Katherine Kellgren as Laura in THE GLASS MENAGERIE. Photo © Gerry Goodstein.

In its current revival at the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey, "The Glass Menagerie" reaffirms the wondrous spell Tennessee Williams can cast. The production marks the dramatic directorial debut of Robert Cuccioli, once Broadway's elusively cunning Jekyll and Hyde. Under his perceptive guidance, the play's gentle humor emerges, and its evocative melancholia envelops the heart and singes the soul.

The Amanda of Wendy Barrie-Wilson is exceptionally absorbing. As a faded, displaced former Southern belle, she is grandly garrulous and annoyingly possessive. Her reaction to the upcoming visitation of a gentleman caller with her shy, crippled daughter is all spirited flutter, touched with giddy grandeur.

Recalling the genteel Southern charm of her youth, she sweetly captures the rhythm and grace of Williams' poetic text. All the desperation, warmth and humor are in place. She is one of the finest Amanda Wingfields in memory, and can proudly take her place alongside the memorable Amandas in this critic's experience: Helen Hayes, Jessica Tandy, Julie Harris and Maureen Stapleton.

Kevin Rolston is wonderful as the amiable Gentleman Caller. He is a most charming extrovert, warmly ingratiating and a tad naive. His approach to the role is hearty but sensitive. He manages to take the second act and make it his own.

As the poet-narrator, entrapped son and would-be adventurer Tom, Robert Petkoff handles the expositional monologues keenly, with a poignantly reflective demeanor. Katherine Kellgren is a sweet, willowy Laura; a girl with a slight now-and-again limp, to suggest she is little more than an emotionally crippled loner. The playwright intended that Laura's "defect need not be more than suggested," and Kellgren and the director have made a point of not exaggerating the issue.

Bruce Auerbach has graced a memory play with memory lighting, cradling the stage with an enveloping glow. There are plaintive violin passages filling the air, and waltzing refrains emanate from the Paradise Dance Hall across the alley. The faded antimacassars on the furniture, the miniature glass figures shining beneath the glimmering candlelight -- all complement a nearly 60-year-old play that never betrays its age.

"An Astonishing Performance"
An exerpt from The Star-Ledger
"A Mother with More Strength and Less Despair"
By Peter Filichia - June 30, 2003

Jessica Tandy once portrayed Amanda Wingfield in "The Glass Menagerie" -- and failed. Julie Harris later attempted the role, too, and fared even less well.

But Wendy Barrie-Wilson, with far less fame and reputation, is giving an astonishing performance as Tennessee Williams' famous faded Southern belle. She's well worth seeing in the production at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey in Madison.

Too many actresses stress Amanda's bitterness at being abandoned by her husband. Many actresses overdo her despair at having two grown children who still live with her. Tom has a low-paying job. Laura has a limp. Neither has prospects.

Barrie-Wilson instead masks Amanda's discouragement, and looks to the future. True, the slightest sad memory can immediately dash her mood. But she doesn't stay down for long. She listens intently to whatever her kids have to tell her, though the glint in her eye shows she's holding out for good news. If none comes, she rebounds. Even after Tom insults her, she patiently waits for the apology that she knows will come.

The actress stresses Amanda's strength. After she intones, "Life calls for Spartan endurance," she bolts up from her chair and stands ram-rod straight to illustrate how brute force must be used to combat adversity. Her two scenes where she gives her all to her telemarketing job are quite moving, too.

But when Amanda is happy -- which she is, after Tom announces he's bringing home his pal Jim to meet Laura -- she literally jumps with joy, and becomes the coquette of yore. Yet what Barrie-Wilson most brings to the part, shown through her smile and her soul, is her genuine love for her children. She hugs, caresses, and tickles them the way loving parents do. Most Amandas don't.

As Tom, Robert Petkoff has a brooding demeanor as he presides over the flashback scenes. He persuasively shows how overwhelmed Tom is. He's most effective when he gives a speech fancifully describing how he's spending his nights out. As he piles on exciting lie after lie, he makes an audience see how fervently Tom wishes what he's been saying is true.

Robert Cuccioli, known as an actor both on Broadway and at The Shakespeare Theater, has directed, and deserves some credit for what these two performers achieve.

