Riedel: Streetcar to take the Broadhurst

[lull89]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 12:06am

Riedel's column is up and at the bottom he says the Blair Underwood Streetcar Named Desire is taking the Broadhurst now that Rebecca's canceled.
Riedel: ‘Sign’ of Prince’s pull

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 12:46am

Will this be one of the rare times a Broadway revival gets Williams' right? (And no imported productions don't count 0

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 6:41am

Does "right" mean definitive? Because I have no objection to an African-American STREETCAR, but I don't know that I would ever consider it definitive. The play is pretty much fueled by competing ethnicities, New South white v. Old South white.

And though of course there were middle-class and educated African-Americans in the post-WWII period, I don't know that they "typified" social movements in the same way indicated by the text. Blanche and Stella grew up in a plantation home that had been in the family for over a century; Blanche has an extended monologue about how the place was lost, piece by piece over many generations. That would simply not be possible for an African-American family in the Deep South in the 1940s.

Again, to be clear: I have no objection. I think a black STREETCAR may be very interesting. I just don't think it can be called "getting Williams right".

(I'm assuming a black Stanley and white Stella/Blanche would be so anachronistic that nobody would try it. If they ignored the historical prohibitions against interracial marriage, the various times Blanche compares Stanley to a monkey would almost certainly lose her the sympathy of most viewers.)

[PlayItAgain]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 7:01am

I think this was a given considering streetcar is like the only show this season still looking for a theater.

Another interesting tidbit is also at the bottom, apparently Little Miss Sunshine is having money problems....

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 9:54am

It's interesting that they push Blair Underwood as the star of this production. Who is playing Blanche? Streetcar is really Blanche's show. You can do the show with a mediocre Stanley, but you have to have an excellent actress playing Blanche. If you don't, the ending falls flat and the whole production misfires.

[showchoirguy]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 10:03am

I wouldn't be surprised if this transfer went through. Is there any other projects that would possibly move into the theatre?

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 10:22am

He just kinda threw that in there at the end, didn't he? Does anyone know anything that confirms this isn't just speculation? Maybe it's because the prospect of this particular production doesn't thrill me personally, but I got wayyyy more excited by the speculation that SONS OF THE PROPHET might move in.

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 12:16pm

Playbill confirmed it this morning: http://playbill.com/news/article/158963-A-Streetcar-Named-Desire-Revival-Will-Play-the-Broadhurst-Theatre

The article also says that Nicole Ari Parker will be playing Blanche and Daphne Rubin-Vega is Stella. They were previously announced, but apparently people forgot.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 1:26pm

I wonder how quickly this is being thrown together. It seems like such an afterthought. But I guess it must not be.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 1:34pm

The production has been 'in development' for a couple of years (and was the main reason why the Cate Blanchett production was not able to transfer to Broadway). Most of the cast has been attached for several months, so it's probably less thrown together than it might appear.

[newintown]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 1:38pm

"Will this be one of the rare times a Broadway revival gets Williams' right?"

No.

Updated On: 1/25/12 at 01:38 PM

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 1:53pm

You can do the show with a mediocre Stanley, but you have to have an excellent actress playing Blanche.

Word.

It's my favorite play, but alas, I've never seen a really good Stanley outside of the film. Blair Underwood doesn't "scream" Stanley to me at first mention, but he's talented and I haven't seen everything he's done. Maybe he'll be excellent.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 1:58pm

My only potential misgivings about the casting is that aside from Daphne Rubin Vega, none of the leads appear to have any significant stage experience and of course STREETCAR is a pretty ambitious project to cut your theatre chops on.

It may not be a definitive production, but it will at the very least be intriguing to see what the non traditional casting brings to the material.

[AC126748]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 1:59pm

Joel Edgerton, who played Stanley opposite Blanchett, was an amazing Stanley: virile, sexy, dangerous. You completely understood why Stella fell in love with him and why Blanche was attracted/repelled. (He's cast as Tom in the Baz Luhrmann GATSBY).

