We do like our Tennessee Williams, do Janie and I. This is a rarely performed play and I have always been fascinated by it.
Indeed, we must have been very keen to see this one, as we booked for the first Saturday of the West End run. We tend to avoid the West End these days.
We loved it. I wrote in my log:
Superb. One of the best so far this year.
Sheila Gish was predictably excellent, but we were also much taken with a young Rachel Weisz; I think this was the first time we saw her. There was more to the cast than those two – see tags in this piece – the Theatricalia entry unusually lacks them.
We were wowed; not much else that we can say.
Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard was also wowed
Suddenly Standard de Jongh 15 Apr 1999, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
But wait! Our friend, Michael Billington, didn’t like it:
Suddenly Guardian Billington 17 Apr 1999, Sat The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
We need a third opinion. Charles Spencer in the telegraph. Pretty darn positive:
Suddenly Telegraph Spencer 16 Apr 1999, Fri The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com