Purists may carp that a theater devoted to Shakespeare is presenting a play that was written 328 years after the Bard wad buried. But Malvolio is mentioned in the first act, Romeo in the second, and Jim calls Tom "Shakespeare" quite a bit. Still, even if none of these names showed up in the text, any theatergoer would be grateful that Wendy Barrie-Wilson is on stage.

"Under the Direction Of Robert Cuccioli, William's Expressionistic Landscape Inspires Moments of Hypnotic Reverie."

"A Family of Seekers, Trapped in Their Lives"
by Naomi Siegel
Excerpts from The New York Times
Sunday, July 6, 2003

A yawning fire escape beckons stage right in Brian Ruggaber's evocative setting for "The Glass Menagerie," at the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey. Slinking its way up the back alley of the Wingfield family's modest St. Louis apartment, it serves as a visual metaphor for the lure of flight that mocks the quartet of frustrated seekers at the play's center.

Under the direction of Robert Cuccioli, William's expressionistic landscape inspires moments of hypnotic reverie.

Tom, the son and narrator, is played with compelling poignancy by Robert Petkoff. A would-be poet trapped in a dead-end job in a warehouse, Tom compares living at home to "being in a nailed coffin," and dreams of adventure in the Merchant Marines.

Mr. Rolston's performance...buoyant and poised.

"One of the finest Productions of any Williams' Work Ever Seen"
"This Production will burn itself into Your Own Memory."

"The Glass Menagerie"
By Stuart Duncan
The Princeton Packet TimeOFF
July 1, 2003

There is nothing amiss about The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey's staging of Tennessee Williams' autobiographical classic.

The Wingfield family of St. Louis may be dysfunctional, but there is nothing amiss about The Glass Menagerie on stage at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. The play, considered Tennessee Williams' most autobiographical, is getting a fresh, compelling airing by director Robert Cuccioli and a cast of four that not only rises to the level of "must-see" but delivers one of the finest productions of any Williams' work ever seen.

You will remember from stagings dating from 1945 (with Laurette Taylor) that the evening is described as "a memory play." There have been three movies, one in 1950 with Gertrude Lawrence and Jane Wyman; another in 1973 with the late Katharine Hepburn; and yet another in 1987 with Joanne Woodward and husband Paul Newman directing. More recently, there have been productions at Paper Mill, McCarter and George Street. Our setting is a small apartment, looking onto an alley, in St. Louis. And our guide is Tom Wingfield (Williams himself). He tells us that, being "a memory play," there will be music and sometimes shadows, as befits recollections.

And indeed, Bruce Auerbach's lighting and sound designer Richard Dionne's choice of music bring new insights to the work.

Robert Cuciolli does not come naturally to the play. He is, in fact, primarily a musical-theater talent (with fine appearances as Javert in Broadway's Les Misérables and in the title roles of Jekyll and Hyde). But he has eschewed the temptation to play the tents of music circuses throughout the country in favor of honing his craft: Mark Antony in Antony and Cleopatra; more recently the lead in the world premiere of Fiction at Princeton's McCarter Theatre. He admits that Menagerie is his first try at directing a "straight" play, and that he had never seen nor read the work and resisted seeing any of the films.

What has happened is that he and his actors have found moments never seen in past productions. One example will suffice: The first act is subtitled "Preparation for the Gentleman-Caller." And when Tom casually announces he is bringing a young man home for dinner from the warehouse where both work, his mother, Amanda, turns positively giddy. No hint of the future, no traces of Medea so common in other Amandas - just happily giddy.

You see what director Cuccioli and his company -- Robert Petkoff as Tom; Wendy Barrie-Wilson as a superb Amanda; Katherine Kellgren as the fragile Laura; and Kevin Rolston as the Gentleman-Caller of Act II -- have discovered is that Amanda is not just the raging control freak so often offered, but a mother desperate to hold the family together. That daughter Laura is as breakable as the glass animals she so prizes, but much of it is in her mind, and her limp may be as unreal as her pet unicorn. In real life, Williams' sister will end up in a mental institution and receive one of the last frontal lobotomies performed.

One cannot say enough about the cast. Ms. Barrie-Wilson is a marvelously complicated Amanda -- caring, furious, flirtatious, supplicating, living in the past even as she is determined to construct a future. Katherine Kellgren is a thoroughly believable Laura, the agony of shyness on her face replaced by a glow, only to be shadowed by reality. Mr. Petkoff is a confident Tom, meeting his demons with determination but always ready to blame his missing father for his wanderlust.

