Debbie Allen's solid, all-black staging of Tennessee Williams' classic play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, now at the Novello Theatre, is dramatically satisfying if a little overstretched and patchy in places. But it has a real ace up its sleeve in the form of James Earl Jones' domineering Big Daddy.

Indeed, the second act waltz between Big Daddy, the father dying of cancer and not destined to see another birthday, and his tortured, liquor-soaked son, Brick (Adrian Lester), hobbled both by a broken ankle and by guilt and disgust over the recent death of his close friend Skipper, is a fine piece of acting, compelling and layered, covering some complex emotional terrain.

Lester acquits himself ve[...]