Kowalski, Gregg Ostrin's new play currently running at The Duke on 42nd Street, imagines a possible meeting between playwright Tennessee Williams and actor Marlon Brando, who originated the role of Stanley Kowalski in the Broadway premiere of A Streetcar Named Desire.
While the play is a standoff between two icons of American culture, my favorite character was not Williams, played with queenly campiness by Robin Lord Taylor, nor Brando, acted with youthful intensity by Brandon Flynn. Instead, I was drawn to the character of Margo Jones, brought to life by stage veteran Alison Cimmet.
Like Williams and Brando, Jones was a real person, but far less known than some of the people she helped to make famous. Known as the "Texas Tornado," Jones essentially discovered Williams. She co-directed the original production of A Glass Menagerie, together with Eddie Dowling, who played Tom. She went on to direct the New York premieres of Maxwell Anderson's Joan of Lorraine and Williams's Summer and Smoke.
It would seem natural, then, that Williams would have wanted Jones to direct A Streetcar Named Desire. After all, she seemed to understand his work better than anyone else. Toward the beginning of Ostrin's play, Jones gushes to Williams about the brilliance of his new drama, only to find out he has offered it to the hot new director Elia Kazan, leaving her in the dust.
We instantly get the relationship between the two old friends, and when Jones reappears later in the play to once again help Willams out of a jam and receive little thanks for her efforts, it's hardly a surprise. In spite of her pivotal role in American theatre--including revolutionary work with theatre-in-the-round--Jones has been under-appreciated by history just as she was by Williams.
Most people who see Kowalski will want to see the sparks fly between Williams and Brando, and they won't be disappointed. Still, just as the Joneses of the world have helped keep the American theatre grounded, the character of Margo Jones grounds this production, helping it rise above just being a showcase for two male actors.
