A few comments on STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/5/09 at 6:43pm

A rather slow-moving production, but when lightning strikes, boy does it strike. The three leads (Cate Blanchette and the Stanley/Stella, I don't have the program near by) are dynamite. As for Blanchette, you can't take your eyes off her.

4 standing ovations given today, almost instantaneously after the blackout. I'd say they were well deserved.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/5/09 at 6:45pm

I can't wait to see this next week. I know what you mean about not being able to take your eyes off of her. When I saw her HEDDA GABLER, I don't think I blinked once.

[nlm]

Posted: 12/5/09 at 7:07pm

You'd think after all these years people would be able to spell Cate's surname. :)

Edgerton and McLeavy hold their own against her. Saw this at the STC a few months ago now. McLeavy is actually growing as a performer with each production she does, so it's great that international audiences get to see her in this as well as her new film The Loved Ones (which is doing the festivals circuit).

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 12/5/09 at 7:35pm

I saw this last night, I really enjoyed myself, but I still haven't regained sensation in my legs. BAM has to have the worst leg room situation of any theater I've ever been in. I'm thankful the lady next to me who had the aisle seat decided to turn her entire body into the aisle during the second act, so that I could stretch out my right leg.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 12/5/09 at 7:38pm

I'm going on Thursday and can't wait! Anyone have any idea how the rear mezzanine seats are?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/5/09 at 7:40pm

Rear Mezz isn't bad at that theatre. I've sat there many times.

[DivaBrigader]

Posted: 12/5/09 at 9:10pm

Oooh, do I get to be that annoying person who asks what the stagedoor is like, where it is, if Blanchett signs, if she does pics and what the security is like? Scooooore!

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 12/5/09 at 11:35pm

The Harvey stage door is around the other side of the building. Just go out the main entrance and walk around the building. When I saw Ian McKellen in KING LEAR, there was a barricade with a little tent set up so he could sign and smoke without getting mobbed.

No idea if they have the same set-up for Cate, but I'd imagine so. If she even signs, which I don't know.

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 12/6/09 at 12:24am

If anyone needs a date, I promise I'm really funny and won't make you pay for dinner. I just want to see this, desperately.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 12/6/09 at 7:51pm

I didn't check out the stage door - I almost did, but it was cold and windy.

But WOW. What a performance. She was incredible. As someone who hasn't really had any exposure to this show - never read it or saw the movie - I was so into it. It was so beautifully acted and I thought all three of the leads were great. Watching Cate unravel was incredible. I'm still trying to sort through all the moments in the play.

The set was kind of interesting. I mean, it was pretty basic, and I'm not sure what the point of the big grey wall was to indicate? Also, during some of the final moments there would be a character in the upstairs window, and I didn't quite figure out if that was suppose to indicate anything.

Anyways, def. go see it.

I sat in Row F of the rear Gallery. My ticket labeled "partial view," but I could see everything. I'm not sure why it was considered partial view, but I had no problems and I didn't feel too far away or anything. The seats are weird but I was so into it, I didn't care.

[GatorNY]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 11:25am

I was lucky to have a coworker who got an email offering tickets to the benefit on Thursday night 12/3. I would say to ANYONE that this is a NO Brainer and that if you can get a ticket, do whatever you can to secure your seat. We were in the gallery and I was blown away. If it felt like it did where we were, I can only imagine what it was like in the orchestra. I think Brantley said that Liv took the piece and tried to do it as if it hadn't been done before and it shows. There was laughter in places where there had not been laughter before, and some things that happen during act 3 were played much differently then I had seen before. I have seen it in 3 acts with brief intermission between each act, but they have merged it into 2 halves with only 1 intermission.
Cate has really done HER OWN Blanche and she is able to be fragile one moment and totally bombastic in the next.
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Spoiler alert (well sort of)
I have remembered the climax of the whole piece pretty much being when Stanley takes her and says that they've had their date from the beginning. Here, the climax is when Blanche is taken away. It was so powerful that intense that I felt myself short of breath and starting to tear up.
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Stella and Stanley were superb as well. Joel Edgerton was very primitive and overtly sexual and masculine. He had a laugh that was almost like an audible sort of master gesture. It was sort of creepy. At the end there were at least 4 curtain calls, and immediate standing ovation, which were well deserved.
My previous pinnacle experience of this play had been Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange in 1992. This production now stands at the top in my opinion.