Pale revival.The Glass Menagerie * Written by Tennessee Williams * Directed by David Leveaux * Starring Jessica Lange, Christian Slater, and Sarah Paulson * Ethel Barrymore Theatre The Ethel Barrymore Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 243 West 47th Street in midtown-Manhattan. Designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp and constructed by the Shuberts, it opened on December 20 1928 with The Kingdom of God , New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. (through July 10) The Glass Menagerie put Tennessee Williams on the map when it hit Broadway in 1945. It ranks with Death of a Salesman Death of a Salesman is a 1949 play by Arthur Miller and is considered a classic of American theater. Viewed by many as a caustic attack on the American Dream of achieving wealth and success without regard for principle, Death of a Salesman and Long Day's Journey "Long Day's Journey" is episode 09 of season 4 in the television show Angel. See List of Angel episodes for a complete list. Plot synopsis Summary Into Night in the pantheon of classic American dramas that crystallize the love and sadness, dreams and desperation that haunt family life. Nakedly autobiographical, the play is narrated by Tom Wingfield (Christian Slater), a would-be writer chafing chafe v. chafed, chaf·ing, chafes v.tr. 1. To wear away or irritate by rubbing. 2. To annoy; vex. 3. To warm by rubbing, as with the hands. v.intr. in a dead-end job and itching to fly the coop like his father did, leaving his crippled and depressed older sister, Laura (Sarah Paulson), in the care of their frustrated, overbearing mother, Amanda (Jessica Lange). In the tepid Broadway revival awkwardly staged by David Leveaux, none of the actors are especially well cast, though Lange pulls off the second act's climactic scene. Having wheedled Tom into bringing home from the factory a friend (the handsome but bland Josh Lucas) as a potential date for Laura, Amanda turns the arrival of the gentleman caller into a referendum on her own attractiveness. Quivering with nervous vanity and unconscious destructiveness, Lange intriguingly conjures parallels between Amanda Wingfield and Williams's most famous beautiful dreamer, Blanche DuBois. |
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