Glass Menagerie, The

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is a good show. Really. Quite good. Despite a total misconception in the production by director David Leveaux, and some of the worst lighting I've ever seen on Broadway (by Natasha Katz - who is usually one of the best). The play itself and most of the cast provide us with a satisfying, moving evening of theater.

Williams states at the beginning that this is a memory play, and Leveaux has curtains of varying thicknesses revealing layer upon layer of stage activity - opening and closing off parts of the stage as the action progresses. An interesting idea that doesn't work. Katz's lighting leaves Sarah Paulson as Laura, that poor sweet character, in the dark or in the dim, except for her scene with the gentleman caller where she is lighted basically for the first time, which doesn't work for me. I want to see this fine actress, feel for her and not just her mother, in Act One. Christian Slater, telling the story as Tom, seems ill at ease in the beginning, when he should be many years into a more secure future, but he does pick up as the play continues, and his inner turmoil is appropriate. Josh Lucas's performance as the Gentleman Caller is strong and magnetic. Jessica Lange shines with real depth to her anguish as the mother whose frustrations multiply as her son and daughter disappoint. No draperies stop this powerful actress from filling the theater with her torment.

The production is peculiar, but the totality, despite the production flaws, is ultimately worthwhile.