In November of 1947, a new play opened at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, CT written by Tennessee Williams. That play was A Streetcar Named Desire. On December 3rd of that year the first of what would become (so far) nine Broadway productions opened. The play has proven to be catnip for actors and directors all over the world.

The economics of producing a play has made new productions of A Streetcar Named Desire more and more out of reach for all but the biggest of actors and most important directors. The result is the limiting of opportunities to bring Blanche DuBois, Stanley Kowalski, Stella DuBois, Mitch and the rest of the characters to life for less-famous, but no less-worthy actors.

Enter actors Lucy Owen and Nick Westrate who felt passionately that the language of the play and good actors was not just right economically, but also right for the play. Their production of A Streetcar Named Desire is produced in unique locations without using a set and without using props. Owen portrays Blanche and Westrate directs. They are both co-creators.

Their Streetcar Project has been staged in a variety of venues. Tonight they conclude the last of three nights in an old airplane hangar in the Frogtown area of Los Angeles. On Friday they will open in a 3-night run at an artists workshop in Venice. Additional performances will be announced for the East Coast soon.

Last Friday I spoke with them about their production, how it celebrates Williams’ language and how audiences find themselves listening and using their imagination to enter the world of three very haunted people. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

Q: Artistically, what made A Streetcar Named Desire the play for which this kind of setup would work? 

Owen: It just came out of a desire to work on this play and work on the character I’m playing, which is Blanche. Streetcar has been a favorite play of mine for a long time, like it is for a lot of people. And Blanche has been a favorite character of mine for a long time. Nick and I frequently refer to her as the female Hamlet. I just had a desire to work on her. And it came out of the pandemic, a dry time for a lot of creatives. We developed this slowly together out of necessity and out of what was available to us.

Westrate: The main thing we had available were these actors, their voices and their bodies. What we ended up finding out was that it’s a great language play. The characters say a lot. They tell you what they’re feeling. They tell you what they want, what they need, what they desire. And we started treating it like Shakespeare. You see Shakespeare performed a lot on a bare stage with nothing. So we started wondering what if you did that with Williams?

Q: How much of what you two are doing is motivated by the commercial demands of what theater is or how it is defined presently, not just in New York, but around the country?

Owen: Theater is changing so much. The demand for it is changing so much and getting and it’s quite expensive to make. Many theater companies rely on a star model. You have to have a famous person in one of these roles in order to make it viable financially, which is really understandable. But what it means is that working-class actors, of which I am proudly a member of that class, don’t get an opportunity to engage with this poetry. That’s just such a shame to me because there’s so many good actors who I want to see play the big, good, gorgeous roles. I don’t only want to see the same ten or so incredibly famous actors play all the same roles.

Q: We’re having this conversation a day after it was announced that Back to the Future – The Musical is closing [on Broadway] in January. It was capitalized for over $20 million and is not recouping a cent. I understand the idea behind established products like a Back to the Future. But imagine if Tennessee Williams was living in a world where only already established IP was what was performed. How would a Tennessee Williams today ever find his voice or his feet in theater?

Westrate: It’s an amazing question. I don’t think he would. I think we’re in an era [where] there’s a lot of fear right now. And so people are reaching toward something that they think is a sure thing.

Owen: It’s so disappointing for all artists personally. Every actor I know has gone through periods. Really established actors are losing their health insurance, writers are losing their mortgages, and artists are really, really struggling. Working class artists are really struggling.

Westrate: We talk a lot about path dependency in the arts, and you never change the path unless you actually try something new. 

Q: Elevator Repair Service started doing staged readings of novels like The Great Gatsby. That seems like a great idea given how much people are listening to books on tape, but it isn’t necessarily what one would think of as theater. But it feels like there is at least a desire on artists’ part, if not also on theatergoers, to not be hit with the bombast that is usually associated with big commercial theater.

Westrate: We live in such a visual age. We’re constantly looking at screens that are showing, showing, showing. This production asks the audience to really listen and it turns on the imagination in a way that I think people have forgotten.

