Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (Broadway Theatre Archive)

Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (Broadway Theatre Archive) Review

It's rare that filmed versions of great theatre plays come across with a sense of feeling and emotion the reader receives from the book. Made in 1973, this Broadway Threatre Achive features a magnificent performance of Katherine Hepburn, and in my opinion, the only really great performance.

The drama focuses on a family living with their illusions and delusions. Amanda, whose husband deserted the family, is delusional about her past life, the gentleman callers, the ones who got away, She lives in the past. Tom, a poet, dreams for more, but works in the warehouse and sees movies all the time. He is a dreamer. Finally, crippled Laura, anxiety-ridden, whose fantasy of life is the small delicate glass animals and the victrola.

Mother is domineering and very critical of Tom, and she has asked Tom to invite a gentleman from the warehouse for dinner, fearing Laura will be an old maid. Amanda's hopes are high.

The Gentleman Caller
Jim was done well, maybe a little too exuberant. Even though Jim was everything in high school, (little mention), he became a warehouse worker, still dreaming for what he was supposed to be.

The Role of Laura - looking depressed
When we READ the dramatic play, we attach a face and personality to the character. In this production, least impressive was Laura. To me, from the book, Laura was alive in her own world and hardly concerned about men, but she was more whimsical and innocent. But this actor came as depressed and emotionless, certainly not who Tennessee Williams' created.

Sam Waterston ???
Although he wasn't as bad as the actor portraying Laura, I just didn't see this guy as the meek and mild "poet", warehouse low wage earner, and a real loner going to movies all the time. It just didn't fit.

The gem of it all - Katharine Hepburn
There's no doubt this was an amazing portrayal of the Southern belle Amanda. One of the best scenes were her telephone soliciting, or when she discovers the dream is over with the gentleman caller.

Don't forget to view the previews from other great theatre works. Plus, another version exists on this great play. Glass Menagerie, The directed by Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward stars. I plan to see it soon.

Lauret Taylor - we will never see that performance
According to the Broadway - The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There the legends of Broadway all raved and raved about the performance of Lauret Taylor, as Amanda, in the very early days of theatre. Too bad we may never see that For another grand performance in theatre see Katharine Hepburn in Long Day's Journey Into Night..... Rizzo

Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (Broadway Theatre Archive) Overview

After what producer David Susskind called "the longest wooing for a part in a lifetime of dealing with stars," four-time Oscar winner Katharine Hepburn (On Golden Pond) made her television dramatic debut as the indomitable, overbearing matriarch, Amanda Wingfield, in Tennessee Williams' poignant 1945 memory play, which reteamed her with director Anthony Harvey (The Lion in Winter). "The Glass Menagerie" portrays a mother whose preoccupation with her past as a Southern belle and her unrealistic dreams for her children's futures threaten to smother her painfully shy daughter (Joanna Miles) and her aspiring writer son ("The Killing Fields'" Sam Waterston). Michael Moriarty plays the gentleman caller whose visit offers false hope and disrupts the family's precarious balance. 1973-74 Emmy Awards - Best Supporting Actor, Michael Moriarty; Best Supporting Actress, Joanna Miles.

Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (Broadway Theatre Archive) Specifications

Katharine Hepburn, one of the great American actresses, stars in this film adaptation of one of the greatest American plays, Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie. Hepburn plays Amanda Wakefield, a faded Southern belle now living in a small urban apartment, where she suffocates her two children--her restless son Tom (a very young Sam Waterston) and her painfully shy daughter Laura (Joanna Miles)--with her incessant mixture of insistent cheer and guilt. After much prodding from Amanda, Tom finally brings home a friend from his workplace, in the hopes that he might strike up a romance with reclusive Laura. The result is one of the sweetest and most heartbreaking scenes ever written. Hepburn's steely will and sudden vulnerability make her ideal for the domineering mother, but the entire cast--including Michael Moriarty as the "gentleman caller"--is superb; Moriarty and Miles deservedly won Emmy awards for their performances. --Bret Fetzer

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