A Streetcar Named Desire NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (174)
See it if you're ready for a stunning new interpretation of one of the greatest plays ever written. Gillian Anderson is astounding. Truly astonishing.
Don't see it if you prefer traditional productions of STREETCAR or can't sit for long shows. Ben Foster is a far from Brando as one can imagine.
See it if you want to see a masterful production of a fantastic play
Don't see it if You can't sit still for a long time
See it if You want to see a brilliant Blanche. Gillian so outstanding. Remarkable set. Strong supporting cast, evocative music, and devastating end.
Don't see it if You hate revolving sets which can make you a bit queasy, loud rock music and some confusing time period set pieces.
See it if you're a Tennessee Williams, Gillian Anderson, Ben Foster, and/or Vanessa Kirby fan. If you want an intense-and-edgy drama, this is for you.
Don't see it if you hate trekking to Brooklyn, dislike discordant & anachronistic music, or don't like watching cleaning crews on stage between scenes.
See it if you want to see this classic script masterfully performed and staged. The compelling performances made the time fly by.
Don't see it if Can't think of a reason why Read more
See it if Finally a production of "Streetcar" that understands what theater is about!
Don't see it if you want to see a traditional, old-fashioned, Tennessee Williams.
See it if Gillian Anderson is sublime as Blanche Dubois; interesting take on this classic play with modern set and rotating stage; strong overall cast
Don't see it if Ben Foster was a weak Stanley Kowalski, which diminished the play's force; long running time (3 1/2 hours) was challenging to sit through
See it if you love new productions of classics
Don't see it if you are hoity-toity and change annoys you
Critic Reviews (31)
"This 'Streetcar' is a shocking disappointment. Clocking in at an overheated but glacially slow three hours and 15 minutes, the production is heavy with phony rawness, look-at-me histrionics and a see-through contemporary set...Everyone in the play talks about Blanche’s refined demeanor, but Anderson’s one-note portrayal is hard, shrill and slutty from the start...Tennessee Williams is the one here who could have used protection."
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"Anderson’s interpretation strikes a note of dissonance with the other performances from this cast—it will surely be a polarizing point for audiences; I liked it. Inarguably, it’s almost as if she were in an entirely different play from the other performers...This is an enjoyable interpretation of an American classic, unfrozen from its typical place in time. If 'Streetcar' doesn’t expose the emotional crises of its central characters, there’s no point watching it."
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“Benedict Andrews' brilliant new production makes you feel as if this classic play was written just yesterday...The immediacy of this ‘Streetcar’ comes from the galvanizing intensity of the actors, and from the genius of Andrews' staging...These actors leave nothing on the table, and in the end, neither does Andrews...It's that kind of show: transporting, thrilling, nerve-jangling.”
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“The spareness and simplicity of Magda Willi’s minimalist cream-and-white set engage the audience...Gillian Anderson’s vivid Blanche is tougher than many other interpretations, making her downfall all the more extreme and meaningful as she gradually disintegrates...Ben Foster’s Stanley struts like a proud rooster throughout, but was for my taste a bit too one-note...Altogether, a terrific theatrical offering and a fine Tennessee Williams rendition.”
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“A gritty and gripping production...This production, directed by Benedict Andrews, unforgivingly refuses to offer the audience any sense of illusion...Anderson brings Blanche to trembling, desperate life...Foster inhabits Stanley with a much more casual attitude...Surprising at first, this offers even more shock and despair when, drunk with his male friends, Stanley erupts in violence.”
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"The acclaimed production is very tight, despite its three-hour run time, and presents a raw, brutal new staging…Anderson fits the bill perfectly as a woman who might be reaching the end of her saleable days…Powerhouse Ben Foster plays her antagonist Stanley Kowalski with an everyman violence that almost surpasses Marlon Brando in the role...But it's his vulnerability, especially in the scene where he cries and howls for Stella, that elevates him from mere caricature."
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"My reservations about Benedict Andrews's slick, vacuous production began with the set...The gleaming cube serves as a lavish but empty display case for a couple of rampant star performances...This production transpires in a vacuum, the play's markers of place and time ignored or misapplied...The production does have its rewards. Anderson's Blanche, aflutter with roiling tension, sighs her lines in singsong Southern cadences…Like Blanche herself, the production overstays its welcome."
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"Benedict Andrews’s ferocious new production of Tennessee Williams’s immortal play is the first I’ve seen to make plain that this honey-voiced aggressor can give as good as she gets...The heightened advance interest in this production speaks first of all to a name-heavy cast headed by Gillian Anderson and Ben Foster, in what strikes me as one of the most even-handed appraisals of 'Streetcar' I have ridden over the years. And among the best-acted, too. That’s not to say this is the most moving."
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