Theater News

Who’s Afraid?

Barbara & Scott oversee the Battle of the Classic Revivals: The Glass Menagerie versus Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Bill Irwin and Kathleen Turner inWho's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?(Photo © Carol Rosegg)
Bill Irwin and Kathleen Turner in
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
(Photo © Carol Rosegg)

Here’s one of those unforgettable New York stories. We were having dinner at Orso when a heated discussion erupted with a friend at the next table about the current offerings on Broadway; he didn’t like Spamalot (we did) but was very impressed with Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (on that we could agree). Then we looked up and spotted director Mike Nichols sitting just two tables away. He directed the famous film version of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and he also directed Spamalot. We didn’t know if he had heard us or not, but eye contact was made and a small gesture passed between us that acknowledged he’d been spotted. As we contemplated Nichols’ remarkable career, we wondered what he thought of Anthony Page’s direction of the play that he turned into a landmark movie. While he had his dinner, we continued — in whispers! — to express our own opinions on the subject.

After the fiasco of The Graduate, we were pleased to see Kathleen Turner back on Broadway in Virginia Woolf in a part that’s just right for her. We haven’t often liked Turner on stage but she is a more than credible as Martha, one of the theater’s great female roles. Once you decide to revive this play for Broadway, the idea of casting Turner is a no-brainer; director Page’s real stroke of genius was to match her with Bill Irwin. Irwin’s George is a revelation in its desperate intelligence. The actor captures George’s sad and disappointed life as only a great clown can do, but he also sparks with a defiant will to match Martha’s every gambit. He is, in a word, terrific.

Less effective are Mireille Enos as Honey and David Harbour as Nick, the couple that enters the maelstrom of George and Martha’s marriage. Albee’s play, however, is so vivid and forceful — as are Turner and Irwin — that the visiting couple are swept along in a swiftly moving river of emotions. In this production, the currents beneath the surface are extremely powerful.

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Jessica Lange and Christian Slaterin The Glass Menagerie(Photo © Paul Kolnik)
Jessica Lange and Christian Slater
in The Glass Menagerie
(Photo © Paul Kolnik)

The Tennessee Two-Step

In the battle of Broadway revivals, there are two Tennessee Williams plays this season: The Glass Menagerie and, opening later this month, A Streetcar Named Desire. We can only hope that Streetcar is more successful! Director David Leveaux’s Menagerie is surprisingly bloodless. The fault lies squarely with Leveaux, who has given us an intellectually defensible interpretation of the play but has muted its humanity to the point of cool detachment.

The choice to have significant scenes of the play performed behind a scrim-like curtain or entirely offstage robs the play of its immediacy. Leveaux stresses that The Glass Menagerie is a memory play. Granted, this is explicitly stated in the text, but Leveaux has taken the concept to an extreme. The past may be shrouded in the mists of time, but if you’re going to the trouble of remembering it (Williams) and putting it on stage (Leveaux), it should be as real as rain.

There are other problems with the production. Jessica Lange plays the mother, Amanda Wingfield, as a near hysteric almost from the start, so she has no place to go with her performance. Christian Slater, who replaced Dallas Roberts at the last minute in the role of Tom, seems too contemporary for the part. Sarah Paulson is delicate and effective as the physically and emotionally crippled Laura, while Josh Lucas seems a little too much the cocksure go-getter as The Gentleman Caller. (The character should be a bit more beaten-down by life.)

Whenever a great play is revived on Broadway, we generally recommend that people attend, especially if they’ve never seen it before. The Glass Menagerie is a beautifully written piece that can still be appreciated even in a bad production, but perhaps you should wait and catch it on the next go-around.

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[To contact the Siegels directly, e-mail them at siegels@theatermania.com.]