Details of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and the Ticket Luck value
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof
A Tony-nominated play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is by Tennessee Williams. The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955.
Plot
The story of a Southern family in crisis, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, focuses on the turbulent relationship of a wife and husband, Maggie The Cat and Brick Pollitt. The drama unfolds with their interaction with Brick's family over the course of one evening gathering at the family estate in Mississippi, ostensibly to celebrate the birthday of patriarch and tycoon Big Daddy Pollitt.
The background is that Maggie, through wit and beauty, has escaped a childhood of desperate poverty to marry into the wealthy Pollitt family, but finds that she is suffering in an unfulfilling marriage. It is a story of a husband's neglect and indifference towards his wife, ignoring his brother's attempts at seizing the family fortune, despite warnings by the wife. Big Daddy meanwhile has cancer, which he and his wife are unaware of. The relatives all hope to get a big and definitive share of his fortune.
Themes
Mendacity, a word Brick uses to describe his disgust with the world, is the basic theme of the play. The entire play revolves around the rotting down of Southern Society, due to rampant lies, deception, and fabrication. Everybody goes on lying to everybody else.
Social conduct is also another of the themes of the play. Homosexuality has been alluded to in the play, as well as its standing in the social construct and values of this society. There's a theory that Tennessee Williams himself was unclear about the nature of Brick's feelings for his friend Skipper while developing different versions of the play.
Stage Productions
There are two versions of the play, one of which was influenced by director Elia Kazan, who directed the play on Broadway, and another, which was performed for the first time in London, England.
The original Broadway production, which opened in 1955, was directed by Elia Kazan and starred Barbara Bel Geddes as Maggie; Ben Gazzara as Brick; Burl Ives as Big Daddy; Mildred Dunnock as Big Mama; Pat Hingle as Gooper; and Madeleine Sherwood as Mae. Bel Geddes was the only cast member nominated for a Tony Award, and Kazan was nominated for Best Director of a Play. Both Ives and Sherwood would reprise their roles in the 1958 film version. The cast also featured the southern blues duo Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry and had as Gazzara's understudy the young Cliff Robertson. Featuring Elizabeth Ashley, Keir Dullea, Fred Gwynne and Kate Reid, the play was overhauled in 1974. Ashley was nominated for a Tony Award. In that same decade, John Carradine and Mercedes Cambridge toured in a road company production as Big Daddy and Big Mama, respectively.
Kathleen Turner debuted in yet another production of the play in 1990. 2003 saw only very lukewarm reviews despite the presence of film stars Ashley Judd and Jason Patrick. Only Ned Beatty, as Big Daddy, and Margo Martindale, as Big Mama, were singled out for impressive performances. Martindale received a Tony nomination. Yet another production took place in 2004. A new African-American production is set to open on Broadway in March 2008.
Film and Television Adaptations
Made in 1958, the big-screen version of the play starred Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, Judith Anderson, and Jack Carson. Burl Ives and Madeleine Sherwood reprised their stage roles. The film's portrayal of Brick's past sexual desires for Skipper were restricted and limited due to the Hays Code.
This diminished the original play's critique of homophobia and sexism. Although it was very discreet in referring to the supposed homosexual themes, and although it had a somewhat revised third act, it was highly acclaimed and was nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman both received Oscar nominations for their performances, and most critics agreed that the film provided both them and Burl Ives with their finest screen roles up to that time. It has been debated that due to the controversial nature of the film, it got nominated, but did not end up winning an Academy award.
a television version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was produced, starring the then husband-and-wife team of Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner, and featuring Lord Laurence Olivier as Big Daddy and Maureen Stapleton as Big Mama. The critics largely panned it. Another television version was produced, starring Jessica Lange, Tommy Lee Jones, Rip Torn, Kim Stanley and Penny Fuller, in1985.
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