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Thats true of most Tennessee Williams, and especially his later and more lurid work.
Thats proven by La Femme Theatres considered but inert revival ofThe Night of the Iguana.
If directors are going to keep taking swings at Williams, they have to get everyones pulse rate up.
InIguana, theres plenty of introspectionsome of it well and delicately renderedbut not enough momentum to grip you.
The characters keep bracing for a storm, yet Manns production stays placid.
A lot of the plays success depends on the Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon, played here by Tim Daly.
That becomes an issue considering the women who circle around Shannon.
Her Maxine reads as a fun, competent hotel manager.
I think you need more mess.
Maxine distrusts Hannah immediately, and then more so once Hannah and Shannon start talking.
But Lichty and Daly dont spark like that.
Litchty does an airy, mannered accent, but keeps Hannahs need for Shannon to tightly under control.
Here, too, theres no threat of boiling over, just a low, contemplative simmer.
There are, admittedly, things to be uncovered by this approach.
They also talk a lot, yes, about that trapped iguana.
But wheres the immolation that got them there?
The Night of the Iguanais at the Pershing Square Signature Center.
