Regional
The Glass Menagerie
(Mandell Weiss Theater, La Jolla; 492 seats; $29.75 top)
Laura - Jane Adams
Tom - Randle Mell
Jim - Matt Mulhern
Amanda - Marion Ross
Adams, whose slight frame gives her an appearance as fragile as her character's collection of miniature crystalline animals, makes the pathologically shy girl-woman so sympathetically real that her crushing realization about her gentleman caller breaks hearts anew -- even those seemingly hardened by familiarity with Williams' sad story.
And it is terribly sad. Williams' semi-autobiographical recollection -- about a young man feeling trapped in a low-rent, depression-era St. Louis apartment with his desperately eccentric mother and emotionally stunted sister -- exudes disillusionment. Any hopes raised turn out to be false and even running away proves futile.
Despite its melancholic metaphor, "Menagerie" continues as a theatrical staple because of its shimmering imagery and poetic symmetry. Also, like so many of Williams' works, it offers marvelously full roles for women.
Adams triumphs in her role, unerring in her nervous gestures and pinched postures. As domineering mother Amanda, however, Marion Ross doesn't manage the same consistency.
Ross certainly shows diversity, swinging madly from nattering busybody to frantic manipulator. In one delicious moment as the latter, her face is underlit ironically by Peter Maradudin's lighting design, giving her the sepulchral look of Faye Dunaway in "Mommie Dearest."
Still, that's the overall problem. Director Douglas Hughes hasn't settled on a clear concept for the character of Amanda, and such fuzziness hurts Ross and the play. Is she laughable or deranged? Silly or malevolent?
As son-narrator Tom, Randle Mell is too detached, too much the observer. His decision to flee becomes less wrenching than it would be if he exhibited more warmth toward his sister. And he, like Ross, slips frequently from the Mississippi accent.
Matt Mulhern does a sensitive turn as the brash gentleman caller who brightens Laura's drab life for one shining evening.
Maradudin's evocative lighting highlights the tech work. David C. Woolard's costuming doesn't do Ross any favors and Andrei Both's set fills the huge area around the Wingfields' cramped apartment with a neon-outlined skyline, a catwalk and a fire escape.
It never quite overcomes the feeling that this play is better done on a more intimate stage. Runs through June 14.
Scenic design, Andrei Both; costume design, David C. Woolard; lighting, Peter Maradudin; music and sound, Michael Roth. Reviewed May 10, 1992.
Variety is striving to present the most thorough review database. To report inaccuracies in review credits, please click here. We do not currently list below-the-line credits, although we hope to include them in the future. Please note we may not respond to every suggestion. Your assistance is appreciated.
