Sally Field & Joe Mantello star in The Glass Menagerie on Broadway.
Two-time Academy Award winner Sally Field and two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello star in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie on Broadway. Also starring Finn Wittrock and Madison Ferris. Tony winner Sam Gold directs.
The Glass Menagerie is the play that brought a brilliant young writer named Tennessee Williams to national attention when it premiered on Broadway in 1945. More than seventy years later, Williams' most personal work for the stage continues to captivate and overwhelm audiences around the world.
Throughout, the production swirls realistic gestures with more expressionist ones. The theatricality is self-conscious, at times self-congratulatory. It estranges spectators from the characters and the situations - in ways more and less productive - yet still allows much of the language to be heard clearly and anew. (Gold's staging is often at odds with the script, but he only rarely has his actors play against the lines themselves.) As the play continues, it marshals a stealthy emotional force, designed to make Tom's departure that much more wrenching. Field portrays Amanda with sympathy and genteel bluster. In some scenes she and Mantello's sardonic Tom have a teasing rapport. This Laura's real physical impairment deepens and complicates her relationship with Tom, although as Ferris is far younger and less practiced than her castmates, the production asks her body to do too much of the work of the role.
Field's is an anxiety-ridden, squirm-inducing performance - as her Amanda clings to unrealistic dreams for her children's future, her desperate neediness is at once funny and sad, understandable yet painful to watch. As Tom, Mantello brings the play's often-coded undertones to the forefront, delivering a virtuoso portrayal of a frustrated, closeted man crushed under the weight of his mother's loving expectations. It's no surprise that these veterans would be so successful, but the revelation here is Ferris. As a wheelchair user, she brings an element of realism and independence to a character normally played as helpless - for the first time, she seems strong and capable, though still terribly shy and non-confrontational. The audience seems to hold its collective breath as she maneuvers around the stage, and when her gentleman caller (a boisterous Finn Wittrock, American Horror Story) gets her hopes up only to break her heart, she poignantly runs through the full range of emotion. It's a brilliant bit of casting, even if the age difference between the actors requires some mental gymnastics...Gold takes risks with his nontraditional staging choices, and though his vision might not be for everyone, there's no arguing that it's a bold, creative one. The rare revival that breathes new life into a classic rather than defaulting to convention, this Menagerie is well worth another look.
| 1945 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
| 1965 | Broadway |
The Twentieth Anniversary Production Broadway |
| 1975 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1983 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1994 | Broadway |
Roundabout Revival Broadway |
| 2005 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 2010 | Off-Broadway |
Roundabout Revival Off-Broadway |
| 2013 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 2017 | West End |
West End Revival West End |
| 2017 | Broadway |
2017 Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
| 2018 | Regional (US) |
Barrington Stage Company Production Regional (US) |
| 2022 | West End |
London Production West End |
| West End |
West End |
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Leading Actress in a Play | Sally Field |
| 2017 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Revival of a Play | The Glass Menagerie |
| 2017 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Sally Field |
| 2017 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Play | Sally Field |
| 2017 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play | Sally Field |
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