Owen: It’s been galvanizing to interact with our audiences as we do this, because it’s been a risk for us. I’ve never done theater quite in this way before. Our audiences get to engage with their own relationship with the play and their own relationship with the characters, partially because they’re listening and their imaginations are turned on. But also, and I’ve heard this from a few people, it is partially because there isn’t the most famous woman in the world, the most famous man in the world, playing Blanche and Stanley. So they get to focus on hearing the play instead of focusing on celebrity or something spectacular visually.

Q: It’s not like when A Streetcar Named Desire was first on Broadway it had the best known actor in the world as Stanley Kowalski. [Star Marlon Brando rocketed to fame after appearing in the play in New York in 1947.]

Westrate: He wasn’t at the time. For so many years I thought that this play was about a sexy guy. It’s really not what the play is about. It’s a play about two women. I’ve never seen a production, until this one, that we have a play about two sisters. That’s ultimately what it’s about, in my opinion.

Owen: I’ve seen some gorgeous productions. I’ve seen beautiful performances. But I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a Streetcar that was an ensemble. Ours is an ensemble. It’s about four people. It’s about their relationships. It’s about the devastation that they experience together.

Q: Given that you’ve had multiple audiences see and experience this way of telling A Streetcar Named Desire, how do you think the play is resonating that is unique to your production?

Westrate: Great writers like Williams and Chekhov were writing for the future. [They] were interested in the future. Tennessee Williams has a beautiful quote in the preface of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof that “personal lyricism is the call from prisoner to prisoner, from the cells in which each of us are sentenced for our lives”. That’s a call that he’s making across the decades, across the generations. When you come to see the show, you’ll experience we’re really all just people in a room and a few people are going to speak. That’s the event. That’s what happens.

Q: Aren’t you basically sort of forcing the audience to see, not just in themselves, but in the other people in the theater, some parallels to what’s going on amongst these characters in the play?

Westrate: I hope so. I think it lets the play live right now. There’s this great dialectic between Stanley and Blanche in this play about realism versus magic, about the life of the mind versus hard facts about the value of imagination, about the value of art versus the wisdom of the body. Like there is this real conversation happening between these two people who have diametrically opposed worldviews that I think is very relevant today.

Q: You said the great playwrights like Tennessee Williams wrote for the future, not for the past. If we were to use A Streetcar Named Desire as an example of writing for the future, what do you think A Streetcar Named Desire has to say about our present, and by extension, our future?

Owen: A line is ringing around my head right now, “Don’t hang back with the brutes.” It’s a famous line of Blanche’s to Stella about investing in your better nature. 

Westrate: The line that immediately rings in my head, though I’ll say this wrong, is “deliberate cruelty as the unforgivable sin.” “The kindness of strangers” is the line everyone remembers. But there is a call for kindness and understanding. There’s a call for listening. I think the production calls for people to listen. And the tragedy of this play is watching these characters not be able to hear each other and the situation they get in because of it. So I guess Tennessee is asking us to listen to that call from other people, no matter how strange or bizarre or troubled they might be. We’re hoping to unleash some ghosts into America that will call all of our better natures forward.

To see the full interview with Lucy Owen and Nick Westrate, please go here.

Main Photo: Lucy Owen in “A Streetcar Named Desire” (Photo by Walls Trimble/Courtesy The Streetcar Project)

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Here are my Best Bets: October 28th – November 3rd:

JOAN – South Coast Repertory – Costa Mesa, CA – Now – November 24^th

Playwright Daniel Goldstein’s play, having its world premiere at SCR, is about Joan Rivers. The play looks at both the professional and personal life of the woman who made outrageous jokes and suffered enormous tragedies.

Tessa Auberjonois, who has appeared in nearly a dozen other productions at South Coast Rep, takes on the dual roles of Joan and Mrs. Molinsky. Andrew Borba plays multiple roles including Dr. Molinsky, Edgar Rosenberg and Johnny Carson. Elinor Gunn plays Melissa (her daughter) and Young Joan. Zachary Prince plays at least five roles including Jimmy, Blake, Harold and Chet.

