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Cate Blanchett- A Streetcar Named Desire


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I went to see the Sydney Theater Company's production of A Streetcar Named Desire, featuring Cate Blanchett as Blanche DuBois yesterday at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The production is directed by Liv Ullman. It was utterly incredible. Cate Blanchett's performance is moving, but not melodramatic, as some other productions I've seen in the past. Her portrayal was shattering and brilliant. This Blanche is not a fading flower; Blanchett plays her as a survivor. Her interactions with Stanley give the impression of a Darwinian struggle for survival of the fittest. The other members of the company are very good, but this Streetcar is all about Blanche. There was pretty much no way that the actor playing Stanley could compete with Brando's film version. This Stanley (Joel Edgerton) was very good, but certainly did not have the magnetism of Brando. There is talk that this production may transfer to Broadway. If it does, see it!

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Thanks for posting, abatt. The reviews I've seen have been generally excellent, although they too have been all about Cate. It is interesting that these days Streetcar seems to function primarily as a vehicle for a Big Lady Star. On first thought Blanchett struck me as a trifle hearty for Blanche and it makes sense that she would play her in the way you describe. If others see the production I hope they will comment.

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It is interesting that these days Streetcar seems to function primarily as a vehicle for a Big Lady Star. On first thought Blanchett struck me as a trifle hearty for Blanche and it makes sense that she would play her in the way you describe.

Yes, I agree. She is very extroverted, but then I have in the last few years begun to think that that play is nearly impossible to keep doing. Not that it's not a great play, but how many times can you believe the essential components of it, how many times can you believe it won't fall apart for Blanche? Lots of people thought Ann-Margret either bad or 'too healthy' for Blanche, but I liked her in a a great deal. But I don't want to see the play ever again. The best I saw was Rosemary Harris onstage, she really could do that line 'they-'as AHT...and MU-sic...SOME progress HAS been made....' but what you say about 'the great Lady Star' is the problem or the asset: What else is there in this play. It's not like 'Hamlet', which can be done forever. I think Streetcat is a eeculiar kind of play that plays itself out, and even other T. Williams plays work better. Not that they are intrinsically better, but that I have begun to wonder about 'shelf lives' of plays. I can't get into the Blanche's near-success followed by the remembered failure any more.

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So, Blanche is Blanchett, huh? :cool:

...I have in the last few years begun to think that that play is nearly impossible to keep doing. Not that it's not a great play, but how many times can you believe the essential components of it, how many times can you believe it won't fall apart for Blanche? ...[W]hat you say about 'the great Lady Star' is the problem or the asset: What else is there in this play. It's not like 'Hamlet', which can be done forever. I think Streetcat is a eeculiar kind of play that plays itself out ...

I can see how this would be a problem for you, but for many in the audience, this may be their second, or even first, go at Street Car. "How many times...?" is not problem for them.

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Thanks for posting, Patrick. I think in some respects Blanche has become for modern actresses the kind of proving grounds that Hamlet has traditionally been for actors. It gets revived maybe a little too frequently because so many actresses see it as a vehicle, which may be where the trouble lies. Blanche is the protagonist but the play doesn't hang on one star performance. (Although given the economics of today's theatrical environment, this approach may be inevitable.)

....' but what you say about 'the great Lady Star' is the problem or the asset: What else is there in this play.

Ask Marlon Brando. :cool: More seriously, I'd say that there's Stella's ambiguous role in her sister's downfall, there's Williams' wonderful language ("It's Della Robbia blue"), and the what-side-are-you-on conflict between Blanche and Stanley - and should you be on one side or the other? I don't know if that's enough to justify all these revivals, though.

I can see how this would be a problem for you, but for many in the audience, this may be their second, or even first, go at Street Car. "How many times...?" is not problem for them.

It may be a first for some in the audience, but this is a play that is not only a classic feature film that holds up very well today and is readily available, but has been broadcast regularly on television in multiple versions and seems to get revived every other month. It's fair to raise the question of overexposure.

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What else is there in this play.

I recently attended a reading of scenes from Streetcar (and other Williams plays). The actors were as unlike Brando and Leigh as one could be (in appearance, charisma and acting style). This was no star vehicle. It was, however, a revelation to see how well the scenes held up.

It's partly the language, of course. Stripped of the iconic performances we remember from the film -- and with the melodramatic aspects underplayed rather than turned into parody -- the characters were more alive, more real than I would ever have expected. I found myself forgetting that I knew what was going to happen to these people ... and (the real miracle) caring about them to a remarkable degree.

