How many Tennessee Williams plays have you seen?- Page 2

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 3:09pm

This is anal of me, but of course One Arm was adapted from the short story by Kaufman--Williams never wrote a play from his short story (although I believe he considered adapting it into a screenplay which, given the times, seems like a very unrealistic plan.)

AJH, I'd love to hear more about which of those many UK productions of each show you preferred. I'm also surprised you dislike Suddenly Last Summer so much--as I said, I saw the Diana Rigg production in London and loved it (though admittedly, aside from Rigg, perhaps the most striking thing about the production was the set which kinda opened up like a huge Faberge egg.) The BBC filmed did a TV adaptation of the Richard Eyre directed London production with Maggie Smith and Natasha Richardson which is well worth seeking out (I believe it's part of a DVD set of Smith TV performances)--the Liz Taylor film which was adapted by Gore Vidal (who also adapted the interesting, and pretty obscure Last of the Mobile Hot Shots, the film version of Kingdom of Earth/Seven Descents of Myrtle) is more faithful in tone than many of the censored Williams' film adaptations but, like many of them, is frustrating due to having such iconic performances, but having to have been so censored and re-written for the screen, although I still think Brooks' adaptations of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Sweet Bird of Youth are the biggest examples of this.

It's interesting that it seems like in the past couple of decades, the recent Glass Menagerie being an exception (as well as the BAM Streetcar, though that was an import, I believe,) London has had more success with Williams' revivals than Broadway where many of the revivals of his big plays seem to have had major issues with them. I did like what I heard and read of the recent Chicago Sweet Bird of Youth with Diane Lane and Finn Whitrock and hoped there might have been a chance for it to have a limited run on Broadway.

Curtain PullDowner, your post got me interesting in reading more about Mme. Lemonde. You may have seen these, but there's an interesting article from a Williams magazine about the play here http://www.tennesseewilliamsstudies.org/archives/2001/3kolin.pdf and a review of that production the youtube clip advertises here http://artsfuse.org/2493/theater-review-the-remarkable-rooming-house-of-tennessee-williams/

Updated On: 7/21/14 at 03:09 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 3:13pm

WOSQ-- you mentioned The Fugitive Kind, Sidney Lumet's film adaptation. I want to like it more than I do--the cast seems ideal (Marlon Brando, and Anna Magnani who essentially the revised play was written for, apparently.) But, as Williams lamented, Brando was at a stage in his career where he resented scripts and he improvises, drops, and changes much of Williams' best dialogue, apparently Magnani had a lot of trouble with the English as well, and they hated each other. It still is worth seeing, but I find the TV version of Peter Hall's revival with Redgrave (which was just released to DVD,) much more satisfying even with a few odd tv-movie touches.

Updated On: 7/21/14 at 03:13 PM

[After Eight]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 3:15pm

"while it could be seen as Williams' attempting Neil Simon style comedy."

Period of Adjustment Broadway premiere: November, 1960.

Neil Simon's first Broadway play: Come Blow Your Horn. Broadway premiere: February, 1961.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 3:30pm

Yep--I am aware. It was a poor choice of names--but I stand by many seeming to think it belongs more in the Neil Simon style of comedy play--I just wasn't able to think of another playwright's name. I didn't mean to imply that Williams was inspired by Simon (because, as you say, how could he be.)

[Gothampc]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 3:34pm

Has Judy Parfitt ever done a Williams play? I think she would be brilliant. Maybe as Violet Venable or Alexandra Del Lago?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 3:38pm

"Neil Simon's first Broadway play: Come Blow Your Horn. Broadway premiere: February, 1961."

Simon was a tv writer (specifically Your Show Of Shows) before Broadway. So while Simon may not have been a "known" name, his work most certainly would have been seen by Williams.

[After Eight]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 3:43pm

"but I stand by many seeming to think it belongs more in the Neil Simon style of comedy play--"

Then many are as wrong as you.

One could say it was written in the mode of the lighthearted comedies of the day, with more serious underpinnings.

Neil Simon is not part of the equation.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 3:45pm

OK. The assumption seems to be it was written more "in the mode of the lighthearted comedies of the day." However I assume most people on here knew what my implication was...

[After Eight]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 4:13pm

"However I assume most people on here knew what my implication was..."

Don't imply. Articulate. Accurately.

