 |
| Sally Field, Finn Wittrock, and Madison Ferris. Photo: Julieta Cervantes
The Glass Menagerie
By Tennessee Williams
Directed by Sam Gold
The Belasco Theatre
By Lauren Yarger
What's It All About?
A revival of the off-produced play by Tennessee Williams, this one starring Sally Field as Amanda Wingfield and Joe Mantello as her son, Tom. Director Sam Gold casts Finn Wittrock as Jim O'Connor, the gentleman caller who is set up to meet Toms shy sister, Laura (Madison Ferris, who is making her Broadway debut). Gold brings his design team from his acclaimed production of the play in Amsterdam.
What Are the Highlights?
Mantello gives a solid performance. Wittrock brings an interesting take to the gentleman caller -- almost a clueless jock instead of an insensitive successful man. It makes him much more interesting than usual -- an accomplishment since this is the seventh Broadway revival of the play.
What Are the Lowlights?
Fields' Amanda comes off as mentally challenged rather than manipulative and dominating. Her daughter, who is supposed to be painfully shy and retiring, seems to be the one who has her act together. Perhaps this is because we see her courage -- Ferris has muscular dystrophy in real life and Gold makes sure we see how difficult it is for her to climb up steps (she has to take them sitting) to the stage and to get in and our of her wheelchair, though a good deal of this takes place below the audience's sight lines.. She plays a bold young woman. The result, unfortunately, is to change the character of Laura, who is supposed to have a limp so minor that it is imperceptible to others even as Laura's self image is shaped by what feels to her as a an obvious defect. It's kind of hard to miss the wheelchair and the severity of her physical needs making Amanda's denial that they are an issue -- and Jim's inability to recall her from their high school years -- a bit absurd. Also, Laura is supposed to be older than Tom, but she clearly is not, making more dialogue seem out of place. Field, at 77, is old enough to be Mantello's mother, but looks so terrific that this relationship is hard to buy too.
The set by Andrew Lieberman is practically bare; costume designs by Woiceich Dziedzic add to the thought that Amanda must be mad (see the frock she wears below) and Adam Silverman's Lighting Design leaves the house lights up for a long time at the beginning of the play and later leaves us in the dark so much that we feel we are experiencing a blackout in the theater rather than in the Wingfield home when Tom fails to pay the electric bill.
More Information:
The Glass Menagerie plays at the Belasco Theatre, 111 West 44th St., NYC. glassmenagerieonbroadway.com
Additional credit:
Bray Poor (Sound Design).
FAMILY-FRIENDLY FACTORS:
-- Language
|
 |
| Sally Field, Finn Wittrock, and Madison Ferris. Photo: Julieta Cervantes |