Underwood's nearly fifty, which is the biggest hurdle for me right now. And he's always had something of a nice-guy persona, even when playing the villain. I feel like they could have done better.

As far as I can tell, this is Parker's first professional stage role. She was excellent in a movie she did about twenty years ago, playing a privileged young black woman who falls in love with a poor white lesbian (can't remember the title), but she's mostly done TV since then. Her husband was the actor who replaced Terrence Howard in CAT, so she's obviously connected to the producers. I was hoping for Sanaa Lathan personally.

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 2:06pm

Parker graduated from Tisch. That gives me some hope.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 2:11pm

Michael Bennett, Blanchett and her husband's commitments to the Sydney Theatre Company and her packed film schedule had a lot more to do with why that Liv Ullmann production of STREETCAR didn't transfer than this revival being in the works, not to mention that Blanchett went on the record saying she felt no particular inclination to do the show on Broadway anyway.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 2:16pm

The option of moving the production was nonethelesss at least explored for the following season and promptly shot down by the producers of the current revival who held the rights.

[TheHappyPhantom]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 2:56pm

I don't think this show has ANYTHING to do with race. Maybe social status a bit, but it's about the personal story of these characters. Their race shouldn't matter. I'll be happy when productions like this can happen, and we don't' label them "all African American" or "multiracial". If that's all the producers see, that's all the reporters call it, and that's a sad day.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 4:58pm

Underwood seems so miscast and I feel there are like twenty other actresses that I rather see as Blanche, but who knows? Parker might just knock it out of the park, they did cast her for a reason.
Much like Anika Noni Rose was the reason to watch CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, I wonder if Rubin-Vega will become the reason to watch STREETCAR (this reminds me of the last revival where Amy Ryan seemed to walk out unscathed whereas John C. Reilly and Natasha Richardson gave polarizing performances).

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 6:36pm

I don't think this show has ANYTHING to do with race. Maybe social status a bit, but it's about the personal story of these characters. Their race shouldn't matter. I'll be happy when productions like this can happen, and we don't' label them "all African American" or "multiracial". If that's all the producers see, that's all the reporters call it, and that's a sad day.

With all due respect, that's utter nonsense. If you think wealthy black plantation owners had to deal with the decline of the plantation system, then I suspect you went to a public school.

STREETCAR is a realistic-style play that is set in an actual place and a quite specific historical context. There is no "personal story" outside of that context. Stanley is who he is because of history; so are Blanche and Stella. And while race is not the central issue of the play, as with all Southern literature, it lurks in the background.

AESTHETICALLY, there is no difference between an all-black STREETCAR and an all-white PORGY AND BESS. How many of us want to see the latter?

POLITICALLY, of course, there is a huge difference! Because of our terrible tradition of whites playing black characters in blackface while African-Americans were banned from the stage and even the audience. There is no equivalent tradition of black oppression, so all-black productions of plays written for white characters and actors do not offend us, nor should they.

Nobody here has objected to an all-black production. Can we overlook historical fact for this production? Sure. But let's don't pretend that, in general, ignorance of history is some sort of progress or virtue.

If you really want color-blind casting, then dispense with naturalism and realism. But STREETCAR, however poetic, is firmly rooted in the realist tradition.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 1/26/12 at 2:45am

Gaveston, I actually wasn't even thinking of the racial issue. It's hard with most of Williams' plays because of what you say--so while I kinda dislike "all Black" productions for a variety of reasons, I guess it makes sense. By "right" I meant a more vague "a production that works". Williams is my favorite playwright (although Streetcar not at the top of his plays for me), but for every revival (or sometimes even original production) that "works" there seem to be 10 that simply seem to "not get it". So yes, that's not very specific of me, but...

(Speaking of, is the Sweet Bird of Youth revival still in talks whatsoever? I know Franco has 623 projects on the go at the moment...)

