BROADWAY SNAP-SHOT
by Russell Bouthiller
Dateline: May 4, 2005
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
What happens when a great American classic becomes a classic American movie? Immortality for both the character and the actor. Dorothy Gale will always be Judy Garland. Rhett Butler will always be Clark Gable. And, Stanley Kowalski will always be Marlon Brando. There's not getting around it.
Unlike "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone With the Wind," A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE was crafted for the stage and, consequently, more inclined to reincarnation. With Brando originating the role both in director Elia Kazan's 1947 Broadway production and in his 1951 film (as did Kim Hunter with Stella), there's not a great deal of interpretive wiggle room. At least in a novel, the character stands naked on the page, left to the reader's imagination before the actor's.
In the Roundabout Theatre Company's Studio 54 revival of Tennessee Williams' A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, directed by Edward Hall, John C. Reilly lends his unique Everyman persona to this latest interpretation of Williams' earthy and sensual Stanley Kowalski. This is a man who is used to getting what he wants from women. When his daily routine of beer and pretzels is ruffled by the arrival of his wife Stella's older sister, Blanche DuBois, he uses brute masculine force to flick away her feminine wiles.
The sumptuous Natasha Richardson plays the puffed-up Blanche DuBois, eldest of the two sisters. Arriving at the Kowalski's two-room flat in New Orleans' French Quarter, Blanche delights in seeing younger sister Stella (Amy Ryan), but cringes at the cramped and shabby accommodations. Since she has nowhere else to go, Blanche must make the best of things.
Stanley, on the other hand, is hell-bent on making trouble. Feeling he has a right to his wife's property under Louisiana's Napoleonic Code, he wants to know what happened to the sisters' Mississippi manse, Belle Reve. The pregnant Stella tries to find the peaceful middle ground, but Stanley is determined to reveal Blanche as a fraud. All the while, Blanche indulges her flimsy delusions and wafts through life on perfumed clouds.
Richardson is breathtakingly beautiful as the boozy Blanche and holds up nicely to the memory of the great Vivien Leigh. Chain-smoking when fired up or quivering with confusion, Richardson has a bracing control that allows Blanche to unravel in subtle layers. Amy Ryan does a fine job as the put-upon Stella and Chris Bauer creates a sympathetic Mitch, Stanley's buddy and Blanche's suitor.
Set designs by Robert Brill suggest a specific time and place through understatement. Lighting designs by Donald Holder beautifully complement the tone. Hall's direction is keenly timed and his casting of a more rugged, less sexually charged Stanley is certainly a departure from the Brando imprimatur. A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, a new take on a well known story.