Dazzling star turns, inspired direction, and an exquisite production design add up to as magnificent an Antaeus Theatre Company revival of the 20th-century classic The Glass Menagerie as any Tennessee Williams lover could possibly wish for.

If you’re any kind of theater aficionado, I don’t need to tell you The Glass Menagerie unfolds inside the memory of a man who years ago followed in his father’s footsteps by deserting a stifling family life for one of adventure.

We never learn whether Tom’s dad (“a telephone man who fell in love with long distances”) looked back with regret at the life and family he abandoned.

 What Williams’ play does make clear is that Tom’s (Josh Odsess-Rubin) decision to abandon his mother Amanda (Gigi Bermingham) and more especially his sister Laura (Emily Goss) still weighs heavily on his conscience, even years later.

The playwright makes it equally understandable why Tom might have wanted to flee from the drudgery of a day-to-day existence that began each morning with the grating call of “Rise and shine” from his wilted Southern belle of a mother, followed by a tedious factory job which slowly but surely was killing his spirit.

Tom, at least, had the escape that even a drudgery-filled job provides. Painfully shy Laura has no such out, and stigmatized by a limp and incapable of completing even a week of the typing class Amanda still thinks her daughter is attending, she chooses now to spend her days taking solitary walks in the wintry cold.

Only Laura’s “menagerie” of tiny glass animals seems to give her a reason to live, that is until Tom invites fellow factory worker Jim O’Connor (Alex Barlas), a former classmate of Laura’s—and the object of her secret affection—to dinner.

There may have been memory plays before The Glass Menagerie (and there certainly have been many since its Broadway debut), but the play that made Tennessee Williams a household name remains the quintessential example of the genre, and director Carolyn Ratteray signals from the get-go that we are about to take a trip down Tom’s memory lane.

Even before a word of dialog is spoken, we have caught shadowy glimpses of Laura and of her Gentleman Caller, and the first line we hear Amanda utter before she sits down to share a meal with her son and daughter is her (prerecorded) voice as Tom remembers it just before Bermingham herself launches into Amanda’s latest etiquette lecture, this one on the proper way to eat one’s dinner. (“Chew! Chew!”)

 Angela Balogh Calin’s set suggests an apartment recalled rather than one existing in any sort of contemporary reality, and Jeff Gardner’s atmospheric sound design has remembered melodies (and composer John Ballinger’s ephemeral score) wafting through the air.

As for the performances Ratteray has elicited, they could not be more memorable.

An electrifying Odsess-Rubin in particular has a gift for making lines Tennessee Williams fans have read or heard too many times to count seem as if they’re emerging from Tom’s mouth for the very first time.

L.A stage treasure Bermingham’s Amanda isn’t just living on the edge of reality, she always seems this close to a nervous breakdown, a loose cannon about to explode at the slightest provocation, even when telemarketing magazine subscriptions to friends.

Goss’s ethereal blonde beauty suggests a Laura who might easily have followed in her mother’s footsteps and attracted her fair share of smitten gentleman callers were it not for the crippling insecurity Goss reveals to heartbreaking effect.

 Last but not least, the physically imposing Barlas gives Gentleman Caller Jim O’Connor the charismatic appeal of a motivational speaker combined with a genuinely good heart.

Beryl Brachman’s costumes are not only era-and-character perfect, Amanda’s gentleman caller-ready gown is quite something to behold, and the way Karyn Lawrence illuminates properties designer John McElveney’s glass menagerie as if from within is just one instance of her impeccable lighting design.

Intimacy director Amelia Ray, dialect coach Sean Spann, fight choreographer Jen Albert, dance coach Matthew Goldsby, movement coach Stephanie Shroyer, and lighting assistant Saoirse Sterbinsky add their own creative gifts to the mix.

Jenn O’Brien is production dramaturg and assistant director. Jasmine Leung is production stage manager and Jessica Osorio is assistant stage manager.

As delicate as Laura’s treasured glass figurines, as powerful as the urges that send Tom on his nightly excursions “to the movies,” and as superbly acted as any Tennessee Williams fan could possibly wish for, Antaeus Theatre Company’s The Glass Menagerie is quite simply as good as classic American theater gets.

Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center, 110 East Broadway, Glendale. Through June 2. See website for detailed schedule.
www.Antaeus.org

–Steven Stanley
May 3, 2025
Photos: Craig Schwartz

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Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Tennessee Williams, The Antaeus Company