David Ivers directs. Opening night is November 1^st. The show is recommended for audiences age 16 and older.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE – Frogtown area of Los Angeles – October 28^th – October 30^th/Venice, CA – November 1^st – November 3^rd

Tennessee Williams’ classic play has been performed more times around the world than one could possibly calculate. So there must be something unique about this production to warrant inclusion in our best bets. And there is.

Four actors, without a set or props, perform the unabridged text of A Streetcar Named Desire in unique locations. These are fully realized performances, not a reading. By all accounts of previous performances on the East Coast, this is a production not-to-be-missed.

Williams’ poetic language will be front and center in this production. Might it lead to a new understanding of Streetcar? There’s only one way to find out. 

Co-creator Lucy Owen plays Blanche DuBois. Brad Koed is Stanley Kowalski. Mallory Portnoy is Stella DuBois. James Russell plays Harold Mitchell. Co-creator Nick Westrate directs.

For tickets and more information for the Frogtown dates, please go here. For the Venice dates, please go here.

STRIKE UP THE BAND – MasterVoices – Carnegie Hall – New York, NY –  October 29^th

George and Ira Gershwin’s 1927 musical had a rocky start. It played in Philadelphia but didn’t make it to Broadway until 1930 when the original book, by George S. Kaufman, was revised by Morrie Ryskind. Many songs appear in both versions, but there are differences.

MasterVoices Artistic Director Ted Sperling has collaborated with writer Laurence Maslon to create a new version which combines “the best of the 1927 and 1930 version for the show.”

Joining MasterVoices are Shereen Ahmed, Phillip Attmore, Victoria Clark, Lissa deGuzman, Claybourne Elder, Christopher Fitzgerald, Bryce Pinkham and David Pittu.

This is precisely the kind of one night only events in New York that makes any serious fan of musical theater and/or the Gershwins wished they lived there.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS WITH DUDAMEL – Walt Disney Concert Hall – Los Angeles, CA –  November 1^st – November 3^rd

Latin American music is on the program for these three concerts celebrating Día de Muertos. 

Brazilian composer Villa-Lobos’ Chôros No. 10, “Rasga o Coração” opens the concert. That is followed by Yanga by Gabriela Ortiz – a work that was commissioned by the LA Phil and had its world premiere performance in 2019.

The second half of the program, and my personal favorite, is La noche de los Mayas by Silvestre Revueltas.

Joining Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic are the Tambuco Percussion Ensemble and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

LAND OF GOLD – PBS Great Performances – November 1^st (check local listings)

This is a behind-the-scenes documentary into the premiere of John Adams’ opera Girls of the Golden West which has a libretto by Peter Sellars. The premiere took place at San Francisco Opera in November 2017.

Appearing in this 90-minute documentary are Adams, Sellars and singers Paul Appleby, J’Nai Bridges and Julia Bullock.

The world premiere of any opera is a daunting task. This documentary allows viewers to get a sense of how demanding it is, particularly when you are putting a more honest spin on a part of history.

Check your local listings or go to PBS.org to watch Land of Gold.

That completes my Best Bets: October 28th – November 3rd. Enjoy your week!

Main Photo: Concept art for MasterVoices’ Strike Up the Band (Courtesy MasterVoices)

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One can imagine what her set-list might look like. She has long championed Jason Robert Brown and as a result has pretty much made The Stars and the Moon from Songs for a New World her own. Her roles in Ragtime and Porgy and Bess may yield a song or two from those musicals. She often includes Make Someone Happy in her concerts from her album, Sing Happy. Ain’t It de Truth? from Happy Songs might also be included.

NY City Center has released a clip of McDonald performing I Can’t Stop Talking About Him, so that’s a given.

Andy Einhorn, who regularly serves as her accompanist, will be in that role again for this concert.

New York City Center is home to the Encores! series of revived musicals, often some of Broadway’s more neglected titles, that has sent several of their productions to Broadway: Gypsy with Patti LuPone and Laura Benanti; Finian’s Rainbow with Cheyenne Jackson and Kate Baldwin and a little show called Chicago which is the longest-running revival in Broadway history.