Moreover, you shouldn't assume what "most people on here" made of your statement. Nor should you expect that others will fill in for you what you yourself failed to express. Do your own homework.

For all you know, most people could have been as befuddled as I by your statement.

Anyway...... to get back on topic, there was an off-off-Broadway staging of Period of Adjustment not too long ago. There were some interesting things in it, but it struck me as minor fare.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 5:15pm

I didn't know it had been done in New York recently. (It is one of several plays being done at the Williams Festival in Provincetown this September along with A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, Vieux Carre, a staging of four of Inge's gay themed one acts and Jane Bowles' In the Summer House, a 1950s Brodway flop that was a favorite of Williams'.) I do like the play a lot, and think many of Williams' themes are, of course, there, just slightly under the surface, but I have to admit it definitely is one of the more minor of his Broadway successes.

[ajh]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 5:53pm

Ericmontreal22, thanks for pointing out my error! The play I dislike is SUMMER AND SMOKE -I've now changed my earlier post. Not sure what I was thinking there.
Suddenly Last Summer I really like. I agree re the amazing set for the Diana Rigg production, although overall I much preferred the other earlier staging. Rachel Weisz and the late great Sheila Gish were both stunning.

[Demitri2]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 6:03pm

My first was the world premiere of THE ECCENTRICITIES OF A NIGHTINGALE at the Mineola Theatre on Long Island with Kim Hunter and James Broderick. I was fifteen years old and got to shake Williams hand and chat with him during intermission. I was in heaven.

Saw the play again years later with Sandy Dennis and Perry King in Long Beach, CA.

THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA at the Ahmanson Theatre in L.A. with an okay Richard Chamberlain, a disappointing Eleanor Parker and Dorothy McGuire.

SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH in a USC college production with Dorothy McGuire again as a guest artist in the Geraldine Page role. She was totally miscast as the Princess yet it was interesting to see an accomplished actress playing so far against type.

SMALL CRAFT WARNINGS off Broadway with Candy Darling.

SUMMER AND SMOKE adapted as an opera with music by Lee Hoiby at LIU's C.W. Post campus.

Right before she passed away I had spoken with actress Jan Clayton who told me she was trying to learn the script to THE GLASS MENAGERIE so she could accept an invitation as a guest artist in a local L.A. college production. "Once I get my lines down I can do it in stock later", she told me but unfortunately she was much too ill. With that fragile vulnerability she was able to bring to roles, I think she would've made a wonderful Amanda.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 6:18pm

I've always been curious about the Summer and Smoke opera (though I prefer Eccentricities of a Nightingale, I think...) Lanford Wilson, another fave playwright and obviously someone quite indebted to Williams', did the libretto which always interested me.

Clayton would have been wonderful in Menagerie!

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 6:35pm

I've seen mostly mediocre regional productions, not worth mentioning, but the ones I remember fondly -

A Steetcar Named Desire at Studio 54 (nine years ago!), the first play I saw on Broadway and my introduction to Tennesse Williams in any form.

Two productions at the Gate in Ireland - The Glass Menagerie, starring Francesca Annis, and last year a great production of Streetcar directed by Ethan McSweeney with an incredible Lia Williams as Blanche.

[AC126748]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 9:21pm

Didn't Mary Beth Peil originate Alma in the SUMMER AND SMOKE opera? I believe it was recorded or filmed at one point, though I don't know if it's available at all.

Updated On: 7/21/14 at 09:21 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 10:16pm

I did track down one cd, the Manhattan School of Opera (or something) recent production http://www.amazon.com/Hoiby-Manhattan-School-Music-Theatre/dp/B004Z132X2/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1405995337&sr=1-1&keywords=hoiby+summer+and+smoke but never committed to buying it--but there are some bits on youtube...

[Scripps2]

Posted: 7/22/14 at 5:37pm

"Scripps2, how did you like the RSC Camino Real?"

I think Someone in a Tree 2 summed up Camino Real very well. It's not typical Williams and if you go in expecting melodrama and heightened emotions you'll be disappointed. The RSC production had a great cast but I think they too may have been expecting it to be typical Williams and not sure what to do having discovered it wasn't.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 7/22/14 at 5:43pm

However I'd disagree on the subject of Orpheus Descending.

I thought Sweet Bird of Youth was a dull rehash of themes better explored in his earlier plays, such as Orpheus Descending and SBoY.

