And Speaking Of Tennessee Williams, Darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                         Yesterday, David and I (David having the day off) went to the Morgan Museum, to see the exhibit we had been longing to see, entitled "Tennessee Williams--No Refuge But Writing."

                          We were fortunate enough to arrive at 1PM, just as a talk about the exhibit was being given by one Carolyn Vega, who works for the museum as an associate in the Literature And Manuscripts Department.  She was scholarly, chirpy, in that New Age female curatorial way, which is an improvement on the Gorgonesque spinsters of old. You know, the cookie cutter assembly line resembling the librarian/archivist in "Citizen Kane."

                          I am not sure the fault is hers, or hers entirely, but David and I were disappointed at the exhibition's limitations.  Its arc, which I thought misguided, concerned the evolution of his play "Battle Of Angels" into what we Williams aficionados  now know as "Orpheus Descending."  Which, even in its final form, is not top tier Williams.

                          I could not grasp the fascination of this particular piece.  And even so, nothing about the character who enlivens the play; indeed, in every incarnation of it I have seen, walks off with it--Carol Cutrere, played in the original production of 'Orpheus' by the divine Lois Smith.

                         To be sure, his two most signature works, "The Glass Menagerie," and "A Streetcar Named Desire," were well represented, but nothing about how they evolved.  'Menagerie' started as a short story Williams wrote, which I have read, called "Portrait Of A Girl In Glass," while 'Streetcar.' which, at one point had the title, "Blanche's Chair On The Moon," evolved from a one-act play of Williams' entitled "Portrait Of A Madonna," featuring a deranged spinster at the end of tether named, Miss Lucretia Collins.  It was like a rough draft of 'Streetcar's' final scene.  And how an actor named Hume Cronyn, directed his actress wife, Jessica Tandy, in it, and talked Williams into coming to California, to see this performance, which is how he found his Blanche Du  Bois.  But was any of this mentioned?  No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                      No "Summer And Smoke," "Sweet Bird Of Youth," or "Night Of The Iguana."

                      Honestly, darlings, we expected so much more.  If Miss Lucy had seen it, she would have written something then and there, I can tell you.

                      As for Blanche/Jessica/Vivien, they would have been appalled.  Walking through this, they would have uttered, not Blanche's iconic line about depending on the kindness of strangers, but, in a Mae West type voice, the less prosaic, "Don't mind me, boys!  I'm just passin' through!!!!!!!!!!"

                      Tennessee Williams deserves better.  And you should have seen the patrons!

                       Many resembled the most grotesque characters out of Williams and Carson McCullers!!!!!!!!!!

                         Or, maybe, that was just part of the exhibit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!