STREETCAR Returning to Broadway in Spring? — Page 4

"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. "

When was it kept within the genre of realism? Certainly not in Kazan's version (a man who worked in realism quite a lot otherwise).

Parker's husband, Boris Kodjoe, replaced Terence Howard in Boyett's production of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, so perhaps he has a relationship with the family. Personally, I wouldn't want to make my stage debut in one of the most iconic roles in the American canon, but more power to her.

I was really hoping for Sanaa Lathan, though.

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If I can't have Blanchett in Ullman's fantastic production, I'll take Underwood on one condition.

CAST LYNN WHITFIELD AS BLANCHE!!!!

Lynn Whitfield is nearing sixty, Henrik. A fifty year old Stanley and sixty year old Blanche would certainly make for a production interesting for reasons other than color blind casting.

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...because the folks producing it want it to be?

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Rose was never attached. Underwood made an off-hand comment that he wanted Sanaa Lathan to play Blanche and Rose to play Stella, but that was it. She was never seen for the role, and never agreed to play any role. Producers who touted her name were engaging in some wishful thinking.

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Updated On: 8/5/11 at 10:17 PM

Anika may have been offered the role without an audition--it's very possible, considering that she was Maggie for the same producers--but she never accepted and was never officially or unofficially attached.

Viola would be great. Sanaa was the person I had envisioned from the beginning, and I'd still love to see her do it at some point. I'm not really familiar with Parker, but it seems like she has little-to-no stage experience. It's pretty ballsy to make your stage debut as Blanche DuBois. I wish her well.

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You were probably confused by the fact that she won a Tony for playing a 16-year-old when she was 32. She's always looked young.

AC126748, Anika was attached to this production. As I said, it was being touted as a vehicle for her and Blair Underwood when the producing team was raising money for it last year.

Once the funding came into place and the actual dates became apparent, film and television commitments prevented her from remaining involved, as has happened with several of the stage projects she's been attached to over the last few years.

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Updated On: 8/6/11 at 10:56 AM

I think having older actors play those roles works better today, as nowadays we don't look at a 30 year old woman as being past her prime and not marriageable. And somehow the idea of Blanche having gone over the edge mentally makes mores sense in an older, rather than younger woman.

I don't know why some people think Blair Underwood isn't "masculine" enough to play Stanley. Just because the man is well-groomed and has played slick roles, such as on L.A. Law, doesn't mean he can't play a working class man.

Although I like Anika, I wasn't thrilled with her Maggie the Cat, and see her more as Stella than Blanche.

While it would probably work better if Stanley, Blanche and Stella are all black, I don't see why some of the other characters couldn't be of other ethnicities. Isn't one of the poker players named Pablo? The neighbor woman who brings the grapes from the French Market? Maybe even Mitch, although I'd like to see a black Mitch.

I would have no problem with a black Stanley being called a "Pollack." Marlon Brando was not Polish and Jessica Tandy and Vivian Leigh were not Southern.

Actually, the Streetcar I'd really like to see is the one that appears in Almodovar's All About My Mother--with the characters Huma Rojo, Manuela and Mario.

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