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The actors were as unlike Brando and Leigh as one could be (in appearance, charisma and acting style). It was a revelation to see how well the scenes held up. It's partlly the language, of course. Stripped of the iconic performances we remember from the film -

The performances in the film version DO tend to dominate expectations, don't they? What has fascinated me for many years now is what the original stage production was like. I would guess Brando was a sensation, the magnetism he had combined with what was then a very different style of acting must have packed quite a punch, but what was the original Blanche like? It WASN'T Vivien Leigh, she was the first Blanche on the London stage before filming the role; but for the Broadway premiere it was Jessica Tandy who always seemed to me to have an outer delicacy wrapped around a core of steel. Like Leigh, another Englishwoman, but one who also had success with playing American (Southern and otherwise) women

I wonder what it was like to watch her Blanche disintegrate? I was a long time ago but not so long that there aren't still viewers with good memories.

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The actors were as unlike Brando and Leigh as one could be (in appearance, charisma and acting style). It was a revelation to see how well the scenes held up. It's partlly the language, of course. Stripped of the iconic performances we remember from the film -

The performances in the film version DO tend to dominate expectations, don't they? What has fascinated me for many years now is what the original stage production was like. I would guess Brando was a sensation, the magnetism he had combined with what was then a very different style of acting must have packed quite a punch, but what was the original Blanche like? It WASN'T Vivien Leigh, she was the first Blanche on the London stage before filming the role; but for the Broadway premiere it was Jessica Tandy who always seemed to me to have an outer delicacy wrapped around a core of steel. Like Leigh, another Englishwoman, but one who also had success with playing American (Southern and otherwise) women

I wonder what it was like to watch her Blanche disintegrate? I was a long time ago but not so long that there aren't still viewers with good memories.

Well, here's what Brooks Atkinson thought:

Miss Tandy has a remarkably long part to play. She is hardly ever off the stage, and when she is on stage she is almost constantly talking-chattering, dreaming aloud, wondering, building enchantments out of words. Miss Tandy is a trim, agile actress with a lovely voice and quick intelligence. Her performance is almost incredibly true. For it does seem almost incredible that she could understand such an elusive part so thoroughly and that she can convey it with so many shades and impulses that are accurate, revealing and true.

From what Elia Kazan said and wrote and from what I've read elsewhere, I gather that Tandy was excellent but she was overpowered by Brando, and the balance of the play was altered thereby. There have been many Stanleys and Blanches that steered away from the Brando-Leigh template, some deliberately no doubt. Uta Hagen and Anthony Quinn played it not long after the original stage production. I, too, would be interested in hearing from anyone who's seen older productions (and Blanchett, too, lest we forget :cool:).

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It's partly the language

For me language is the heart and soul of this play. I've seen fanstasic performances by actors in this play (and I'd give my eye teeth to go to NYC and see Blanchette in this!), and unlike some, I think I could see it a 100 times without tiring, but when all is said and done, it is the sheer poetry of Williams language that makes this a truly great play.

P.S Anyone else struck by ----> Blanche........Blanchette??

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I, too, would be interested in hearing from anyone who's seen older productions (and Blanchett, too, lest we forget :)).

I was too young for Tandy, but saw a couple of NYC productions in the 70s and 80s (at the Beaumont, for one, and at Circle in the Square). I remember very little about them and wonder whether this is because they appeared underpowered in comparison to the film version. The weight of audience expectations can lie very heavy on revivals of certain plays.

The only actor I recall by name was Rosemary Harris (another English Blanche) who had the accent down rather well, had the command of the language, but seemed to be working from the outside (accent, gestures, mannerisms, speech rhythms) rather than from character herself as written by Williams. When I say "character" I include the social and historical context in which Williams has placed her, and her responses to it. (For example, Williams knew very well the self-serving delusions and cruelties that were part of the Southern genteel upper middle class subculture in which he grew up. The part of Blanche is full of this.)

Blanche's powerful. conflicted, and ultimately self-destructive sexual drives, haven't been handled effectively in the productions I've seen, and not at all by Harris as I recall. Oddly, these elements WERE powerfully present in the reading I attended last month, a presentation on a bare stage, with actors holding the script, and with minimal blocking. Is it possible that production values -- the "look," the costumes, whether or not the actor is a Brando type, etc. etc. -- may actually have a distancing effect, making it more difficult to experience Williams' play as written?

