Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (Broadway Theatre Archive)

Rating:
Summary: Katharine Hepburn in Tennessee William's memory play
Review: Having just watched the 1973 television production of "The Glass Menagerie" I have now seen every Katharine Hepburn performance she ever did on film or television. From "A Bill of Divorcement" to "This Can't Be Love" I now have everything on tape (yes, even "The Iron Petticoat"). This was Hepburn's first television performance and she was working with Anthony Harvey, who directed the actress in her third Oscar winning role in "The Lion in Winter." Hepburn had seen Laurette Taylor's exquisite performance in the original stage production of "The Glass Menagerie," and had long considered Tennessee William's "memory" play to be an American classic. Even though she is the quintessential Connecticut Yankee, Hepburn trotted out an affect Southern accent and tackled the role.

The play is essentially a gigantic flashback told by Tom Wingfield (Sam Waterston), who is now a merchant seaman in a distant port recalling the final days he spent in the family home in St. Louis with his mother, the faded Southern belle, Amanda (Hepburn), and his painfully shy sister, Laura (Joanna Miles). Stuck in a dead end job at a shoe factory and constantly going to the movies to escape his mother, Tom wants to be a poet. Laura, made physically ill by any attempt to go out and function in the real world, has retreated to her imagination and her titular collection of glass animals. Amanda is constantly talking about the old days on Blue Mountain, browbeating Tom for his lack of incentive, or hustling subscriptions for "The Lady's Home Companion." When his mother badgers him into finding a "gentleman caller" for his sister, Tom brings home Jim O'Connor (Michael Moriarty) from work. Even better, Jim is the boy the Laura had a crush on in high school, although she certainly never would have said anything at the time. But in a Tennessee Williams play, no good deed goes unpunished.

The centerpiece of the play becomes the scene between Laura and her gentleman caller. The scene is remarkable in that it is certainly unconventional to give two characters so much time on stage alone like this. Suffice it to say that on the basis of this extended scene both Morairty and Miles won a pair of Emmy awards each, for Best Supporting Actor/ess in a Drama and Supporting Actor/ess of the Year (the Emmys have had their fair share of strange awards over the years). Hepburn was nominated for Best Lead Actress in a Drama while Miles received a nod in the Supporting Actress category.

This version of "The Glass Menagerie" has the virtue of sticking to the play's original conclusion, which is not what happened with the 1950 film adaptation with Gertrude Lawrence, Jane Wyman, Arthur Kennedy, and Kirk Douglas. It seems that Hollywood always felt a strong urge to make Tennessee Williams' plays more upbeat on the silver screen. Once you get past her accent, Hepburn's performance is as nuanced as you would expect, and the rest of the cast more than hold their own. Given that their paths would almost cross on "Law & Order," it is ironic to find Waterston and Moriarty together in this production.

Kudos to the Broadway Theater Archive for preserving these fine performances on tape and many others as well. There just are not as many televised plays as there used to be in the old days, and it is great to see that many lost treasures are again becoming available to us as lovers of the theater.

Rating:
Summary: Katharine Hepburn in Tennessee William's memory play
Review: Having just watched the 1973 television production of "The Glass Menagerie" I have now seen every Katharine Hepburn performance she ever did on film or television. From "A Bill of Divorcement" to "This Can't Be Love" I now have everything on tape (yes, even "The Iron Petticoat"). This was Hepburn's first television performance and she was working with Anthony Harvey, who directed the actress in her third Oscar winning role in "The Lion in Winter." Hepburn had seen Laurette Taylor's exquisite performance in the original stage production of "The Glass Menagerie," and had long considered Tennessee William's "memory" play to be an American classic. Even though she is the quintessential Connecticut Yankee, Hepburn trotted out an affect Southern accent and tackled the role.

