#1
Posted: 5/31/05 at 4:56pm
I saw the Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire on Friday night, May 27th. I had heard many a negative things about this revival(as the reviews had been less than kind). However, I was pleasently surprised.
John C. Reilly is not someone I'd expect to be an ideal Stanley but he really did as well as he could. He's very different than Brando obviously but that doesn't make him unsuitable to play the role. His interpretation was more caveman like and animalistic but it worked as well.
Natasha Richardson was also very strong. I'm very surprised she didn't recieve a nomination for Best Actress. She was very strong in the "seduction" scene and she had quite a lot of chemistry with that young boy.
Chris Bauer and Amy Ryan were both very good in their featured roles. Amy Ryan never had a stand-out scene but she was consistently good throughout and that's what made me impressed with her. She made Stella extremely strong and tough enough to be able to stand up to her husband which made the character, for me, become the main protagonist of the piece.
The technical aspects(such as the lighting and the set) were also very well done and served the play well. There might have a bit too many people on stage during the scene changes but it did give the impression of a clustered neighborhood.
Although this production has been recieving quite a lot of flack for being miscast, wrongly interpreted by the director Edward Hall,etc. I felt that this production was better than the critics had made it out to be. It wasn't the "be all end all" version of Streetcar that some might have been expecting but it should definitely be looked at as a valiant effort that, while not always 100 percent successful, strived to prove Tennesse proud...and to a certain extent, they succeeded.
John C. Reilly is not someone I'd expect to be an ideal Stanley but he really did as well as he could. He's very different than Brando obviously but that doesn't make him unsuitable to play the role. His interpretation was more caveman like and animalistic but it worked as well.
Natasha Richardson was also very strong. I'm very surprised she didn't recieve a nomination for Best Actress. She was very strong in the "seduction" scene and she had quite a lot of chemistry with that young boy.
Chris Bauer and Amy Ryan were both very good in their featured roles. Amy Ryan never had a stand-out scene but she was consistently good throughout and that's what made me impressed with her. She made Stella extremely strong and tough enough to be able to stand up to her husband which made the character, for me, become the main protagonist of the piece.
The technical aspects(such as the lighting and the set) were also very well done and served the play well. There might have a bit too many people on stage during the scene changes but it did give the impression of a clustered neighborhood.
Although this production has been recieving quite a lot of flack for being miscast, wrongly interpreted by the director Edward Hall,etc. I felt that this production was better than the critics had made it out to be. It wasn't the "be all end all" version of Streetcar that some might have been expecting but it should definitely be looked at as a valiant effort that, while not always 100 percent successful, strived to prove Tennesse proud...and to a certain extent, they succeeded.