As for the issue of race, it's always a complex issue. I think Streetcar works best as it was intended with Kazan--a "semi-realistic" play. But a mixed race cast may still be too much for most audiences. However I don't think it's correct to say it's not at all about race--anyone who's read Williams' or Kazan's notes on the work (or the fascinating book about all four major Williams/Kazan productions, how much Kazan shaped the writing, etc) knows that's simply not true, even if it's not blatant or one of the major themes.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 1/26/12 at 9:11am

I think what's potentially kind of intriguing about the inter-racial casting is that while Parker is African-American, she is very light skin and will probably look, as I imagine will also Daphne Rubin Vega, somewhat creole which is somewhat interesting given the Louisiana setting of the play.

There were a number of pretty significant sugar plantations on the Mississippi border that were owned by French-Creole planters (Oak Alley Plantation, Laura Plantation).

So its somewhat in the realm of possibility that a French-Creole Blanche and Stella DuBois could conceivably have 'lost' a family mansion like Belle Reve.

I agree at the end of the day, historically its probably a stretch, but Williams was in favor of actors of color playing his works, and I think as a theatrical experiment, for a play as oft revived as STREETCAR is in New York, it will be exciting to see what the play is like when cast with multi-racial actors.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 1/26/12 at 3:21pm

Michael, technically "creole" means of European descent, so French-creole ownership of Southern plantations doesn't necessarily mean multi-racial.

But I see the term was sometimes used somewhat differently in Louisiana, so perhaps there were black people who owned plantations between 1865 and 1945. But whether it is technically possible for Belle Rive to be owned by African-Americans isn't really the point, in my view.

To me, the point is the social class that Blanche and Stella represent. If they are black or of mixed race, then I'm not convinced that Stella's union with Stanley represents quite the calamity that Blanche sees it to be. (Yes, I know distinctions were made between light-skinned and black-skinned individuals, but now we're getting into technical areas not supported by the text.)

But I agree that as a theatrical experiment, it may prove interesting. And I certainly agree that this won't be the last production of the play, so what's the harm? My original point was only that I wouldn't call this production "definitive."

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 1/26/12 at 3:29pm

I did mean to infer creole as 'multi-racial' - there were as you say a fair number of wealthy mixed race plantation owners in that region, so truly its conceivable Blanche and Stella aren't lily white.

I agree that the stretch in terms of plausibility is more likely with having black actors as Mitch and Stanley (in terms of him being a 'dirty Polak') and it will be interesting to see how that is treated in this revival.

An online article entitled "Williams in Ebony: Black and mutli-racial productions of STREETCAR" mentions the planned 1958 revival for Off Broadway that was to feature a "mixed race Creole" Blanche and Stella opposite black actors as Stanley and Mitch. The production was going to use some re-writes to make the roles fit this ethnic casting.

The production was cancelled, but it would be interesting if this production was using some kind of text that Williams had himself approved for multi-ethnic casting.

[AC126748]

Posted: 1/26/12 at 3:31pm

But I agree that as a theatrical experiment, it may prove interesting. And I certainly agree that this won't be the last production of the play, so what's the harm? My original point was only that I wouldn't call this production "definitive."

Gaveston, I'm still trying to figure out how you got "definitive" out of the original poster's wonderings of whether this production would "get it right." Surely a production can do right by the text, the performances, and the author's intentions and yet not be--or not even try to be--definitive. It strikes me as a logical leap and a false premise to equate the two. I think Liv Ullmann's production with Cate Blanchett "got it right," but I'd hardly call anything but the original the definitive production in this case. Could you say more, maybe, about how you linked the two terms?

Personally, I'm interested in this production because Emily Mann is a skilled director, and I'm intrigued by the performances of Parker and Rubin-Vega. Underwood seems miscast and too old, but as others have said, STREETCAR lives or dies on Blanche, and Parker could surprise us all.