McDonald, of course, has appeared on Broadway in 12 different plays and musicals. Her six Tony Awards are equally split between both. She recently recorded A Streetcar Named Desire in the role of Blanche DuBois for the Williamstown Theatre Festival (available for streaming on Audible). On television she will be seen next year in HBO’s The Gilded Age.

Tickets are $35. There are also VIP tickets available for An Evening with Audra McDonald that includes pre-show and post-show events. The link above will provide details about that.

Photo of Audra McDonald courtesy of New York City Center

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A Streetcar Named Desire – National Theatre Live – Now – May 28th

This week’s offering from National Theatre Live is the 2014 production of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire starring Gillian Anderson as Blanche, Ben Foster as Stanley and Vanessa Kirby as Stella. Benedict Andrews directed this Young Vic production.

Williams won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for this play about two sisters (Blanche and Stella) who find themselves sharing a small apartment in New Orleans with Stella’s volatile husband, Stanley. He doesn’t trust his wife’s sister and thinks there’s much more going on with her than she admits. Tensions rise as he becomes more distrustful and Blanche’s drinking, which she tries to conceal from them, becomes more and more problematic.

Andrews took a non-traditional approach to this production which was modern in look and feel and involved a set that was constantly in motion. Anderson earned rave reviews for her performance. Susannah Clapp, writing for The Guardian said of her performance:

“Gillian Anderson captures both Blanche’s airy pretensions to grandeur and her desolate loneliness. Her Blanche is a deeply sensuous, tactile woman whose natural instinct is to stroke Stanley’s hairy forearms or to provocatively disrobe in front of a flimsy curtain. But Anderson also conveys Blanche’s emotional solitude: she is especially fine in the scene with her nervous beau, Mitch, where you sense two helpless people desperately reaching out to each other.”

Anastasia – The Royal Ballet – Now – May 28th

The classic story of the young girl who may be Anastasia, the daughter of Tsar Nicholas II and the only person to survive the assassination of the Romanovs in 1918, was first turned into a one-act ballet by Kenneth MacMillan in 1967. Four years later he completed the full-length ballet set to music by Tchaikovsky and Bohuslav Martinu.

As part of their programming available for home viewing, The Royal Ballet has made this 2016 production of this ballet available for free streaming. Natalia Osipova dances the role of Anastasia. Christopher Saunders dances the role Tsar Nicholas II. Christina Arestis dances the role of Tsarina Alexandra Feodorova and Thiago Soares dances the role of Rasputin.

PBS Shows – Now – May 26th

Social media has been filled with posts about PBS making 20 Broadway musicals and/or concerts available for viewing through May 26th. A careful examination found that not all productions are available in all areas.

The following titles may be available regardless of where you live in the United States:

Annaleigh Ashford in Concert; Megan Hilty in Concert; Celebrating Sondheim; Leslie Odom, Jr. in Concert; A Broadway Celebration at the White House; Macbeth with Patrick Stewart; Alfred Molina in Red; Doubt from the Minnesota Opera and Cynthia Erivo in Concert.

Residents in these counties: NY: Bronx, Dutchess, Kings, Nassau, New York, Orange, Putnam, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, Suffolk, Sullivan, Ulster, Westchester; NJ: Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union, Warren; CT: Fairfield; PA: Pike have access to the following titles:

Buried Child with Ed Harris and Amy Madigan; Richard Thomas in Incident at Vichy; Bill Irwin and David Shiner in Old Hats; School Girls or, The African Mean Girls Play; Jay Sanders in Uncle Vanya and Kelli O’Hara in a New York Philharmonic concert of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel.

Sutton Foster in Concert seems to be an expired link.

Timon of Athens – Stratford Festival – Now – June 11th

In this Shakespeare play, the title character starts off rather care-free. He’s generous to a fault which prompts his friends to take full advantage of that generosity. When suddenly he finds himself bankrupt, he also finds himself without those same friends. Disillusioned and bitterly disappointed, he leaves Athens and becomes a hermit.

Joseph Ziegler plays Timon in this 2017 production directed by Stephen Ouimette. Ben Carlson plays the philosopher Apemantus; Tim Campbell plays Timon’s friend Alcibiades and Michael Spencer-Davis plays Timon’s steward, Flavius.

