A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE Perfectly Fit For Today — Review

The math is simple: what happens when you pair one of the hottest working actors around with an all time classic American script? Greatness. 

Starting where so many great works do, at the Almeida in London, this incendiary revelation of a production transferred to the West End in 2022, where it sold out almost instantaneously. I was fortunate to have caught the performance back then and all these months later I still think about director Rebecca Frecknall’s exhilarating revival near weekly. After returning to the West End earlier this year, A Streetcar Named Desire has now made its way to the American shores by way of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, with the original 2022 company still intact.

Tennessee Williams’ 1947 drama on desire and delusion holds strong just shy of the play’s upcoming 80th anniversary. As Blance DuBois arrives in New Orleans seeking solace with her sister Stella, she ends up entwined with Stella’s husband Stanley Kowalski, a role made famous by Marlon Brando. 

Frecknall, whose revival of Cabaret can be caught on Broadway, has assembled a near perfect company delivering stunning performances all around. Mescal’s Kowalski, equal parts cruel and charismatic, holds the audience in the palm of his hands as we devour his delicate balance of brute dominance and magnetism. Anjana Vasan is a standout as Stella, a woman thrown in the middle of an all out clash between her sister and husband. And Patsy Ferran is remarkable as Blanche, whose intimate nervous frenetic energy soars to the top of the Harvey Theater. 

When not active on stage, the ensemble acts as a pseudo Greek chorus, sitting around Madeleine Girling’s bare rectangular stage often passing props and costumes; this all contributes to Frecknall’s dreamlike transitional staging. A drummer (Tom Penn) perched high above the action provides an intense rhythmic pulse to the play, symbolizing Blanche’s deteriorating mental state as we continue to watch the trauma grow. 

Frecknall has made a name for herself on reimagining classic works, and if this Streetcar is any indication of her supreme talents, I welcome her back to New York as quickly as she can get here. An emotionally charged, relevant revival, Streetcar is a masterpiece you can’t afford to miss. 

That being said, the run appears to be near sold out but check the website frequently and try the cancellation line at BAM. (I hear you might have some luck with that!)

A Streetcar Named Desire is now in performance at BAM’s Harvey Theater through April 6, 2025. For tickets and more information, visit here.