THE GLASS MENAGERIE BOOK [Paperback]

The revolutionary newness of The Glass Menagerie . . . was in its poetic lift, but an underlying hard dramatic structure was what earned the play its right to sing poetically. -- Arthur Miller

With the advent of The Glass Menagerie . . . Tennessee Williams emerged as a poet-playwright and a unique new force in theatre throughout the world. -- Lyle Leverich in "Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams"

No play in the modern theatre has so captured the imagination and heart of the American public as Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie. Menagerie was Williams's first popular success and launched the brilliant, if somewhat controversial, career of our pre-eminent lyric playwright. Since its premiere in Chicago in 1944, with the legendary Laurette Taylor in the role of Amanda, the play has been the bravura piece for great actresses from Jessica Tandy to Joanne Woodward, and is studied and performed in classrooms and theatres around the world. The Glass Menagerie (in the reading text the author preferred) is now available only in its New Directions Paperbook edition. A new introduction by prominent Williams scholar Robert Bray, editor of The Tennessee Williams Annual Review, reappraises the play more than half a century after it won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award: "More than fifty years after telling his story of a family whose lives form a triangle of quiet desperation, Williams's mellifluous voice still resonates deeply and universally." This edition of The Glass Menagerie also includes Williams's essay on the impact of sudden fame on a struggling writer, "The Catastrophe of Success," as well as a short section of Williams's own "Production Notes." The cover features the classic line drawing by Alvin Lustig, originally done for the 1949 New Directions edition.

Tennessee Williams (1911 - 1983) first won recognition with the Broadway production of The Glass Menagerie in 1945, followed by his masterpiece, A Streetcar named Desire in 1947. Later hits included Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Suddenly Last Summer, Sweet Bird of Youth, and Night of the Iguana. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Despite being digitally remastered, this 1964 full-cast production featuring four of America's best stage actors doesn't quite work. They sound as if they're reading lines, rather than acting--they don't manage to make the listener suspend reality and enter the life of the play. Their Southern accents seem forced and the language stilted. In addition, as the actors wander in and out of range of the microphones, their voices strengthen, then fade. The third CD of the package contains rare recordings of Williams himself reading the opening dialogue and closing scene of the play, as well as several poems. It's interesting listening to his slightly nasal, gentle drawl, yet all in all, some archival material is best left on the shelf. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.