EMA REVIEWS: The Glass Menagerie ***** Delicious

An always timely classic

By Paul Atreides

Author, Playwright, and Theatre Critic at EatMoreArtVegas.compaul-atreides.com  

What makes a play – American or otherwise – become a classic? Is it the roles? Is it a story? Is it a theme? Hefty roles attract actors. Good stories attract directors. Relevant themes that remain current or reemerge attract audiences. Most of the Tennessee Williams catalogue qualifies. Along with A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Glass Menagerie, now playing at Las Vegas Little Theatre, is one of his most produced.

The story and themes embedded in the play are still strong today; the mother who revels in her youth; the son who longs to get out from under a boring, tedious life; the daughter who is painfully shy due to a physical flaw; the young man who knows he hasn’t fulfilled the potential evident in high school. All those things are common because they’re human qualities.

Director Walter Niejadlik, who is somewhat of a Tennessee Williams aficionado, has made sure to capture the lighter moments amid the sobering ones and delivers a solid production.

The whole story is narrated by Tom Wingfield, played by Michael Blair, in short segments that are delivered as memories of his life. Blair’s talent particularly shines in delivering the wistful, tinged with regret. In scenes of his youthful dealings with an overbearing mother, absent father, and dependent sister, the frustration mounts well over the course of the play.

Gillen Brey plays the mother, Amanda Wingfield, with all the gusto the character deserves. She mixes in the anxiety and sense of regret in just the right amounts to deliver a three-dimensional character. Amanda talks incessantly to the point that the other characters can’t get in a response. In a scene with Jacob Moore, who plays dinner guest and “gentleman caller” Jim O’Connor, Brey fires off a battery of questions that Moore takes a breath to answer and can’t.  The timing between the two couldn’t be better.

For his part, Moore’s “gentleman caller” comes across as boisterous, affable, and confident, but manages to allow the doubt to creep to the surface in the right places. He could soften a tad bit more as he lowers the boom of disappointment on Laura, played by Waverly Jade. Yet, the two mesh well together in their scene, each providing glimpses of what could have been.

With her head down and small, halting delivery, Jade does a credible job bringing Laura’s lack of confidence to the forefront. Her physical flaw is never explicitly explained, but is assumed to be some deformity of one leg which causes her to limp and is the underpinning of her personality – or lack thereof. Jade’s only fault in performance is the inconsistency with the limp.

Production values excel with Ron Lindblom’s 1940s St. Louis back-alley apartment, from the wallpaper to the furniture. Toss in the beautiful lighting by Ginny Adams, and the stage transforms with the passing of time. Highlighting the absent father’s portrait on the upstage wall adds a subtle detail that brings a great deal of substance to the story of the Wingfield family. The uncredited sound is terrific, especially when the music from the dance hall across the alley filters to the apartment.

A pet peeve is delivered in the props. To bring such realism to all other areas, then having actors mime eating food and drinking from obviously empty cups and glasses yanks the suspension of disbelief, however briefly, right out from under the audience. Yes, I know there’s a note in the production script that those things are unnecessary, and perhaps it would work if all the other production values matched that representational sense.

That pet peeve aside, this is a solid production of a timely American classic. Go see this show, and you’ll realize that humanity remains humanity, regardless of time.

What: The Glass Menagerie

When: 7 p.m. Friday - Saturday; 2 p.m. Sundays through May 4

            2 p.m. Saturday, April 26 & May 3

Where: Las Vegas Little Theatre - Mainstage, 3920 Schiff Drive

Tickets: $20 - 37 (702-362-7996; www.lvlt.org)

Grade:  ***** Delicious

Producer: Las Vegas Little Theatre; Director: Walter Niejadlik; Set Design: Ron Lindblom; Set Decoration: Michael Blair; Lighting Design: Ginny Adams; Costumes: Julie Horton; Stage Manager: Jim Braun