The GLASS MENAGERIE, Needs Dusting

Tennessee Williams is one of America's most important playwrights of the 20thC.  Williams has won 2 Pulitzers for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof & for A Streetcar Named Desire."  The Glass Menagerie is also a brilliant play but that does not necessarily equate with being great on B'way.  The talented cast included Tony winning actress Cherry Jones & Zachary Quinto of "Star Trek" fame.  This play received a great deal of befuddled laughter throughout but this production did not resonate with the pathos of a life unfulfilled and diminished dreams.  Amanda (Cherry Jones) is the mother whose husband abandoned her, their son Tom (Zachary Quinto) and daughter Laura, their physically disabled & socially dysfunctional daughter.  Amanda plays a mother so deranged & manipulative she fails to evoke sympathy for her plight.  Instead, Amanda over plays the role like Norma Desmond in "Sunset Boulevard;" totally immersed in her glory days & oblivious to realities' hardships.  Furthermore, Jones dialogue is difficult to decipher.  She sounded as if she had marbles in her mouth.  It didn't help that none of the actors maintained a similar or convincing southern accent.  The one redeeming actor was Jim, the gentleman caller (Brian Smith) who plays the role of a benign but misguided counselor with assertiveness.  The pantomines & dark set only belabored the drama.  Sorely missing from the play is the flirtatiousness between Amanda and Jim and the  emotional solitude of Laura.  Tom's torment in abandoning his sister does not registar as it was apparent he needed to escape from the clutches of his overbearing mother.  The GLAS MENAGERIE will sustain its significance amongst great literary works.  However, the sparkle reflecting off this GLASS was dim.