The Glass Menagerie is in expert hands as International City Theatre revives the masterpiece that first put Tennessee Williams’ name on the map, giving it a 74th-anniversary revival sparked by impeccable direction, striking design, and performances that breathe fresh new life into a classic.

Unlike a number of recent high-concept reinventions, director John Henry Davis respects Williams’ original vision for his 1944 four-hander, the antithesis of the more melodramatic, sexually charged works soon to come, pretty much to the letter. (Click here to find out who’s who and what’s what.)

Working in tandem with scenic designer Christopher Scott Murillo, lighting designer Stacy McKenney Norr, and sound designer Corwin Evans, director Davis follows Williams’ stage directions (“Memory takes a lot of poetic license. It omits some details; others are exaggerated, according to the emotional value of the articles it touches, for memory is seated predominantly in the heart.”) just as it does the words of our guide down memory lane. (“Being a memory play,” explains Tom, “it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental, it is not realistic. In memory everything seems to happen to music.”)

Enhancing Williams’ words every step of the way are Murillo’s real-meets-surreal set, Norr’s evocative lighting that illuminates Laura’s glass figurines as if from within (kudos to resident properties designers Gordon and Patty Briles), and sound designer Davis’s wistful musical underscoring.

 Resident costume designer Kim DeShazo’s period outfits are just as fine, with special snaps to a party gown that is equal parts lovely and awful, and resident designer Anthony Gagliardi’s hair and wigs establish character and era as well.

Still, if there is anything Glass Menagerie aficionados will take home from their umpteenth revival, it’s the personal stamp Davis’s actors have put on four of Williams’ most iconic characters.

 Unlike a number of Amandas before her, the reliably superb Jennifer Parsons gives her children as much reason to love her as to find her a royal pain while convincing us that the St. Louis transplant could indeed have been the loveliest of Southern belles only thirty or so years ago. As funny as she is heartbreaking (and as girlish and hopeful as she is life-hardened and bitter), Parsons’ unforgettable Amanda is all this and more.

 Casting an actress as lovely as the gifted Lizzie Zerebko to play Laura (and giving her only the slightest of limps) not only makes the plainness Tom’s sister sees in her “crippled” self entirely in her mind, it becomes absolutely believable that a gentleman caller might find her both pretty and desirable.

 Depending on the actor playing him, Jim O’Connor can be either obnoxiously full of himself or ego-free prom-king perfection. Matinee-idol-handsome Emilio Garcia-Sanchez opts for the latter to engaging effect, and if his Jim isn’t exactly the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, it’s hard not to fall as head over heels as Laura and believe in the bit of romantic fantasy that’s been added by choreographer Palmer Davis.

 Still, if there’s any performance like to produce awe in Williams lovers and Menagerie newbies alike, it’s Ty Mayberry’s, the versatile leading man not only making it clear that Tom’s conflicted relationship with Amanda is made up of as much love as hate but suggests in the subtlest of ways that, like the playwright who created him, Tom’s desire to escape his repressive home may stem from his own sexual repression. The Glass Menagerie works just fine if the audience doesn’t pick up on any gay vibes. It works even better if they do.

Indeed, the only thing that doesn’t quite work at ICT are accents that sound to this reviewer’s ear more Southern than St. Louis, entirely appropriate for Blue Mountain native Amanda but less so for characters who’ve presumably grown up surrounded by Midwesterners. (Loren Lovett-Cohen is dialect coach.)

Molly Grant is assistant director. Victoria A. Gathe is production stage manager and Jessica Keasberry-Vnuk is assistant stage manager. Casting is by Michael Donovan, CSA. Richie Ferris, CSA, is casting associate.

 I’ve now seen seven Glass Menageries on stage (and three more on film) and thanks to pitch-perfect casting and the provocative character choices its actors make, International City Theatre’s is one of the best. Whether you’re discovering Williams’ most haunting of plays for the first time or re-experiencing its particular brand of stage magic, you could hardly ask for more than this touching, captivating revival.

International City Theatre, Long Beach Performing Arts Center, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach.
www.InternationalCityTheatre.org

–Steven Stanley
August 30, 2018
Photos: Tracey Roman

Tags: International City Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Review, Tennessee Williams