STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring? — Page 2

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#26

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 2:44pm

When this production was being shopped to investors back in the spring, Anika Noni Rose was indeed attached to play Blanche opposite Underwood.

Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.

#27

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 2:45pm

RuPaul as Blanche?

#28

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 2:54pm

So a 36-year-old (Anika), who can still convincingly play 20 on stage is going to play past-her-prime Blanche, opposite a 46-year-old Stanley who (at best) looks 36?

That's messed up. And it's going to look foolish in the context of this play.

OBC ages:

Marlon Brando - 23
Jessica Tandy - 38
Kim Hunter - 25

Movie ages:

Marlon Brando - 27
Vivien Leigh - 38
Kim Hunter - 29

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

Updated On: 6/16/11 at 02:54 PM

#29

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 2:56pm

I think they were suggesting Anika for Stella.

#30

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 2:58pm

Not according to somethingwicked's post above.

But I hope you're right.

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

#31

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 2:59pm

"In 20 years I would kill to see Carrie as Blanche."

People seem to forget Tennessee Williams wrote Streetcar with the intentions that Stella is 25 and Blanche "about 5 years older". Brando was 24 when he created the role of Stanley. I really would love to see an age appropriate production! The characters keep getting older and older every time it's revived.

#32

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 3:00pm

Oh that's how I took it. I want Anika for Stella and Thandie for Blanche.

Oh, and Malcolm Jamal Warner as Mitch.

#33

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 3:00pm

"The characters keep getting older and older every time it's revived."

^ Exactly. And age has a lot to do with the characters and how they behave in this play, even if race doesn't.

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

Updated On: 6/16/11 at 03:00 PM

#34

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 3:05pm

Hey, I played Mitch in a 1979 regional production -- and I am still available. Yeah, Hey Mr. Producer, I'm talkin to you sir!

Maybe I could play UNCLE Mitch.

#35

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 3:05pm

Thandie Newton is 38 and reads younger, but I think she could pull it off, if they're considering her. She's the right type for Blanche. And Anika reads much younger on stage, too. I just wish they'd have a younger Stanley.

Blair's got his work cut out for him.

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

Updated On: 6/16/11 at 03:05 PM

#36

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 3:32pm

I agree with those who say Anika is much more appropriate for Stella than Blanche, but, as I said, when Stephen Byrd's office was trying to raise money for the show in the spring, they were telling people she was attached to play Blanche (this was also why I was told she wasn't moving forward with ON A CLEAR DAY...)

She hasn't followed through with any of the recent theatrical projects she's been attached to in the last few years because of film and television commitments, so who knows if she'll even be available anymore, but she certainly was involved then.

Updated On: 6/16/11 at 03:32 PM

#37

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 3:45pm

The playbill article says this will be a multiracial production which really opens the casting up.

#38

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 4:02pm

The idea of this production being multiracial is ridiculous and completely period-inauthentic.

Rose royally botched Maggie, so I'd like to keep her as far away from this production as possible. Sanaa Lathan would be an ideal Blanche.

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

#39

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 4:17pm

"The playbill article says this will be a multiracial production which really opens the casting up."

Well, I totally missed that, too, and you're right, it does.

"The idea of this production being multiracial is ridiculous and completely period-inauthentic."

Yes, they used to hang people for that, not to mention that it was actually illegal in many southern states for multi-racial couples to marry.

But there is nothing in the actual plot of the play that is race-related. Age, sexual prowess, sexual peak, etc., is the name of the game. It's "A Streetcar Named Desire," not "A Streetcar Named Miscegenation."

So, while age could be a problem in how these characters relate to each other on stage, race is really not the issue, other than from a basic historical POV.

By the way, are we sure they're keeping the play set in the '40s or '50s? Maybe they've moved the year.

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

#40

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 4:23pm

Yes, but the time period in which the play takes place is so important and central to the play that it makes no sense to even consider it. As an interracial couple, Stanley and Stella would never be accepted in working-class 1940s New Orleans. And Blanche would certainly never live under the same roof as her sister and her black husband, or dangerously flirt with him. It just doesn't work at all.

And trying to do this play as anything but a period piece is similarly ridiculous.

#41

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 4:32pm

I was hoping at some point that Elisabeth Moss would play Stella.

If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.

#42

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 4:36pm

"And trying to do this play as anything but a period piece is similarly ridiculous."

I didn't say it was a good idea, I just was wondering if they were attempting to update the setting.

The Tenessee Williams language is definitely a product of its time.

Hey, maybe they'll have Blanche, white, and Stella asian, and really mix things up.

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

#43

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 4:37pm

Christina Hendricks as Blanche, please.

#44

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 4:40pm

I would guess they'll keep the three main characters in the Kowalski/Duboise household of the same race...otherwise, it opens up a sh*t-ton of issues of domestic violence amongst interracial couples that could possibly overwhelm the piece. I imagine, though, that many of the other characters, including Mitch, could be played by people of various ethnicities.

#45

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 4:40pm

Let's really rock the house y'all.

Stanley - Blair Underwear
Blanche - Joan Chen
Stella - Rita Moreno
Mitch - Harvey Fierstein

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

#46

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 4:41pm

I think it works for the cast to be a bit older than they were--just because modern conceptions of age are so different (I saw a surprisingly good version locally with Thea Gill of Queer as Folk "fame", with a friend who had no knowledge of the play, and he couldn't get over how Blanche in her mid 30s was basically past her prime).

I'm more worried about the director--why are Tenn Williams' plays so repeatedly poorly revived on Broadway? It feels like they should be almost fool proof--but then I feel the same way about Sondheim (obviously I'm not counting the Cate Streetcar cuz that was an import :P )

#47

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 4:41pm

It's a shame Pat Morita has passed away. I always saw him as Stanley.

#48

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 6:06pm

I'm thinking

Tony Danza - Stanley
Sophia Loren - Blanche
Betty White - Stella
Tom Hanks - Mitch

If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.

#49

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 6:10pm

The last production of Streetcar that I saw was also muli-racial. It was an interesting experiment. But if you are keeping the play within the genre of realism, you need to stick with traditional casting. Stanley's Polish heritage is mentioned several times, and Blanche, and therefore Stella, would probably also be white given the setting and time. However, I'm all for taking a non-realsm approach, especially since if someone wants to see a traditional Streetcar, they can order one of at least two film versions on Netflix.

BTW, it is Mitch who shines the lamp on Blanche's face (I think).

#50

STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring with Underwood?

Posted: 6/16/11 at 6:14pm

Well anything has to be better than the Roundabout revival. John C Reilly was so beyond miscast it was a joke and Richardson (rest her soul) had no grasp on what a Southern woman was. It was 3 excruciating hours.

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