Signature Center's "The Night Of The Iguana" Sinks Into The West, Like An Empty Sunset!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                    Oh, Lord God, spare me from bad Shakespeare or Tennessee Williams.  Having seen three productions of "The Night Of The Iguana" during my time in NYC, this comes off as the worst, for several reasons.

                                    All of them stem from director Emily Mann, who went so weak in her casting, and has no vision of what she wanted to accomplish with this staging.  This is exemplified by the casting and performance results from Jean Lichty, playing the pivotal role of anguished spinster Hannah Jelkes.  The sad thing is when she enters, Miss Lichty has the perfect look and manner for the part.  But when she opens her mouth--out the window goes all of Williams's poetry.  Darlings, as Mrs. Higgins said in "My Fair Lady," "She's ready for a canal barge."

                                   This is especially detrimental to the second act, which is largely a dialogue between Hannah and the Rev. Shannon, just as the second act of "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" is a dialogue between Brick and Big Daddy.

                                    Daphne Rubin-Vega has the earthiness for Maxine but plays her like she is from the upper barrio of NYC.  Come on, Daphne, it has been almost thirty years since "Rent," and you can't do anything else?  Get over it!  Tim Daly tries for Shannon, but, honey, has he aged, and his ravings of self-destruction are not at all convincing; instead of a man with inner torment, we get a petulant, childish drunk.

                                       Then there is Lea De Laria.  Why the hell was she cast?  The good thing is I had forgotten that Miss Judith Fellows, one of the roles I always wanted to play, gets less stage time than I remember.  The bad news is this spinster teacher, who is a repressed lesbian is anything but with De Laria playing it.  Hell, if they wanted to camp it up, why not just get Rosie O' Donnell????????????

                                           It hurts me to see Williams' last good play ruined in this manner.  With the audience laughing it up as if at a Neil Simon play, instead of a study of people in different stages of self-destruction.  The only real performance here is the great Austin Pendleton, as Nono, the world's oldest living poet.  I had forgotten he has lines--quite a few and thank God! --but the really remarkable thing is that, and I could see this from where I sat, when he is not on stage, he is never breaks character, but is always physically doing something related to the role he is playing, rather than just sitting there waiting for his next cue.  This is what acting is, if only the other cast members noted this, and if perhaps Pendleton had directed, better casting choices would have been made.

                                            My favorite line in this play is when Hannah says, "Nothing human is disgusting, unless it is cruel, unkind or violent."  I am sorry to sound so cruel but what been done with this "Night Of The Iguana" is truly disgusting, and I urge theatergoers to avoid it.

                                            Stick to the 1964 John Huston movie, darlings!  How does one top Grayson Hall singing "Three Little Fishies??????????????"