Is Cate B. way better than Vivien Leigh was in STREETCAR?

[thtrbear]

Posted: 12/3/09 at 5:11pm

Am looking for good excuses not to go see Cate at BAM (gut level- sold out, hard to get a cheap ticket, not all that interested) and I tell myself Leigh and Jessica Lange are supposed to be really good in their films of STREETCAR. In fact I'm not nuts about the play in the first place and I'm sure the guy at BAM isn't as good as Brando. But I do hope it moves to Broadway where it would be less crazy to get a ticket for a 3 month run.

What do YOU think about this?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/3/09 at 5:13pm

I think I regret opening this thread.

[tazber]

Posted: 12/3/09 at 5:19pm

I think the definitive Blanche can only be played by either Tommy Wiseau or Rosanne Barr.

[Pgenre]

Posted: 12/3/09 at 5:21pm

I thought Rue McClanahan was the definitive Blanche?



P

[tazber]

Posted: 12/3/09 at 5:26pm

Or maybe Brett Butler

[littlepaperstars]

Posted: 12/3/09 at 5:53pm

Why would you buy a ticket to a nearly sold out show you're "not all that interested in"? Just leave the seat to someone who REALLY wants to be there.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 12/3/09 at 6:01pm

Speaking of the Dixie Chicks, I think Betty White would make an excellent Blanche.

[dayao]

Posted: 12/3/09 at 6:01pm

Probably not, but Leigh's performance is recorded for posterity and Cate's is for now, live, in the moment, and that should be enough reason to be excited about seeing one of today's finest actresses in her interpretation of the role.

[MusicSnob1]

Posted: 12/3/09 at 6:10pm

I honestly question why some people are allowed to reproduce. And I'm not being snarky - I'm being completely sincere and genuine.

You sound like Winston. Why are you making a whole thread about it, thus clogging the board, when you clearly have already made up your mind?!?!

Think for yourself and use your head. G'Damn.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 12/3/09 at 9:01pm

VERY biased opinion from this corner, but nobody could ever be a better Blanche than beautiful Vivien.

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 12/3/09 at 9:07pm

No. Nowhere near.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 12/3/09 at 9:08pm

Well lets just say people seem to like Blanchett's portrayal better than that of Natasha Richardson, Rachel Weisz, Glenn Close and Blythe Danner, who are all the recent performers to have done the role on stage in major revival.

That in itself seems to make this a must see event. I for one hope I can score a ticket!
Updated On: 12/3/09 at 09:08 PM

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 12/3/09 at 9:56pm

I saw the show in D.C. It is a slightly different portrayal of Blanche and she is WONDERFUL. Go see her if you can get a ticket you will either love her portrayal or hate it, but you will have passionate feelings which is one thing every audience member should pray happens after every performance.

[Mr. de Winters]

Posted: 12/3/09 at 10:19pm

I'd love to have the chance to see Blanchett in the role... she's one of my favorite actresses. Although I must say no one will ever compare with Vivien Leigh. The one other Blanche I'd kill to see, other than Vivien is definitely Uta Hagen. When I heard she had done the road show in the 1950s, I just about died. Why was I born about 40 years after?

[April Saul]

Posted: 12/3/09 at 11:56pm

I think I bought a ticket to this at the exact moment they went on sale, although I stopped short of joining BAM to get an even better seat. But I've never seen any production of Streetcar, so it was a no-brainer to try to see Blanchett do it. I think, though, that you sound too ambivalent to spend the hundred bucks or so it would take to see it; maybe you should hold on to your money for something you feel strongly about?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/4/09 at 7:56am

How much "better" than Vivien Leigh would Cate Blanchett have to be in order to induce you to buy a ticket?

How do you measure "way better"?

[Q]

Posted: 12/4/09 at 8:27am

And nary a mention of Jessica Tandy . . .

I wish I could see this simply to erase from my mind the memory of the Studio 54 revival that drove me screaming from the theater at intermission with a splitting headache.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/4/09 at 10:31am

I saw Rosemary Harris play Blanche beautifully at Lincoln Center when I was in college. James Farentino played Stanley, and he was very sexy.

Then I saw it at the McCarter Theater with Shirley Knight as extremely mentally ill Blanche. A very, very young Glenn Close played Stella. No one even noticed the Stanley.

Updated On: 12/4/09 at 10:31 AM

[Pgenre]

Posted: 12/4/09 at 9:11pm

I'm sorry but Ann-Margret owns Blanche for me. I know that may be an unpopular opinion, but I thought she was divine.

P
Updated On: 12/4/09 at 09:11 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/4/09 at 10:07pm

I much prefer Ann-Margret as an interpreter of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oPY4mnWY7Q

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/5/09 at 11:59am

I can't wait to see the show next week. I bought tickets the second they went on sale as well becuase I knew this would happen with her return to the stage.

And count me in as someone who desperately needs to erase that Roundabout production from my memory. Next year they're doing "Long Day's Journey" with Keenan Thompson, , Christopher Lloyd, Zak Efron and Melanie Griffith.

[Brick]

Posted: 12/5/09 at 12:37pm

Is there any talk of this moving? I can't imagine the money people not circling the production....

[Kad]

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

I'd doubt any sort of major move, considering Blanchett's position as a highly sought film actress.

[GatorNY]

Posted: 12/5/09 at 12:48pm

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 hadnâ??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.
--------------------------------------------------------
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.

Updated On: 12/5/09 at 12:48 PM