a bit harsh. Flouncing in costume designer Jane Greenwood's elegant 50s fashion, Judd presents a stunning figure whose realization of Maggie far exceeds that which we know from the celluloid version. At the performance I saw, those pencil markings seem to have been erased.

Patric presents the complicated Brick with methodical implementation. Mastro and Hohn are perfectly oily as the conniving couple. But, the evening truly belongs to the older generation. Martindale's Big Mama is simultaneously annoying and heartbreaking. And, Ned Beatty's Big Daddy steals the thunder from the gods, as well as the spotlight from his fellow players.

British director Anthony Page honors Williams' work with distinctive Southern flare. Set designs by Maria Bjornson provide an open, airy space that effectively communicates this household's thin walls. And, Howard Harrison's lighting conveys the glare under which Brick and Maggie live out their marital uncertainties. CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, a sumptuous production of a master's work.