Product Description
Starring Rosemary Harris as the vulnerable Blanche DuBois, this dazzling drama of love, lust, and unbridled passion set against the steamy backdrop of New Orleans is an unrivaled classic of modern American theatre. This recording features the cast of the smash revival in 1973 at Lincoln Center. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (121)

Five stars for this American classic
I loved it.I bought it about two weeks ago because I was going to see the play at my university with a friend.That production, unfortuntately, wasn't that great, and the Hollywood Brando version was much better, but Tennessee's script is so incredibly creative and complete.Read the play first if you can!

Sick! Sick! Sick!
"STELLA!" This was probably the most memorable line of this movie which was not, to state it diplomatically, one of Tennessee Williams' best works. Marlon Brando was at his worst in acting, as was the case with Vivian Leigh. The French Quarter of New Orleans never looked worse, and the story-about a school teacher who had an illicit affair with one of her students- was also sick. I saw it once and regretted having done so. For many reasons it's far from being recommendable.

What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?

This is another classic from my high school days that seems wasted on youth. How can a fifteen-year-old in prep school appreciate the desperation and human frailty of Blanche DuBois? Or the dichotomy inherent in Stanley Kowalski's passionate brutality?

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BLANCHE: What you are talking about is brutal desire--just--Desire!--the name of that rattle-trap street-car that bangs through the Quarter, up one old narrow street and down another...
STELLA: Haven't you ever ridden on that street-car?
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Many will have seen either the stage or film versions of Streetcar, but reading through Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning play allows for the depression to really set in. Readers may even recognize qualities in friends and family members approximating those of alcoholism or domestic violence.

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BLANCHE: A hot bath and a long, cold drink always give me a brand new outlook on life!
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There are so many great dialogue exchanges here, outside of the classic "kindness of strangers" quote. I'll snip a few of my favorites.

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MITCH: You ought to lay off his liquor. He says you been lapping it up all summer like a wild-cat!
BLANCHE: What a fantastic statement! Fantastic of him to say it, fantastic of you to repeat it!
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The abusive domestic relationship seemed a common theme in mid-20th Century America; witness both Streetcar and The Honeymooners. "One of these days...POW! Right in the kisser! One of these days Alice, straight to the Moon!"

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STANLEY: When we first met, me and you, you thought I was common. How right you was, baby. I was common as dirt. You showed me the snapshot of the place with the columns. I pulled you down off them columns and how you loved it.
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Very easy to get through this in a sitting or two. Very hard not to be emotionally moved, even if the dénouement, vis-a-vis Stanley and Blanche, was not obvious to me after that first reading many years ago.

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BLANCHE: Don't you just love these long rainy afternoons in New Orleans when an hour isn't just an hour--but a little piece of eternity dropped into your hands--and who knows what to do with it?
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Postscript: My own copy is the mid-80s Signet printing, which includes a 4-page Introduction by the author.

Abusive man alert
I'm not generally impressed with plays and movies of this era, as they portray a time when it was considered acceptable for men to treat women as property. Women endured physical as well as emotional and psychological violence, without a inkling that something may be wrong about that. When Blanche encourages Stella to leave Stanley after he hits her after the poker game, I agreed very firmly with her. I was amazed that Stella returns, and that she still stays with him after what he does to Blanche near the end of the play. Blanche is written as flighty and slutty and her final fate is galling because I believe she's the only character in the play with a lick of sense. I found myself reading this quite quickly because I just wanted it over with. The whole thing repulsed me.

One of the best 20th century plays
"A Streetcar Named Desire" is one of Tennessee Williams' signature plays that has propelled his reputation and made him into a household name. The play deals with a culture clash between two iconic characters, Blanche DuBois, a fading relic of the Old South, and Stanley Kowalski, a rising member of the industrial, urban working class. Their gender and ethnic differences also feature prominently, and are a source of lot of tension throughout the play. Setting the play in New Orleans adds to the colorfulness of characters and situations, and the title of the play is a reference to a particular tram line in that city. All of the characters in this play are very developed, and their oversized passions and outbursts are extremely entertaining to follow. The play has a quality of a train wreck, and we are simultaneously attracted to the scenes and appalled by their over-the-top shenanigans. The play appears as fresh as when it was originally written over sixty years ago, and reading or watching it is a pleasure. ... Read more