Paul Mescal will star in a new revival of A Streetcar Named Desire off Broadway, reprising his award-winning performance from London. The production will make its U.S. debut at the Brooklyn Academy of Music this spring, with exact dates to be announced. He reprises the leading role of Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire from director Rebecca Frecknall's (Cabaret on Broadway) in London's West End in 2023. The show won three Olivier Awards there, including Best Revival and Best Actor for Mescal. Tennessee Williams's play takes place during a New Orleans summer, when fading Southern belle Blanche comes to visit her sister, Stella, and Stella's husband, Stanley. Reality and illusion collide as Blanche tries to escape her past, which Stanley is determined to unravel.
The Irish film and TV star (All of Us Strangers, Normal People) may be the name driving up ticket prices and attendance at BAM, but his performance is carefully integrated into Rebecca Frecknall’s keen, intelligently deconstructed revival. Mescal doesn’t shrink from his role’s indelible association with young Marlon Brando; the actor’s credibly flat accent (urban Midwest dusted with Brooklyn) and unforced physical beauty constitute what you might call a Brando-adjacent reading: not trying to reinvent the wheel but perfectly able to handle the curves.
Stanley and Blanche are gunpowder and match. And while a drummer pounds upstage, sometimes joined by an ethereal singer, explosive Ferran and Mescal go thrillingly head-to-head. I can’t remember Mescal ever being so loud before. The Oscar nominee is typically soft-spoken, bashful almost, in so many films and TV shows. He was even polite in “Gladiator.” But the guy wails “Stellaaaaa!” here with the roar of a provoked grizzly. Ferran, meanwhile, is mesmerizing as she descends further into madness.
| 1947 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
| 1950 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1973 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1973 | Broadway |
Return Engagement [Broadway] Broadway |
| 1988 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1992 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1999 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
| 2005 | Broadway |
Roundabout Revival Broadway |
| 2009 | West End |
Donmar Warehouse Revival West End |
| 2012 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 2016 | Off-Broadway |
St. Ann's Warehouse Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
| 2020 | Williamstown, MA (Regional) |
Williamstown Theater Festival Production Williamstown, MA (Regional) |
| 2023 | West End |
West End |
| 2025 | Off-Broadway |
BAM Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play | Anjana Vasan |
| 2025 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play | Patsy Ferran |
| 2025 | Drama League Awards | DISTINGUISHED PERFORMANCE | Paul Mescal |
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