A terrific all blackperform this multi-award winning Broadway transfer of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer prize winning play must be considered a highlight in any playgoers year.
Updated to the 1980's and in the bedroom of a huge plantation in the American deep south Cat on a Hot Tin Roof takes place on the 65th birthday of father and plantation owner Big Daddy Academy Award Nominee & two time Tony award winner James Earl Jones who makes his West End debut who has just received news that his cancer is apparently in remission. His alcoholic former football star son Brick Olivier Award winner Adrian Lester has his leg in plaster and is room bound having broken his ankle the night before and is trying to fend of the sexual advances of his adoring sexually charged wife Maggie Tony Award Nominee Sanaa Lathan while being harassed by mother hen Big Mama Tony Award winner Phylicia Rashad about joining the birthday party. What follows is an emotional deconstruction of the family's problems as Big Daddy confronts Brick about his drinking problems as well as facing up to his own mortality.
Debbie Allen's production delivers a play that will live long in the memory with outstanding performances especially from James Earl Jones that deliver the savage humor and heartache that Tennessee Williams is so well know for. It is a brilliant exploration of strained family relationships. James Earl Jones is delivers a powerhouse performance as Big Daddy. It is such a thrill to see this brilliant actor on a London stage. He is brilliantly complimented by Phylicia Rashad who portrays his bubbly long suffering loving wife. Adrian Lester is magnetic their son Brick he is a brooding presence drinking to escape facing his inner demons and life in general. Sanaa Lathan is beautiful and seductive as his wife Maggie who longs for her husband to return to being man he was when they first married and to eliminate the possibility of returning to the poverty of her youth by securing inheritance for herself and Brick from Big Daddy's soon to be written will. The ting of a sticky hot decadent deep south plantation beautifully realised in the design by Morgan Large which resemble a cage trapping the characters with each other at different points of the play.
This emotionally charged drama dealing with the individuals conflicts between lies and the truth makes for a compelling night of theatre. A must see.
Mar 2010 by Bruce