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If anyone is interested, Charlie Rose did an interview w. Blanchett and Ullman re Streetcar recently. It aired last week. I believe you can access it on the Charlie Rose website. Also, I read in today's NY Times that a number of broadway producers are seeking to bring Streetcar to Broadway. However, the earliest it could happen is summer 2010, due to scheduling issues. Also, Blanchett is placing a lot of conditions on any potential deal, including that every member of the Australian cast be included in a broadway transfer. Who knows if it will happen. I hope so.

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I did actually see the original production---probably a year after it opened. Brando had left, and was replaced by Ralph Meeker. That night, too, Tandy was replaced by her understudy. I have been trying to remember her name---I think it was Ford, and she was married to a prominent movie actor at the time. (I clearly recall his face but cannot remember his name---madding!) I can only report that the beauty and poetry of the play came through with these performers.

Slightly off topic. A headline in the Times in 1955 stated: Nora Kaye knocks out Youskevitch (in Streetcar, the ballet)---'miss Kaye completed a turn and her elbow held high, struck Mr. Youskevitch in the right eye. He fell to the ground unconscious. At the moment the scene ended and the lights went out so that no one in the audience was aware of the accident.'

Good old Nora---I doubt Tallulah Bankhead (as Blanche) could have done better. :)

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Thanks for posting, atm711. I would guess that Tandy's understudy was Ruth Ford, who was married to Zachary Scott.

....remember very little about them and wonder whether this is because they appeared underpowered in comparison to the film version.

It's a real tribute to Kazan and his actors that even now the 1951 version casts a shadow, far from perfect as it is. Great movie, especially when you compare it to other reverential play-to-film transfers of the time.

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Slightly off topic. A headline in the Times in 1955 stated: Nora Kaye knocks out Youskevitch (in Streetcar, the ballet)---'miss Kaye completed a turn and her elbow held high, struck Mr. Youskevitch in the right eye. He fell to the ground unconscious. At the moment the scene ended and the lights went out so that no one in the audience was aware of the accident.'

Good old Nora---I doubt Tallulah Bankhead (as Blanche) could have done better. :)

What a great story! Tell us more, please! I didn't even know there WAS a Streetcar ballet. But, when you think about it .... why not?
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There are several ballet versions of Streetcar. Ballet B.C. did another one not too long ago.

If anyone is interested, Charlie Rose did an interview w. Blanchett and Ullman re Streetcar recently. It aired last week. I believe you can access it on the Charlie Rose website. Also, I read in today's NY Times that a number of broadway producers are seeking to bring Streetcar to Broadway. However, the earliest it could happen is summer 2010, due to scheduling issues. Also, Blanchett is placing a lot of conditions on any potential deal, including that every member of the Australian cast be included in a broadway transfer. Who knows if it will happen. I hope so.

I saw the Charlie Rose interview when it aired, it's pretty good. I'm sure Blanchett can write her own ticket as far as Broadway is concerned. One appreciates her loyalty to the Australian players but it does seem a bit odd to import a bunch of Aussies when homegrown American actors could do just as well by Williams, if not better.

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One appreciates her loyalty to the Australian players but it does seem a bit odd to import a bunch of Aussies when homegrown American actors could do just as well by Williams, if not better.
This is listed as a production of the Sydney Theater Company. It might be that she sees this as an ensemble production and is being loyal to her colleagues, including the Swedish director. From what I've read, they all appear to have done a quite creditable job.
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Brando is supposed to have done his performances from scratch every night -- at great emotional cost, according to a review of the recent biography, whereas Jessica Tandy was reputed to be the most technically steadfast -- "core of steel" -- of the Method actors.

In the movie Brando and Vivien Leigh are brilliant as Dirac reminds us -- but they seem to be working in two different acting styles, hers much less naturalistic and bigger and theatrical and angular, his with beautiful small round-edged earthy details. Kim Hunter, from the original play and who always seems to get forgotten, seems to be far more in tune with Brando's style than Leigh is.

"Streetcar" is a powerful work and actors for the last twenty years tend play it up, they bulk-up on it, or for it -- whereas the play should be held down, as Bart suggests from the flat readings he heard. Williams should be like doing Ashton or Bournonville -- understatement with just the right amount of piquancy ... the model should be Laurette Taylor in "Glass Menagerie."

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Thanks for posting, atm711. I would guess that Tandy's understudy was Ruth Ford, who was married to Zachary Scott.

Thanks, Dirac--now I can sleep tonight :) I did come up with Constance Ford, but when I saw her photo I knew I was wrong---Ruth Ford was a fine-boned willowy blond.

