Theater Review: A Streetcar Named Desire

Blair Underwood, Nicole Ari Parker, Daphne Rubin-Vega. Photo: Ken Howard

An Interesting Take on Blanche, but Not Much Flames Our Desire Here
By Lauren Yarger
Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire has been a vehicle for noted performances by Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Kim Novak, Rosemary Harris, Frances McDormand, Tallulah Bankhead, Blythe Danner, Natasha Richardson, Alec Baldwin, Vivien Leigh and Jessica Lange among others in various stage and film versions of the 1948 Pulitzer-Prize winner.

The latest Broadway revival, directed by McCarter Theater Center Artistic Director Emily Mann, features Blair Underwood heading a multi-cultural cast as struggling working-class stiff Stanley Kowalski. There is some jazz music composed by Terrance Blanchard, some rhythm-moving segues between scenes and a more sympathetic take on Blanche, Stanley's troubled, mentally unbalanced sister-in-law played nicely by Nicole Ari Parker (TV's "Soul Food").

None of that, however, is enough to erase the fact that this is a rather slow-moving bummer of a story about a bunch of whacked out people. They might have been groundbreaking back in 1948 (Williams' original reason for the breakup of Blanche's marriage -- the homosexuality of her husband -- was still too controversial in 1951 to make it past the film's censors), but in 2012, when soft porn is the norm in movies and television, we need something more than that or Blanche's secret past of promiscuity to get our attention. The only interest I witnessed here, however, was an audible rumble of approval from the women in the audience when Underwood removed his T-shirt.

It's hard to feel sympathetic for any of these characters: Stanley is the cruel husband, driven by a sexuality that makes him attractive to wife Stella (Daphne Rubin-Vega), Blanche's sister. Stella puts up with Stanley and his physical abuse because of this compelling attraction. She longs for his embrace while he's on the road working and doesn't even like it when he leaves their poverty-evident two-room apartment (Eugene Lee designs the set and Paul Tazewell designs some beautiful dresses for Blanche). Stella also subjects herself to verbal abuse from her hot-house flower relic-of-the-old-South sister who shows up broke on the Kowalskis' beneath-her-refined-taste doorstep when she loses the family's estate and has nowhere else to go. Blanche hopes that Stanley's naive and gentlemanly friend, Mitch (a wonderfully charming Wood Harris, known to TV fans of "The Wire"), will marry her and give her another chance at life, but her past might come back to haunt her, especially if her cruel brother-in-law has his way.

The problem with this production is that everything just mentioned is from what is supposed to be the story of Streetcar. What really happens is that Underwood comes across as too nice. We simply don't buy him for the vindictive, abusive Stanley. There absolutely is no chemistry between him and Rubin-Vega to justify the sexual attraction that is supposed to bind them together. In fact, Rubin-Vega comes across as the dominant one. Stanley might be stronger physically (to which those sighing women can attest after seeing those abs and pecs), but Stella's on top emotionally and that makes us question even more why she stays in the relationship or doesn't use her smarts to straighten out Blanche.

Parker's approach to a more sympathetic Blanche makes us like Stanley and Stella even less as Blanche appears more the victim of mental illness than of her own circumstances. In the end, the only one we might feel a little sympathy for is Mitch, and he's just too naive. It's a play that probably has lived out its importance and interesting casting choices aren't likely to change that. Amelia Campbell is a bit over the top as the couple's landlord, Eunice. Rounding out the ensemble of minor characters is Carmen de Lavallade, Matthew Saldivar, Jacinto Taras Riddick, Count Stovall, Rosa Evangelina Arredondo and Aaron Clifton Moten (who does a nice turn as a young newsboy overwhelmed by Blanche's sexual charms).

Streetcar runs the track at The Broadhurst Theatre, 235 West 44th St., NYC through July 22. Tickets: 212-239-6200/800-432-7250.

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