Kowalski

By Joseph Cervelli

The title of the new play by Gregg Ostrin "Kowalski" at The Duke Theater should conjure up what you are about to see. Yes, it is that Kowalski. Stanley himself from one of America’s greatest plays  "A Streetcar Named Desire" by one of America’s greatest playwrights Tennessee Williams.  Unfortunately, the play really does not reveal all that much and becomes both talky and tedious.

While taking place at Williams' beach house in Provincetown 1947,  the play actually starts in 1977 with the playwright being interviewed by an unheard voice wanting to know about his latest play namely "Streetcar."  Now we are back to 1947 seeing Williams played much too affectatiously by Robin Lord Taylor who turns campy almost immediately.  Having seen interviews Williams liked to be grandiose but nothing like presented here. Not sure if the director Colin Hanlon's aim was to show the exaggerated humor of Williams or Taylor decided to exaggerate the character he was portraying, but it becomes annoying as the 85 minute play moves along sometimes at a snail's pace. 

We meet Margo Jones (an excellent Alison Cimmet) who is a good friend of Willams and co-directed his masterpiece 'The Glass Menagerie." Williams’ partner the volatile and inebrietated Pancho (a very good Sebastian Treviño) comes in and wants to go with Williams to pick up some sailors at a local bar. Williams is waiting for Brando to arrive to audition  him for the role of Stanley Kowalski as requested by "Streetcar's" illustrious director Elia Kazan, but he is already three days late. Pancho leaves for the bar and Margo goes to makes sure he gets in no trouble. 

While Williams is trying to get the toilet to work (there are also issues with fuses) in a rather cheap looking (terrific design by the always reliable David Gallo) beach house, Brando (Brandon Flynn) comes in and with a brash attitude starts making himself at home opening the refrigerator and acting like the house is his. Williams comes out to introduce himself and wants to know who this fellow is. For some unknown reason Brando only says that he is from New York. What was the point of playing coy? Williams thinks he is just a fan. It takes a while before Brando announces himself which makes little sense. 

The saving grace here is that Flynn not only resembles Brando but never comes on too strong or does an imitation. He is headstrong and full of arrogance but never goes too far over the top to become a caricature. He is perfectly cast for the role of Brando. Most of the play is banter between both of them. He explains why he was late in coming and talks about his acting and being on stage with the always controversial Tallulah Bankhead. Williams thinks he is too young for the role. After Williams tells him what tragically happened to his sister, Brando creates some story about a young woman he knows who also went through terrible mental treatment at a facility. However, he madehis story up for no apparent reason.d

Williams keeps asking Brando why he mumbles. The problem is that Flynn does not mumble which is something Hanlon should have paid more attention to. Flynn is so good that there is no reason I could see why he would not be able to make himself unclear as Brando sometimes did. This is brought up several times which is contrary to how Flynn sounds. 

A number of scenes are based on fact including Brando's  girlfriend who arrives with him. Only here for which gives Brando and Williams more time to blandly converse, the girlfriend is left at the bus station so comes to the house late. Ellie Ricker (Jo) is terrific as Brando's girlfriend in a thankless role which goes no where except for Williams fawning over her to make Brando angry. Why? There is a humorous moment offstage in which as Brandon Flynn calls Jo as he would yell out "Stella!" Williams looks perplexed for Brando told him he did not have the script to the play. You later find out he did.

A mistake is in not giving Flynn a few moments in reading lines from the play. Since Jones was according to what I read actually there when Brando  read it and was amazed by his delivery it would have worked beautifully here.

There is a great deal to work with but with Lord's overplaying the role of Williams even Flynn's terrific portrayal and Cimmet's equally fine performance they cannot do much to improve upon the  play which lumbers along. I doubt if Tenessee Williams would have approved. 

PHOTOS: Russ Rowland

Tickets can be purchased at The Duke on 42nd Street 229 West 42nd Street.

The play's limited engagement is scheduled to close on February 23.