The surprise of the evening, however, is Mr. Rolston. He has been seen in small roles over the past three seasons, but nothing has prepared us for this performance, which turns memories of other actors in the role to smoke. He so completely dominates Act II that it becomes his play as never before. At one point as he is talking about the virtues of his public-speaking course, he uses a gesture that could only have come from an actual demonstration. And, sure enough, Mr. Rolston did take such a course, and indeed he has remembered the gesture and used it.

And so "a memory play" throws off the dust of six decades and becomes fodder for today. This production will burn itself into your own memory.

©PACKETONLINE News Classifieds Entertainment Business -- Princeton and Central New Jersey 2003

"Excellent Work Here"
"Well Worth Seeing"
An exerpt from TalkinBroadway.com's
"Sturdy Glass Revival in Madison"
by Bob Rendell

A sturdy revival of the beloved Tennessee Williams early masterwork, The Glass Menagerie, is gracing the stage of Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey at its comfortable theatre on the campus of Drew University in Madison.

This lyrical "memory play" is a fictionalized meditation on the author's relationship and last days at home with his self centered, suffocating mother, and mentally and physically challenged sister. The play is narrated by Tom (a Williams stand-in), a fledgling writer who in the midst of the great depression feels trapped in a factory job which helps pay the family bills. As it becomes clear that his sister Laura is unable to cope with any work situation, their mother Amanda focuses on finding a "gentleman caller" (read potential husband) for Laura. Act one is described as "Preparation for a Gentleman Caller"; act two, "The Gentleman Calls."

Robert Cuccioli (Broadway's Jekyll & Hyde), who has directed two regional productions of Jekyll & Hyde, directs his first play here. It is a good debut choice, as Menagerie is a lovely, small play that falls into the "it ain't broke, so don't fix it" category. However, it is also true that there is the need to find a specific tone for the play and for each of its roles. How ethereally, poetically, or realistically should it be played? If it is played too ethereally, it can become distant and dull; too realistically and it can lose much of its gentle other worldly pathos.

Cuccioli is clearly aware of the need to find a balance. He seems to have chosen to place a greater emphasis on the realistic elements of what is essentially a family tragedy. There is more harshness and pace than there is dreaminess and quiet. This is a valid interpretation when, as is the case here, the poetic nature of the work is not entirely abandoned.

The actors create a smooth ensemble...Robert Petkoff's Tom seems to perfectly fit Cuccioli's approach to the play. More real than poetic in his approach, he still manages to fully convey Williams' poetic dreamlike dialogue. All too human, he is an angry and ultimately understandably selfish young man. He also conveys the sadness and truth in such lines as, "Time is the greatest distance between two places."

Kevin Rolston is a solid, natural Gentleman Caller... Katherine Kellgren is a luminous Laura. This is an especially difficult role because Williams never fully spells out the roots and nature of her disability. Still, Kellgren manages to portray Laura as a three dimensional young woman, displaying her vulnerability and delicate appeal while maintaining the impenetrable mystery of a disturbed mind which resists the ministrations of those who love her.

Brian Ruggaber's set design is highly evocative. He captures the dreamlike aspects of the play by producing only outlines and lightly latticed representations of doors and walls along with ruffled curtains overhead. To represent the oppressive reality of the play, he covers the entire back wall and sides of the stage with oppressive red brick walls. Excellent work here.

Similarly, Bruce Auerbach's lighting design unobtrusively moves from naturalism to poetic effects. Hugh Hanson's costumes are appropriate. His dress for Amanda in the second act is particularly notable.

What can one say about this beloved, very familiar American classic? Most impressive is the success with which Williams manages to make the play fully and equally about each of the three Wingfields; the success with which he blends the ethereal and realistic; and his ability to convey both the tragic and inspiring nature of the events at hand. Interestingly, there are clear references to Tom's homosexuality, which were probably overlooked by most audiences when Menagerie was originally produced.

For those who are not overly familiar with this small, gentle Tennessee Williams masterpiece, the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey's sturdy and intelligent Glass Menagerie is well worth seeing.

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