This is one Tennessee Williams woman you won't soon forget. Marisa Tomei plays Serafina, a widow who rekindles her desire for love, lust and life in the arms of a fiery suitor. Sharply directed by Cullman, Williams' lesser-known gem sizzles with humor and heart in sultry New Orleans. Serafina erupts from the depths of despair to the heights of passion in this Tony Award-winning Best Play.
Marisa Tomei's earthy performance as half-crazed Sicilian American widow Serafina Delle Rose is the main attraction in Trip Cullman's maddeningly uneven production, first seen in 2016 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival with a mostly different supporting cast. Tomei emotes up a storm more brooding even than the clouds billowing over the Louisiana Gulf Coast in Lucy Mackinnon's atmospheric wraparound projections. But director Cullman has no feel for the tricky brew of pathos, passion, poetry, humor and clunky symbolism required of this second-tier Williams work. Instead, it's shrill and hysterically over the top, poorly paced and blighted by some very large Italianate acting with all the authenticity of an Olive Garden chicken alfredo. Troppo is the word that comes to mind.
'The Rose Tattoo' is what happens when a poet writes a comedy - something strange, but kind of lovely. The same might be said of director Trip Cullman's production: Strange, if not exactly lovely. Even Marisa Tomei, so physically delicate and expressively refined, seems an odd choice to play the lusty and passionate protagonist, Serafina Delle Rose. She, too, is kind of lovely - if lost.
1951 | Broadway |
Broadway |
1966 | Broadway |
Broadway |
1995 | Broadway |
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2019 | Broadway |
Roundabout Theater Company Broadway Revival Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2020 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Marisa Tomei |
2020 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | The Rose Tattoo |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Costume Design of a Play | Clint Ramos |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Original Score | Fitz Patton |
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