The play is essentially a gigantic flashback told by Tom Wingfield (Sam Waterston), who is now a merchant seaman in a distant port recalling the final days he spent in the family home in St. Louis with his mother, the faded Southern belle, Amanda (Hepburn), and his painfully shy sister, Laura (Joanna Miles). Stuck in a dead end job at a shoe factory and constantly going to the movies to escape his mother, Tom wants to be a poet. Laura, made physically ill by any attempt to go out and function in the real world, has retreated to her imagination and her titular collection of glass animals. Amanda is constantly talking about the old days on Blue Mountain, browbeating Tom for his lack of incentive, or hustling subscriptions for "The Lady's Home Companion." When his mother badgers him into finding a "gentleman caller" for his sister, Tom brings home Jim O'Connor (Michael Moriarty) from work. Even better, Jim is the boy the Laura had a crush on in high school, although she certainly never would have said anything at the time. But in a Tennessee Williams play, no good deed goes unpunished.

The centerpiece of the play becomes the scene between Laura and her gentleman caller. The scene is remarkable in that it is certainly unconventional to give two characters so much time on stage alone like this. Suffice it to say that on the basis of this extended scene both Morairty and Miles won a pair of Emmy awards each, for Best Supporting Actor/ess in a Drama and Supporting Actor/ess of the Year (the Emmys have had their fair share of strange awards over the years). Hepburn was nominated for Best Lead Actress in a Drama while Miles received a nod in the Supporting Actress category.

This version of "The Glass Menagerie" has the virtue of sticking to the play's original conclusion, which is not what happened with the 1950 film adaptation with Gertrude Lawrence, Jane Wyman, Arthur Kennedy, and Kirk Douglas. It seems that Hollywood always felt a strong urge to make Tennessee Williams' plays more upbeat on the silver screen. Once you get past her accent, Hepburn's performance is as nuanced as you would expect, and the rest of the cast more than hold their own. Given that their paths would almost cross on "Law & Order," it is ironic to find Waterston and Moriarty together in this production.

Kudos to the Broadway Theater Archive for preserving these fine performances on tape and many others as well. There just are not as many televised plays as there used to be in the old days, and it is great to see that many lost treasures are again becoming available to us as lovers of the theater.

Rating:
Summary: "Portrait Of A Girl In Glass."
Review: I just received this yesterday, and immediately settled down, with the cats fed and strict orders of silence, to watch it. What a wonderful, lost jewel. This made for t.v. film was produced the year I graduated from high school, and, the life I then lived in the apartment next to a city train trestle, that I dismally shared with my mother and my dear little sister, was probably a little too similar to Tennessee Williams beautiful play to be of much interest to me then. That this play is based upon his early years is now well known, and, though she denied it most of her life, "Amanda", the suffocating mother played by Katherine Hepburn, is undoubtedly Edwina Williams, Tennessee Williams mother. Though she is the focal point, this "memory play" is as much about Williams beloved sister Rose, whose tragic mental illness and subsequent lobotomy froze her in time. The crippled "Laura" inhabits another world, as did Rose. Williams remained devoted to his institutionalized sister, who outlived him, for his entire lifetime, and always proclaimed her his lifelong love. "Tom", the brother and narrator of the play, dreams of a life filled with adventure, outside of the despised warehouse where he performs his menial work, and free of the unwanted obligations to his abandoned mother and sister. Tom was Tennessee Williams real name, and there is much of him in the fictional Tom. When this play was first produced in the 1940's, Williams career was very young. He considered himself a failure, and, the play was not initially well received. Starring as "Amanda" was Laurette Taylor, formerly a renowned theatre actress, now a Broadway has-been, whose downfall to drink was well known in the theatre world. Upon seeing her in the first early rehearsals of this play, the financial backer screamed to the producer..."HOW could you do this to me?" Williams was also sure he had a failure on his hands, and the play produced modest crowds upon opening, and readied for closing. However, two local Chicago critics sang its praises, and, it subsequently received immense critical acclaim and major awards. As did Laurette Taylor, whose performance went down in theatre history, and was her "comeback" (she died the following year.) Katherine Hepburn, who saw the original production, is wonderful in this role. How lucky we are that The Theatre Archive has preserved her performance. There are close-ups and little bits of business here that make one realize just how rare and skilled an actress she was. What a joy she is to watch. She perfectly conveys "Amanda's" suffocating behavior, all in the name of love for her children, of course. With her at times false joy, and, at other times, her eyes brimming with tears, she repeatedly relives the memories of her bygone youth, beaus of past, and her faded promise, to the all too familiar resignation of her claustrophobic children. You may find her incessent instructions to them on how to breath, eat, stand, etc...exasperating, but this is her controlling nature. Having been abandoned 16 years earlier by her husband, she is determined to make her children "winners", saving them and herself from the obvious fact that they are not. Her grown children are wonderfully and convincingly played by Sam Waterston and Joanna Miles, and Michael Moriarty is equally moving as "The Gentleman Caller." A touchingly beautiful version of a classic, and a total pleasure from a gentler, simpler time. Tennessee now lies next to his beloved Rose, whose gravestone is inscribed...."Blow out your candles, Laura..."

