By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) It’s taken ten years for the Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans (TWTC) to unveil its first production of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Along with A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie, it is considered the third jewel in the crown…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Throughout his life, Tennessee Williams knew tragedy. Whether through his sister Rose’s struggle with mental health or the loss of his lovers Bernard Dubowsky (aka Kip Kernan) and Frank Merlo, Williams knew the sting of loss and hopelessness. But as a very young man, he was unacquainted…
By AARON KRAUSE “Bigger isn’t better.” So go the lyrics to a Cy Coleman and Michael Stewart song from the musical “Barnum.” At least, bigger isn’t always better. A fine example is New City Players’ (NCP) small scale, yet heartfelt, haunting, heartbreaking, and sizzling current professional production of Tennessee Williams’ classic, sultry, poetic, Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 tragedy, A…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) While the Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival has ended this year’s presentations and its famed Scholars Conference, serious study of the playwright’s early work abounds in Outraged Hearts, the production being helmed by The Fire Weeds, a new, female-centric production company in New Orleans. The two…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) With seven seasons under its belt, the Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans, superintended by the diligence of producing artistic directors Augustin Correro and Nick Shackleford, has succeeded in its founding premise: to present authentic works by Williams – especially infrequently produced and rarely-seen pieces –…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) With its undercurrent of racism, statutory rape and threatened castration, Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird of Youth is not a play for the meek. Set in the 1950s, it is a story of two desperate characters seeking salvation in the fictional town of St. Cloud, Mississippi. The first…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Many fans of Tennessee Williams know of the feelings of anguish he experienced when dealing with his sister Rose Isabel Williams. Rose, who had suffered mental instability and had outwardly expressed her own sexual desires, was the victim of a botched prefrontal lobotomy authorized by her domineering…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) There’s something to be said when a major New Orleans staple like Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is able to been seen with a new wrinkle. The Pulitzer Prize winning play set on a Mississippi Delta plantation is now on the boards at Le…
By ALAN SMASON Tennessee Williams’ last play on Broadway was the terribly titled Clothes for a Summer Hotel, which lasted for 14 performances before it shut down. The play bears the explanatory subtitle “A Ghost Play” and that should have given critics and audiences alike an explanation that the historic characters being portrayed – specifically…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Since its founding, the mission of the Tennessee Williams Theatre Company (TWTC) has been to tell the stories of New Orleans’ best known playwright in bold and expressive ways. In addition to presenting well known pieces from his repertoire, the company’s two artistic directors, Augustin J. Correro…
By ALAN SMASON If, as the adage says, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then satire must be the epitome of adoration. Two one-act plays by famed playwright Christopher Durang and another by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa have served to turn the tables for longtime fans of Tennessee Williams, accustomed as they are to themes of…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) When Bryan Batt steps on the stage of Le Petit Theatre du Carré as the star of the one-man play Dear Mr. Williams, he is literally living two lifetimes, his own and that of revered playwright and poet Tennessee Williams. Developed and workshopped since its inclusion as…
