Broadway Cast of Glass Menagerie Didn’t Like The Play

Zachary Quinto as Tom in The Glass Menagerie, coming to Broadway
Zachary Quinto as Tom in The Glass Menagerie, coming to Broadway in September

None of the cast of the new Broadway production of “The Glass Menageries” was impressed with Tennessee Williams’ play when they first read it in school — not  Zachary Quinto, not Cherry Jones, not Celia Keenan-Bolger.

Cherry Jones as Amanda
Cherry Jones as Amanda

“I thought Amanda was kind of freakish; I didn’t buy it,” says Jones, the actress who is about to play the character of the mother. “It was just because I lacked depth and life experience I couldn’t appreciate the woman’s dilemma – and the beauty of the woman.” Now, Jones says, “I love her.”

“I felt pretty disconnected from it,” says Celia Keenan-Bolger, who plays Laura, the daughter. “ I come from a pretty functional family, and I remember thinking: I can’t find my way into this play.”

John Tiffany felt differently. “I always found it very truthful and very moving.” Tiffany, best-known for directing “Once,” is directing the seventh Broadway production of “The Glass Menagerie,” which is opening on September 26, 2013 at the Booth Theater.

Celia Keenan-Bolger as Laura
Celia Keenan-Bolger as Laura

To hear Quinto talk about it in my interviews with the four cast members, it was Tiffany’s production that turned his view around.

In the video below the cast members answer:

When they first learned of the play

What their favorite line is

What the difference is between stage and screen acting

Cherry Jones talks about her character Amanda Wingfield (which is in part a repeat of a section in the video above but then comments that are new)

Author: New York Theater

Jonathan Mandell is a 3rd generation NYC journalist, who sees shows, reads plays, writes reviews and sometimes talks with people.

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