Lange, Baldwin Bring ‘Streetcar’ To TV
Ever since she was a teenager, Jessica Lange has been transfixed by Blanche DuBois, Tennessee Williams’ tragic heroine from his landmark 1947 play “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
“There has never been a part that has ever fascinated me like Blanche,” says Lange, who first discovered the character while in high school in Minnesota. “I think maybe for a man it’s ‘Hamlet’ - an actor feels this need, this desire, this incredible compulsion to play ‘Hamlet.’ I am sure most actresses feel that way about Blanche. I know I surely did.”
In 1992, she fulfilled her long desire to explore the character when she played Blanche opposite Alec Baldwin on Broadway. Now the two have reunited for tonight’s “CBS Playhouse 90s” presentation of “Streetcar.”
The three-hour drama marks the first time the Pulitzer Prize-winning play has been filmed intact. The classic 1951 film starring Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando was modified because of censorship constraints of the era. A pivotal rape scene near the end and references to Blanche’s young husband’s homosexuality were watered down and the ending was altered. Because ABC’s 1984 movie starring Ann-Margret and Treat Williams was based on the 1951 screenplay, it did not reflect Williams’ original writing either.
Lange’s Blanche is a fragile, unstable woman who comes to New Orleans’ French Quarter to stay with her younger sister Stella (Diane Lane) and her brute of a husband Stanley Kowalski (Baldwin) after she loses the family home in Mississippi. Stella loves and wants to protect Blanche, who, as do many of Williams’ heroines, lives in a dream world.
Stanley, however, perceives Blanche as a liar and troublemaker and resents that she lost the family home. Blanche’s only gentleman caller is Mitch (John Goodman), Stanley’s naive poker buddy who lives with his ailing mother.
Lange, who won a best supporting Oscar for playing the object of Dustin Hoffman’s affection in 1982’s “Tootsie,” received mixed reviews on Broadway for “Streetcar.” In the CBS version, though, she inhabits the heart and soul of Blanche.
“To tell you the truth, to be able to do it on film was really a thrill,” Lange says with a smile. “I like working in front of the camera. It gives me much more to do. I am sure that there are stage actors who vehemently disagree with me, but I find it much more liberating to work in front of a camera because it’s so intimate and personal. The work feels more natural.”
Director Glenn Jordan expresses amazement at the depth of Lange’s performance. “Isn’t she extraordinary? It was wonderful because we seemed to be on the exact same wave length of the character, I think,” says the director, who rehearsed his cast for three weeks before filming began. “Jessica reminds me of what someone once said of Jack Lemmon. Whatever emotion or whatever small nuance you want, she is like a supermarket. Her shelves are stocked full and it’s all accessible to her. Jessica, at the moment, is absolutely at the top of her form as an actress.”
Says Goodman, who co-starred with Lange in 1988’s “Everybody’s All-American”: “She would do stuff and I would be in the middle of a take and I would just sort of drop my jaw and pop my eyes out - cartoon-style. She just amazed me.”
Lane agrees. “I had to fight being distracted,” she confesses. “Being off camera and watching Jessica and Alec, it was great. It was almost distracting. I would have to close my mouth and remember I had a line coming.”
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: TV Preview “A Streetcar Named Desire” airs tonight at 8 on KREM-Channel 2.