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... the model should be Laurette Taylor in "Glass Menagerie."
Now that's a performance I'd love to have seen.

Lyle Leverich's biography of young Williams (Tom) ends with the success of Glass Menagerie. It's wonderfully revealing about Taylor's work in the play, including rehearsal behavior that was so odd that Williams and others feared for the future of the production. But, somehow, everything was ready and right for the first performance. There were those who thought that Taylor had based details of her performance (including the accent) on Williams himself.

As far as I know, no one has analyzed the process of preparing Streetcar for the stage in the kind of detail Leverich devotes to Glass Menagerie. Leverich himself never got around to writing the second volume about Williams.

Does anyone have suggestions for reading about the writing, preparing, and performances of that first Streetcar production?

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Happy to help, atm711. :) I didn't know Ford had understudied for Tandy, so thanks for that bit of information. It doesn't surprise me to hear she was good. She was a great favorite of William Faulkner's and did his Requiem for a Nun onstage. (She was Charles Henri Ford's sister and knew Faulkner from back in Mississippi, so unlike all the ladies we're discussing here, she was a Southerner.) How did you think the play adapted to ballet?

Brando is supposed to have done his performances from scratch every night -- at great emotional cost, according to a review of the recent biography, whereas Jessica Tandy was reputed to be the most technically steadfast -- "core of steel" -- of the Method actors

In the movie Brando and Vivien Leigh are brilliant -- but they seem to be working in two different acting styles, hers much less naturalistic and bigger and theatrical and angular, his with beautiful small round-edged earthy details. Kim Hunter, from the original play and who always seems to get forgotten, seems to be far more in tune with Brando's style than Leigh is.

Hi, Quiggin. Tandy's technique was honed in England – I'm not sure she can really be called a Method actor. I agree with you about the contrast in styles between Leigh and Brando, but in this case I think it works for the drama, not against it. It's not surprising that Hunter (who is indeed excellent) would be more in tune with Brando – she and Malden played alongside him in the Broadway production. As richard53dog pointed out, Leigh was a veteran of the London production and thus the odd woman out on the movie set, at least to begin with. Also, it was hard to play with Brando because he rarely did the same thing twice and that required adjustments from both Tandy and Leigh. Leigh probably benefited from it in the end – her M.O. was to arrive with her characterization already firmly set, which was not always helpful - and later on she and Brando are really firing off each other.

I also agree that in the first scenes Leigh is more theatrical than is absolutely necessary. Apparently this was during the early days of the production when she was still adjusting to a new director and fellow cast members who'd been doing the play in sync with each other for a long time.

If this new production does eventually come to Broadway with changes in the supporting cast, it will be interesting to see what kind of difference, if any, it makes.

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:) I have depressing memories of Requiem for a Nun and can actually see a gloomy, stark stage set and a half-empty auditorium in my visual memory. I also associate it with one of the first times in my young life (I was in high school) that the thought crossed my mind: "This is pretentious."

Requiem was a very high-prestige production, as I recall, since Ford hung around with the high-brow end of the New York theater crowd, and Faulkner was .... well, "Faulkner." The play has guilt, gloom, long speeches, infanticide, and the heavy hand of the past. I don't think it ever found an audience, and I'm not sure when and where it has been revived.

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Now that's a performance I'd love to have seen.

You still can -- or a good hint of it. I believe there's a clip of Laurette Taylor's screen test -- along with some other fascinating tests -- in a biography that George Stevens, Jr did of his father.

George Stevens A Filmaker's Journey

Tandy's technique was honed in England – I'm not sure she can really be called a Method actor.

I didn't realize that -- or only vaguely did. I worked for a while in a little record store in Los Angeles, a little like the one in "HiFi" but dealing in classical Lps, and my boss, who had studied with Sandy Meisner and taught some classes for him, would use Jessica Tandy as an example of a certain type of acting, brilliant but not vulnerable, or something like that -- Tandy may have even taken some classes with Meisner. My boss had come to Los Angeles with a group of actors, Suzanne Plushette was one, who were part of an method based acting school at 20th Century Fox in the early sixties.

Now that I look at Brando again in "Streetcar" I can see how brilliant he was in ways that completely slipped past me when I was younger. Not only are the actors acting the roles, but over the roles there is this exciting give and take going on, and challenging each other and nipping at each other's heels. In our technocratic new world, does that kind of thing still happen in theater?

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