This is part of Stratford Festival’s At Home series where each week a new production becomes available for streaming for three weeks. Still available are productions of Macbeth and The Tempest.

Anne-Sophie Mutter: Mutter Virtuosi – May 22nd – May 24th

This 2014 Carnegie Hall concert by violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter found her leading the Mutter Virtuosi Ensemble and playing violin. The ensemble is comprised of young students and professional string players who are alumni of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation. 

The program for this concert included: Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins, Strings, and Continuo in D Minor, BWV 1043; the US premiere of André Previn’s Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra (with two Harpsichord interludes); Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and the Presto from Concerto in G Minor for Violin and Orchestra, RV 315 (L’estate) and Bach’s Air on the G String.

The program is available of Medici.tv and does not require membership. It is free.

Are you ready for more Best Bets at Home: May 22nd – May 25th?

Cendrillon – The Royal Opera – May 22nd – June 4th

Of Jules Massenet’s best-known operas, his version of the Cinderella story isn’t top of the list. The opera had its world premiere in 1899 in Paris and features a libretto by Henry Caïn.

This 2011 Royal Opera production stars Joyce DiDonato as Cendrillon, Alice Coote as Prince Charming, Ewa Podlés as the Stepmother and Eglise Gutierrez as the Fairy Godmother.

Laurent Pelly directed this production. The orchestra is lead by Bertrand de Billy.

Moby Dick – San Francisco Opera – May 23rd

The next in the streaming productions from San Francisco Opera is Jake Heggie’s opera based on the Herman Melville novel no one wanted to read in high school. The libretto is by Gene Scheer. For those who might be worried, they have condensed this whale of a book into an opera that runs just shy of two-and-a-half hours.

Heggie, who is perhaps best known for his opera Dead Man Walking, was commissioned by the Dallas Opera, San Francisco Opera, Calgary Opera, San Diego Opera, and the State Opera of South Australia to write Moby Dick. The opera had its world premiere in Dallas in 2010. Reviews were overwhelmingly positive.

Jay Hunter Morris sings the role of the single-mindedly determined Captain Ahab. First mate Starbuck is sung by Morgan Smith and Queequeg is sung by Jonathan Lemalu. Interestingly, Ishmael, the narrator of the book, is not part of the opera.

Leonard Foglia directed this 2012 production (which was a San Francisco Opera premiere) and the orchestra is conducted by Patrick Summers.

This SF Opera production is available for viewing beginning at 1 PM EDT/10 AM PDT on Saturday, May 23rd through 2:59 AM EDT on May 25th/11:59 PM PDT May 24th.

Our Lady of 121st Street – LAByrinth Theatre Company – May 23rd

In the movie The Big Chill the characters talk about how there’s always great post-funeral bash. When friends of the family of Sister Rose show up at the funeral home in Our Lady of 121st Street, they can’t have that bash…until they find out who stole her body.

Don’t get carried away thinking this will be a riotous broad comedy. It comes from the mind of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis. This dark comedy reveals what happens when life’s circumstances bring old friends back together who haven’t fully sorted out lingering issues nor overcome old wounds.

LAByrinth Theatre Company, who first premiered the play, will do a virtual reading with many of the members of the original off-Broadway cast on Saturday, May 23rd at 8 PM EDT/5 PM PDT. The reading will be available for viewing for 24 hours.

The reading will be directed by Elizabeth Rodriguez and feature eight members of the original Off-Broadway cast: Elizabeth Canavan, Liza Colón-Zayas, Scott Hudson, Russell G. Jones, Portia, Al Roffe, Felix Solis, and David Zayas. Joining them are Bobby Cannavale, John Doman, Laurence Fishburne, and Dierdre Friel. David Deblinger will read stage directions.

The Marriage of Figaro – Glyndebourne – May 24th – May 31st

Michael Grandage directed this 2012 production of the Mozart/DePonte opera at Glyndebourne in Sussex County, England. He updates the setting to the 20th century during the waning days of Franco’s regime in Spain.

The Marriage of Figaro is a comic opera in which Figaro and Susanna plan to get married. In order to do so, they must navigate the wandering hands and eyes of her employer, Count Almaviva.

