Will and Jada Pinkett Smith to star in STREETCAR??

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 9:14am

Maybe. I wonder who will play Blanche?

Also, Patti LaBelle will fill in for Lillias White in Fela! in September.



http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/theater/will_to_make_it_on_way_Shgkn0W5A4N4bQnywb6LWK

[Tom1071]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 9:26am

That's a pretty amusing story about Lauren Bacall and Vanessa Redgrave.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 9:29am

What an awful night of theatre that would be! The smith's would find a way to add that horrible child in as well.

Woild rather see the Sydney Theatre Company production open.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 9:40am

The Vanessa Redgrave story reeks of bullsh*t.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 9:50am

She is too butch, and he is not butch enough.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 10:02am

This STREETCAR will probably come to fruition but the brilliant, nearly flawless Blanchett production will probably never come to Broadway. I'm pissed. Here's hoping this production is good but I highly doubt it'll come anywhere near the Blanchett production.

The LaBelle news is exciting though.
Updated On: 7/16/10 at 10:02 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 10:17am

I really wish Streetcar along with Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, Guys & Dolls, and Gypsy would go on a shortlist of shows NOT to revive again for a quarter century.

Enough already.

Find another play.

[newintown]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 10:24am

I'm with you on that at least, best 12.

[newintown]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 10:31am

Following this subtly disturbing trend of African-American productions of old white plays:

Bill Cosby and Cicely Tyson in Death of a Salesman
Ice T and Beyonce in Pygmalion
Bernie Mac and Janet Jackson in Night of the Iguana
Lola Falana and David Allan Grier in Gone With the Wind (the Harold Rome musical, of course)

[Calvin]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 11:00am

They'll have to hire a necromancer to direct one of those!

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 11:02am

newintown, Bernie Mac passed away last year.

[newintown]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 11:03am

Oh. Right. Sorry.

How about re-casting with Cedric the Entertainer? (He's still with us, isn't he?)

[jv92]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 11:09am

Dear God, NO!

[Edna Turnblad]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 11:14am

I remember reading about it, but I can't remember: Why didn't the other Streetcar come to Broadway? I'm racking my brain, and it's just coming to me.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 11:40am

But how brilliant would Morgan Freeman and Cicely Tyson as James and Mary with Forest Whitaker and Don Cheadle as James, Jr. and Edmund be in LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT?

[matty159]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 12:41pm

WOSQ - Those were my thoughts exactly!

I don't know what it is about her, but there has always been something about Jada Pinkett Smith that has rubbed me the wrong way (her Tony gown included).

That being said, it will be a cash cow if it comes to fruition.

[mallardo]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 12:47pm

The scientologist crowd will show up.

[Q]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 12:53pm

I didn't see CAT, but two different friends (independently of each other) referred to it as a "minstrel show".

I didn't question them, but also didn't really understand the comment - anyone who did see it have any insight?

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 12:55pm

What a gimmick, I have no problem with an all-black production of this play, I recently saw a production where Stella was played by an African-American actress and Blanche played by a white actress and though this particular production was atrocious, I could see how that would work. An interracial STREETCAR might be more interesting than an all-black STREETCAR, but still. I just can't imagine Pinkett-Smith being any good, and Will Smith is too vanilla for Stanley, Denzel would be far more interesting in the role and still not the perfect choice. I'd love to see Anika Noni Rose play Stella, it sucks that they picked Halle Berry over her to star in THE MOUNTAINTOP, Berry is a terrible actress and I can just imagine her getting lost on stage.
Who will play Blanche though?

[mallardo]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 12:56pm

My comment is your friends sound like racists. I saw it in London and liked it a lot. James Earl Jones was wonderful.

[Q]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 12:58pm

Mallardo - in one instance, I'm sure they are - the other would surprise me.

And, for the record, 'friend' is used generically to indicate someone I interact with on a regular basis - but neither have ever been invited to our home!

[newintown]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 1:01pm

Q, I have non-racist friends who had the same reaction - one of them thought they re-wrote parts of the play (although I don't believe that happened).

[Brick]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 1:01pm

It makes me sad the Williams' estate isn't more picky. While the former estate holder was extremely protective of his material, the current ones show no discrimination. If it's a big production, then sure, go ahead!

And, in theory, this could be something wonderful: the estate could be licensing productions to truly innovative and daring productions the former estate never would have approved of. But instead there's miscasting like this...

At least it's Emily Mann directing and not Debbie Allen.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 1:22pm

I believe James Earl Jones headed an all-black cast of The Cherry Orchard for Joe Papp back in the 70s. The reviews for the production were good.

I see no reason why an all-black cast would not work for any number of plays with no script changes. I do wonder about the plays of Tennessee Williams which are often Southern-specific and time period specific.

Big Daddy in Cat is a wealthy landowner in Mississippi in the 1950s. How did he get this land and more importantly givern the time and place, how was he allowed to keep it?

Streetcar works a bit better, but still someone had to get the land that Blanche has lost. In postwar 1940s (and really post WWI) Louisiana that really wouldn't have happened. The family, even if they owned the land in the first place, would have lost it by force if necessary, a long time ago.

However my biggest problem here is these two stars. I don't think the Smiths have the chops for Stanley and Blanche. He has no danger and she has no vulnerability.

Long Day's Journey would sort of work, but bear in mind that the time period would make James Tyrone, Sr. a star on the chitlin circuit, not the main theatres in North America. I think James Earl Jones did play James Tyrone somewhere, but I wouldn't bet on it.

All of these plays are about the family dynamic and not about being Black in America.

[kidbroadway2]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 2:05pm

I'm sorry but as a massive Will Smith fan, this show would be an utter failure. Jada would be fine, because the role suits her but Will cannot play this type of character. He imo did not deliver when playing the masculine force of nature they call ALI and is much better suited for the goofy stuff we know, or the rags to riches story. Will Smith could not play Stanley. I'm sorry this is just ridiculous.