About This Show
The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams’ autobiographical masterpiece about a fractured St. Louis family, made its Broadway premiere in 1945 and immediately established the playwright as an important voice in American drama. In this tale of endurance and forgiveness, a young man is torn between obligation to his family and the need to lead a life of his own. Williams’ menagerie of characters, caught in their claustrophobic flat, includes Amanda, the domineering matriarch; Tom, the reluctant breadwinner; Laura, a fragile girl tending a collection of glass figurines; and Jim, the gentleman caller whose brief visit forever changes their lives. Williams called Menagerie his “memory play,” and its expressionistic beauty illuminates the subjective nature of memory. For Amanda, it serves as a refuge; for her son, it’s a prison he will never escape.
Rita Moreno stars as Amanda. Obie Award-winner Les Waters directs.
