Off-B'way Reviews: A Streetcar Named Desire; Ghosts; Vanya

Sex plays a vital role in three classics works, now in revival Off-Broadway: Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts and, surprisingly, Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya in a solo adaptation called simply Vanya. How the directors and casts handle this hot topic determines the success or faltering of each show. 

Paul Mescal and Patsy Ferran in
A Streetcar Named Desire.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Williams’ Streetcar has had a total of nine Broadway productions since its debut in 1947 as well as numerous film and TV incarnations. But few have matched, let alone eclipsed, the impact made by Marlon Brando as the brutal, charismatic Stanley Kowalski in the original and immortalized in Elia Kazan’s 1951 film adaptation which also elevated Vivien Leigh’s delicate, shattered Blanche DuBois to icon status. (Sadly all that remains of Jessica Tandy’s Broadway original is a recording of one scene. Her praised performance lives on only in memory and written reviews.) Rebecca Frecknall’s innovative Almeida Theater staging, now at BAM’s Harvey Theater after Olivier Award-winning engagements in London, has divided critics. But I found it perfectly captured Williams’ elemental battle between the primitive Stanley and the delusional Blanche.

Anjana Vasan and Patsy Ferran in
A Streetcar Named Desire.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

I was not as enthusiastic about Frecknall’s assault-and-battery approach to Cabaret which is still running on Broadway at the August Wilson. But her imaginative minimalist interpretation is more effective here. Stripped of scenery and accompanied by a deafening percussive score (composed by Angus MacRae and performed vigorously by Tom Penn), Williams’ immortal play becomes a combat ballet like Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Figures from Blanche’s imagination such as her dead, gay husband (Jabez Sykes) and the messenger-of-death flower seller (Gabriela Garcia) insert themselves into the action in expressive dance movements. 

Film and TV hunk Paul Mescal is a commanding Stanley, holding his own against memories of Brando. He prowls and runs around set designer Madeleine Girling’s raised platform like a tiger, ready to pounce. But the production is dominated by Patsy Ferran’s

Anjana Vasan and Paul Mescal in
A Streetcar Named Desire.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

jittery, chatty Blanche. Barely holding herself together, her Blanche is teetering on the edge of hysteria at every moment, desperately staving off madness with alcohol, cigarettes, and flirtation. The sexual connection between her and Stanley is percolating beneath their every interaction, making his molestation of her inevitable. 

Anjana Vasan’s solid Stella (Stanley’s wife and Blanche’s sister) grounds the production and understudy Eduardo Ackerman (subbing for Dwane Walcott at the performance attended) delivered an embattled Mitch, torn between his attraction for Blanche and his revulsion at her promiscuous past. This Streetcar has primal force behind it but the new, uneven Ghosts does not.

Off-B'way Update: Streetcar, Threepenny, Macbeth in Stride at BAM

Patsy Ferran and Paul Mescal in
A Streetcar Named Desire in
London
Credit: Marc Brenner

Brooklyn Academy of Music will host an Olivier Award-winning revival of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning classic A Streetcar Named Desire, starring Oscar nominee Paul Mescal (Aftersun, All of Us Strangers, Gladiator II) as Stanley Kowlaski. Directed by Rebecca Frecknall (Cabaret), this Streetcar revival began life at London's Almeida Theater in 2022 and then transferred to the West End in 2023. There the show won Oliviers for Mescal and Anjana Vasan as Stella. Mescal, Vasan and Patsy Ferran as Blanche DuBois will repeat their London performances.

Streetcar will began performances in London at the Noel Coward Theatre Feb. 3-22, 2025 and then transfer to BAM starting Feb. 28 for a limited run until April 6. Streetcar has been presented on Broadway nine times and first opened in 1947 with Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter. 

Whitney White rehearsing for 
Macbeth in Stride.
Credit: Lauren Miller

BAM will also present a production of The Threepenny Opera from the Berliner Ensemble and Macbeth in Stride, Whitney White's reimagining of the Scottish play with Lady Macbeth as a powerful black woman. Both productions will begin in April. Macbeth in Stride is a co-production with Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington, DC, Philadelphia Theater Company, and Yale Repertory Theater. 

More Post-Oscar Pix

Triangle of Sadness

I've seen two additional Oscar-nominated films after the actual Oscar ceremony thanks to streaming services: Triangle of Sadness (Best Picture and Original Screenplay nominations, plus Golden Globe Supporting Actress nomination for Dolly DeLeon) on Hulu and Aftersun (Best Actor for Paul Mescal) on Amazon, rented for $6.99. 

Triangle is a clever social satire from Swedish filmmaker Ruben Ostlund (there's an umlut over the o but I don't feel like figuring out how to type one). The Oscar-nominated screenplay is divided into three parts: 1) the romance of two supermodels where they squabble over who picks up the restaurant bill (the woman earns more than the man, yet she still expects him to pay for them both); 2) a journey on a luxury yacht resembling Ship of Fools; the supermodels are just two of the passengers who also include a crass Russian capitalist and a British couple (Oliver Ford Davies is the husband) who manufacture grenades; 3) the ship sinks after an attack by pirates and a storm at sea resulting in much vomiting and diarrhea. The last part is a modern spin on JM Barrie's The Admirable Crichton in which I appeared as a Stable Boy in a high school production . Of course, Abigail the toilet attendant on the ship (DeLeon), becomes the captain on the desert island since she is the most capable of hunting and fishing. The balance shifts as Abigail pressures the male supermodel into a sexual relationship in return for food. Funny, sharp, scary.