[OperaBwayLover]

Posted: 7/22/14 at 8:05pm

I've only seen two of his plays so far, a production of Streetcar, and a production of his one-act "The Dog Enchanted by the Divine View," both as part of the Tennessee Williams Tribute in Columbus, MS. Having only seen the movie of Streetcar before, I found the play so much better onstage, if only because I've never been a fan of the changes made to the story for film thanks to the Hollywood censors.

I've also heard Olympia Dukakis perform a monologue from "The Rose Tattoo" live, also at the TWT, so that counts for something correct?

To the original poster: have you read the collection "The Magic Tower and Other One-Act Plays"? It contains a one act version of Menagerie entitled 'The Pretty Trap' and the changes fascinate me. And then there's his brilliant short story collection, simply titled "Collected Stories." Both are must-reads.

[Platypus]

Posted: 7/22/14 at 8:32pm

The Glass Menagerie with Kiefer Sutherland and Shirley Douglas.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 7/22/14 at 8:35pm

"The RSC production had a great cast but I think they too may have been expecting it to be typical Williams and not sure what to do having discovered it wasn't."

It sounds like even Elia Kazan, who worked so closely with Williams' on their plays, had that problem with the original production. It wasn't until José Quintero's production a bit later that Williams' felt it was staged well (and it was at least a minor success--Quintero was also responsible for turning Summer and Smoke into a success and casting Geraldine Page in it as the original 1949 production was seen as too melodramatic and a pale imitation of Streetcar.)

I love the play--on the page, anyway. I've heard some say the one act, less busy earlier draft, Ten Blocks on the Camino Real is stronger, and there is a good B&W public tv version of it with Martin Sheen and Lotte Lenya as the Gypsy that's on DVD and worth tracking down.) In many ways it foreshadows the experiments Williams would start doing in the late 60s.

OperaBwayLover, I agree completely with your recommendations.

[Demitri2]

Posted: 7/22/14 at 10:27pm

Eric and AC126748, if you're interested SUMMER AND SMOKE (THE OPERA) is still available at Berkshire Records on DVD-R starring Peil. I purchased it years ago and though it's in mono the quality is acceptable.

http://www.berkshirerecordoutlet.com/search.php?row=0&brocode=&stocknum=&submit=Find+Item&text=summer+and+smoke&filter=all

[TheatreFreak05]

Posted: 7/23/14 at 1:01am

I second that we need a revival of Sweet Bird of Youth. I would love to see it live!

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 7/23/14 at 2:47am

Scripps said: "I thought Sweet Bird of Youth was a dull rehash of themes better explored in his earlier plays, such as Orpheus Descending and SBoY."

I will agree that Sweet Bird may be one of his more awkward major plays--you can very much tell it was two ideas for plays joined together--and from act to act the show changes wildly. I still love it, but...

(Umm what play did you mean in your final sentence? Streetcar? I assume you didn't mean Sweet Bird of Youth--again lol)

Demitri! Thanks :)

[The Other One]

Posted: 7/23/14 at 7:17am

Many, but not enough.

The Glass Menagerie (Jessica Tandy, Jessica Lange and Cherry Jones)
A Streetcar Named Desire (Baldwin/Lange and Richardson/Reilly)
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (Turner)
Suddenly, Last Summer (Roundabout w/Blythe Danner and Carla Gugino)
Orpheus Descending (Redgrave on Broadway and at the Fountain Theater in LA, mid-90s)
The Night of The Iquana (Roundabout with Peterson, Jones and Mason)
Not About Nightingales (Circle In The Square)
Something Cloudy, Something Clear (and Tennessee was in the audience)
The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (Ashley & Plummer)
Small Craft Warnings (directed by Austin Pendelton)

The productions varied, of course, as Williams is a difficult playwright to do justice to. "Nightingales" was a wonderful discovery of early Williams in Odets mode, and it was given an outstanding production. The much-maligned Roundabout "Streetcar" attempted to remove the play from the stigma of Brando and, I thought, it did so effectively. "Milk Train" made a successful case for a seemingly lesser Williams work thanks to its terrific cast. Lange was a better Amanda than given credit for but she was in an otherwise awkward production, at least here in NY. Celia Keenan-Bolger and Amanda Plummer were particularly haunting Lauras in their respective productions of "The Glass Menagerie."