Glass Menagerie Reviews — Page 3

"...dementedly pathetic and more than a little retarded"

Margo, that just made me want to rush down to the box office.

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Margo - would you forecast that this show meets an early closing on account of the negative reviews?

I'm with ya Matt G -- lets go to the box office right now!

Sounds perfect.

Let's see what happens at the box office in the next two or three weeks before making any forecasts about an early closing. I think it's still breaking even. As long as attendance doesn't start dipping into the 40s and 50s, it should be able to run through July.

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USA Today gives it Two-and-a-half stars:

"Christian Slater, a late replacement for Dallas Roberts, captures Tom's frustration but fails to convey his sensitivity. Best known for hip films such as Heathers and True Romance, Slater projects too much of a snide, smart-alecky quality to make Tom's more tender and complex feelings toward Amanda and Laura convincing.

The leading ladies fare better. Sarah Paulson is a revelation as Laura, as heartbreaking in her shyness and lack of self-regard as she is radiant in her generosity. In her key scene with the Gentleman Caller whom Amanda hopes will spirit Laura away to a normal — i.e., married — life, Paulson manages to seem at once angelic and painfully human. As her reluctant suitor, Josh Lucas is a fitting foil, his glibness gradually melting under her guileless warmth.

Lange, whose Blanche garnered mixed reviews, seems committed to and at ease with Amanda's quirks and contradictions. We see her selfishness and her sacrifices, her ideals and obsessions in all their tragic, ridiculous and admirable intensity.

Tom may be the semiautobiographical figure, but as usual, it's Williams' women who lead us to the meat of his work. Luckily, this Menagerie boasts a pair that aren't afraid to dig in and get their hands dirty."

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Theatremania is downright vicious towards Lange:

"The Glass Menagerie initially astonished Broadway first-nighters on March 31, 1945, almost exactly 60 years ago. Theatergoers who saw the work during the premiere run are still talking in reverent tones about Laurette Taylor's performance as Amanda Wingfield, the fading Southern belle who's trying to do right by her adult son and daughter in limited circumstances and with painfully alienating maternal strategies.

In the introduction to the published script, Tennessee Williams -- who put himself on the map as a major metropolis with this play -- referred to Taylor's "extraordinary power." During the section of Rick McKay's Broadway: The Golden Age that's devoted to Taylor, a number of still-awed professionals fumble around trying to explain what made her Amanda Wingfield such an unforgettable portrait. The best that one of them can do is to say that Taylor didn't seem so much to be acting as to have miraculously become a real Amanda who had wandered in off the street.

Playing the now-classic character, Jessica Lange also seems to have wandered in off the street, direct from an acting class presided over by a proponent of the François Delsarte method of indicating techniques. Whereas Taylor mavens exult six decades later, patrons exposed to Lange's interpretation are likely to discuss it for at most an hour and then put it behind them as a forgivable lapse in a largely distinguished career. After all, Lange has already done reputable turns on Broadway as Blanche DuBois in Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire (which I didn't see) and in London's West End as Mary Tyrone in Long Day's Journey Into Night (which I did see and thought intelligent work despite her Katharine Hepburn intonations). As Amanda, however, Lange is stumped. Every movement she makes -- constantly fluttering her hands up to her cheeks, for instance -- looks as if it's been plotted on a chart that she keeps in her dressing room. She gives the impression of having decided during rehearsals how she should inflect each word, including "and," "but," and "the." The Southern accent she uses could be lifted from the How to Do Tennessee Williams handbook. It's as if she applies the role from the outside, along with her make-up and David Brian Brown's red wig."
http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/5803

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Clive Barnes gives it Three stars. I don't think any of us were expecting that at this point.


New York Post Review

It should be interesting with these bad reviews to see how the nominations for lead actress now shape up for the always political, producer-driven Tony Awards. Can they really nominate Lange given these reviews? I would doubt it. Looks like the field -- aside from Turner, Jones, Rashad, Richardson (likely) --has opened for another name -- my guess would be either Laura Linney or Mary Louise Parker. Perhaps Leslie Uggams since the show will be up and running, unlike the other two. If Lange is nominated, though, it proves the cynical view of the Tony Awards as just a means to boost box office.

I am so disappointed. TGM is one of my all time favorite plays and I was so looking forward to this revival. I will still see it though. I just won't be willing to pay full price.

Yeah, yeah, let's hear it for ugly f**ks; I mean, who among us hasn't had 'em? 'Course, one man's ugly f**k is another's fantasy. Thank God, or nobody'd get l**d.

Actually, another thread made me think of a non-traditional Stanley, away from the buff Brando mold, that might be easier to swallow (!) ... Michael Chiklis.

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Updated On: 3/23/05 at 12:00 PM