Rating:
Summary: Fine adaptation of a great American tragedy
Review: Tennessee Williams's "The Glass Menagerie" tells of a lonely, over-controlled, over-controlling former Southern belle, now displaced to a small apartment in the city, and how she unintentionally, but quite effectively, creates great unhappiness for herself and her two children. She only wants the best, but ends up making things worse and worse.


Katherine Hepburn fits the role perfectly, and showed how fine an actress she was. She was not alone, though, as everyone played their parts to perfection: Joanna Miles, Sam Waterston, Michael Moriarty. Everyone comes off as sincere, earnest, seeking happiness, and finding only misery. This is tragedy at its finest, and a perfect example of how the pursuit of happiness is often the best route away from it.

Rating:
Summary: Magnificent and Spellbinding!
Review: Thank the theatre gods for releasing this absolutely spellbinding and majestic version originally produced for television in 1973.

Deftly balancing Williams' poetry and Hepburn's staunch strength, this version directed by Anthony Harvey absolutely resounds with gentle power and grace.

Waterston makes a delicate Tom without any of the overpowering effiminate qualities that undermines so many other actors who essay the role. He makes the consumate Thomas Wingfield by acknowledging Tennessee Williams' autobiographical reality and marrying it to idealized forms. Like Jason Robards was born to interpret O'Neill, Waterston was born to bring Williams' to life.

Of course one cannot be too effusive in praising the late great Miss Hepburn. Her Amanda is subtle, heroic and painfully tragic as she tackles one of the American theatre's greatest roles. Her work in this version stands as one of the great performances waiting to be discovered.

Thankfully this version is now availbe and serves as a must own for all fans of this play. Along with Paul Newman's equally excellent version, this demands purchasing and cherishing. Absolutely brilliant.

Rating:
Summary: one of the best but not the best version!
Review: This is the best version available. I say that because the best by far was the 1950 version that featured Miss Jane Wyman and Mr. Kirk Douglas. Its unfortunate that that version isnt available to the public to veiw. I saw it years ago in Chicago on the old late late show. Jane Wyman's preformance as Laura was moving and unforgetable. So much so that I refuse to buy any other version available. so if you have also seen the 1950 version, speak up and maybe we can get it released for purchase.

Rating:
Summary: TV version is a pity!
Review: Wonderful! Now I can get the version I've wanted all the time. (not the c**p containing John Malkovich) Now if they would only release the Ann Margaret version of "Streetcar"....

Rating:
Summary: Waiting is...
Review: Wonderful! Now I can get the version I've wanted all the time. (not the c**p containing John Malkovich) Now if they would only release the Ann Margaret version of "Streetcar"....

Rating:
Summary: Waiting is...
Review: Wonderful! Now I can get the version I've wanted all the time. (not the c**p containing John Malkovich) Now if they would only release the Ann Margaret version of "Streetcar"....