The opera continues the story that was started in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville.

Figaro is sung by Vito Priante. Lydia Teuscher is Susanna and Isabel Leonard sings the role of Cherubino. The countess is sung by Sally Matthews and her husband, Count Almaviva, is sung by Auden Iverson. Robin Ticcati conducts the orchestra.

Grandage, best known for his work on stage (he’s a Tony Award-winner for directing the play Red by John Logan), made his debut as a director of operas with Billy Budd at Glyndebourne.

Lyrics and Lyricists – Jerry Herman: You I Like – May 24th – May 31st

The 92nd Street Y in New York is celebrating the 54th anniversary of the opening of Jerry Herman’s musical Mame at the Winter Garden with this concert from the Lyrics and Lyricists series celebrating the composer.

In addition to Mame, Herman’s musicals include Milk and Honey, Hello Dolly!, Ben Franklin in Paris, Dear World, Mack and Mabel, The Grand Tour and La Cage Aux Folles. Herman, who died in 2019, was the recipient of three Tony Awards and a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Participating in this concert (which took place earlier this year) are Tony Award-winner Cady Huffman, who made her Broadway debut in the original production of La Cage Aux Folles; Quentin Earl Darrington (who starred as Coalhouse Walker in the 2009 revival of Ragtime); Bryonha Marie Parham (Prince of Broadway); Andrea Ross (The Sound of Music) and Ryan Vona (Beautiful).

This concert was conceived and music directed by Andy Einhorn (Hello, Dolly! revival) and was directed by Huffman.

Jerry Herman: You I Like becomes available on May 24th at 7 PM EDT/4 PM PDT and will remain available through May 31st at 11:59 PM EDT/8:59 PM PDT.

Don’t forget you can also check out SFJazz’s Wayne Shorter Celebration Part 1 on May 22nd. The Metropolitan Opera offerings this weekend are Don Giovanni, Faust and Manon.

That’s it for this weekend’s Best Bets At Home: May 22nd – May 25th

Enjoy your long weekend!

Update: This post has been updated to correct the composer of The Barber of Seville as Rossini, not Mozart. Cultural Attaché regrets the error.

Main Photo: Gillian Anderson in A Streetcar Named Desire (Photo by Johan Persson/Courtesy of NT Live)

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Local audiences may know Michetti’s recent work at the Pasadena Playhouse with their production of King Charles III. Not needing to talk about the production to boost ticket sales, I had a refreshingly frank conversation with Michetti about his vision, how he feels this version is faithful to the playwright’s intent and the risks any director takes when trying to breath new life into a classic play.

What inspired this production for you?

I’ve always loved the play and have seen many productions. I was re-reading it and then began to realize, in a deeper way than I had understood, that one of the things Williams was dealing with was the difficulty of people facing the changing demographics of our world.

Blanche represents privilege from Southern Plantation life and debutante balls and was coming into a city that was vibrant, impoverished and multi-cultural/multi-ethnic and she was having troubles in this changing world. That was very true of our cities after World War II when [the play] was first produced. It is something we are still dealing with.

When re-read through that lens, I thought what if we amped up these themes and made clear those themes Williams was going after. That was the inspiration. The Williams Estate won’t allow you to change race, time periods or accents without permission. We had to make the pitch.

When did you realize that taking this risk with the play would work out?

This was an idea I had been toying with for 2-3 years before we got into it. Through most of this time I was imagining it in my mind. The first time I heard it and what I hoped we could do was in auditions. That was one of those moments where I got this jolt of excitement that we were onto something really great. We were discovering right up to moments before opening. Until you get the last part of the recipe, which is adding the audience and seeing their response, you don’t really know what you have or how they will react.

Desean Kevin Terry, who is African-American, plays Stanley Kowalski, the role made famous by Marlon Brando. How large is the shadow cast by Brando over anyone tackling this role?

He haunts it a lot! I was really thrilled when Desean and I really worked with it. He was aware of the film, but had not seen it in a long time. So he was approaching this in a very different way. For us approaching it as an African-American man in 2018, it’s a very different person than Brando created. The script tells us that Stanley is a salesman for some kind of company selling auto parts or something like that. An African-American man selling for a company like that today would have to have a certain polish and couldn’t be as working class as Brando was in the film. He’s not deliberately trying to be the anti-Brando, but he’s making choices to go in a very different way that shook off the ghosts of Brando.

For every successful revival of a play with a new vision that succeeds there seem to be dozens more that fail miserably. How risky is this for you as a director?

I have seen brave attempts at revitalizing and re-envisioning classic productions that have worked wonderfully and ones that have failed miserably. Some of the ones that worked wonderfully have revealed a whole new play I didn’t know. The great thing is these plays still exist. A production that tried and didn’t work doesn’t mean the property has been hurt by it. I think it is important that we allow artists to find new things in classic works. Particularly ones that have been produced as often as plays like Streetcar. I’m a big fan of Ivo van Hove who dusts things up and reveals things. I remember seeing Hedda Gabler directed by Ivo in New York. That was not Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler. It used his text, but it revealed a whole other play. There was an example of taking it too far and reaping some great rewards.

Did you see his production of The Crucible? I thought by making the girls actually witches he destroyed the metaphor Arthur Miller was using as the center point of the play.

I had the same feeling about that production. There were many things I found invigorating and exciting, but that central thing made it a different play. I had trouble seeing that there was greater merit in telling a play about actual witches than telling the story Miller had written. I wish I could sit down for coffee with him so I could understand that more.

So when do you know, as a director, whether what you are doing is going to end up being a disservice to the play?

It’s a really good question. I don’t know that I have an answer for you. I always make a deal with myself going in that if I get to the point in the process where it feels like what I’m doing is fighting the play too much or that the play is fighting what I’m trying to do too much, that I will back off from it. Yet there does come a time, and this is the nature of making theatre, you question how and where you can course-correct things once that course begins. It’s always a tricky thing in theatre.

If Williams were to walk in and watch your production, what do you think his response would be?

I think he would freak out a little bit because there’s a lot of technology that, when he was alive, he didn’t even experience. The whole way we are presenting this is so new to him. He was frequently excited when somebody brought new ideas about one of his plays. He had a lot of thought in his lifetime about Stanley being played by an actor of color. I don’t know that he was ever able to experience that. I would like to think he’d be very excited. I’d like to think he’d be very invigorated by how relevant the themes feel in this production.

Production Photos by Jeff Lorch.

The post Director Michael Michetti’s Desire to Update “Streetcar” appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Through the use of color-blind casting, Michetti says his goal is to “strip away decades of Southern gothic gauze to reveal striking themes of class, race, and gender—reinvigorating the classic which shocked audiences in its debut 70 years ago. By placing the iconic 1940s-era Blanche within an entirely contemporary and multicultural environment, this 21st century production highlights the timeless relevance of this play for our divided America.”

Jaimi Page plays Blanche, Desean Kevin Terry plays Stanley, Maya Lynne Robinson plays Stella and Luis Kelly-Duarte plays Mitch.

In the play Blanche says, “I don’t want realism, I want magic.” Will this production offer realism? Magic? Both? Something else? Who knows. But this certainly will be an interesting production.

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Ms. Fleming is returning to Los Angeles for a one-night only concert on Tuesday, February 6th at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. She will be accompanied by pianist Hartmut Höll. The program includes works by Brahms, Händel, Fauré, Dvořák and a tribute to Barbara Cook with a couple songs from musicals in which the late Broadway star appeared.

Always open to taking some risks, Fleming will be performing works by Caroline Shaw (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013) and Rufus Wainwright (know mostly for his seven albums of original songs.)

Before retiring from roles in operas, Fleming played Blanche DuBois in Andre Previn’s opera of Tennessee Williams’ immortal play, A Streetcar Named Desire for LA Opera in 2014. Co-starring as Stanley Kowalski was Ryan McKinny who just completed four performances of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass with the LA Philharmonic.

Since Fleming no longer performs roles in operas, this is the first opportunity to see her on a stage in Los Angeles since 2016.

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