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American Theater Guide:

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), a play by Tennessee Williams. [ Morosco Theatre, 694 perf.; Pulitzer Prize, NYDCC Award.] Margaret Pollitt (Barbara Bel Geddes) is a woman of strong passions and determination. At the moment what she most wants is the love of her detached, alcoholic husband, Brick (Ben Gazzara), an ex‐football star. The family has assembled to celebrate the birthday of its patriarch, “Big Daddy” (Burl Ives), the richest cotton planter in the Mississippi Delta. The gathering exacerbates tensions and animosities, so in a fit of despair Maggie reveals to Brick that she has had an affair with his closest friend, Skipper, even though she knew Skipper was at heart a homosexual. The affair drove Skipper to drink and suicide. Big Daddy also assails Brick, making him see that his alcoholism stems from his refusal to save Skipper because he shared Skipper's homosexual tendencies. Infuriated, Brick reveals that Big Daddy is dying of cancer. Maggie knows that there is no will, and, fearing that Big Daddy might disinherit Brick and her in favor of her brother‐in‐law and his family, she lies that she is pregnant. Throwing away Brick's liquor, she says, “We can make that lie come true. And then I'll bring you liquor, and we'll get drunk together, here, tonight, in this place that death has come into!” The play (produced by the Playwrights' Company) was essentially another variation of Williams's favorite themes, Southern decadence and homosexuality. Nevertheless, it was, as Brooks Atkinson observed, “a stunning drama. . .the work of a mature observer of men and women and a gifted craftsman.” Commendable Broadway revivals in 1974, 1990, and 2003 confirmed the drama's theatrical effectiveness.

 
 
Notes on Drama: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Contents:

Author Biography
Plot Summary
Characters
Themes
Style
Historical Context
Critical Overview
Criticism
Sources
Further Reading


Tennessee Williams 1955

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams’s third significant play (following The Glass Menagerie [1944] and A Streetcar Named Desire [1947]), was a huge commercial success, running for 694 performances on Broadway. It won Williams his third New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award and his second Pulitzer Prize (his first being for Streetcar). Elia Kazan produced and directed the play in 1955 at the Morosco Theatre, after asking Williams to revise the third act to improve its dramatic progression. The published play script includes both the original version and the one revised for Kazan, appended by a preface in which Williams defends his original version. He continued to prefer the original, even after making further changes for a 1974 revival.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is rather loosely based on Williams’s short story “Three Players of a Summer Game,” a narrative that reveals the influence of D. H. Lawrence on the playwright’s early work. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof however, has all of the earmarks of Williams’s unique dramas, involving as it does his emotionally biographical themes of ambivalence in sexual orientation, disaffection, and difficulty in maintaining intimate relationships. The play concerns a young man’s disaffection and descent into alcoholism following the death of his college friend, and his wife’s efforts to make him stop drinking so that he can take over his dying father’s plantation.

Although criticized as being overly “violent” and maudlin, the powerful second act, in which the father, Big Daddy, confronts his alcoholic son, Brick, about the nature of his relationship with his friend, Skipper, is considered a hallmark of contemporary drama — Williams at his best. In that one long and vivid scene, the playwright portrays a profound relationship of mutual trust and respect, one that nevertheless fails to bridge the two men’s weaknesses.

 
Wikipedia: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
This article is about the play. For the movie adaptations, see Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (film).

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a Tony-nominated play by Tennessee Williams. The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955.

Plot

It is the story of a Southern family in crisis, focusing on the turbulent relationship of a wife and husband, Maggie "The Cat" and Brick Pollitt, and 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. Maggie, through wit and beauty, has escaped a childhood of desperate poverty to marry into the wealthy Pollitt family, but finds herself suffering in an unfulfilling marriage. Brick, an ageing football hero, has neglected his wife and further infuriates her by ignoring his brother's attempts to gain control of the family fortune. Brick's indifference and his near-continuous drinking date back to the recent suicide of his friend Skipper. Big Daddy is unaware that he has cancer and will not live to see another birthday; his doctors and his family have conspired to keep this information from him and his wife. His relatives are in attendance and attempt to present themselves in the best possible light, hoping to receive the definitive share of Big Daddy's enormous wealth.

Themes

The theme of the play is mendacity, a word Brick uses to describe his disgust with the world. Moreover it revolves around the lies in the aging and decaying Southern society. With one exception, the entire family lies to Big Daddy and Big Mama, as do the doctors. Big Daddy lies to his wife.

The play alludes to the presence of homosexuality in Southern society and examines the complicated rules of social conduct in this culture. The Hays Code limited how clearly the film could portray Brick's past sexual desire for Skipper, and thus diminished the original play's critique of homophobia and sexism.

Tennessee Williams himself was unclear about the nature of Brick's feelings for his friend Skipper while developing different versions of the play.

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.

Stage productions

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.

A 1974 revival featured Elizabeth Ashley, Keir Dullea, Fred Gwynne and Kate Reid. Ashley was nominated for a Tony Award. In that same decade, John Carradine and Mercedes McCambridge toured in a road company production as Big Daddy and Big Mama, respectively.

A 1990 revival featured Kathleen Turner in her Broadway debut. Charles Durning, as Big Daddy, received a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. Daniel Hugh Kelly was Brick, and Polly Holliday was Big Mama. Both Turner and Holliday were also nominated for Tonys.

A 2003 revival received lukewarm reviews despite the presence of film stars Ashley Judd and Jason Patric. Only Ned Beatty, as Big Daddy, and Margo Martindale, as Big Mama, were singled out for impressive performances. Martindale received a Tony nomination.

A 2004 production at the Kennedy Center featured Mary Stuart Masterson as Maggie, Jeremy Davidson as Brick, George Grizzard as Big Daddy, Dana Ivey as Big Mamma, and Emily Skinner as Mae.

A new all-star, all-African-American production is set to open on Broadway in October 2007. Debbie Allen is signed to direct.

Film and television adaptations

Main article: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (film)

The big-screen version of the play was made in 1958 by MGM, and starred Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, Judith Anderson, Jack Carson. Burl Ives and Madeleine Sherwood reprised their stage roles. 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. Curiously, Burl Ives was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor that year, and won, but not for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He won it for his role in the epic Western The Big Country. Reportedly, MGM executives had mistakenly put Ives' name in the wrong category during the Academy Award nominations process, although Ives could certainly be said to have played a supporting role in Cat. It is possible that Cat may have been too controversial for the Academy voters - the film won no Oscars, and the Best Picture award went to Gigi that year.

In 1976, 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. It was largely panned by the critics.

Another television version was produced in 1985, starring Jessica Lange, Tommy Lee Jones, Rip Torn, Kim Stanley and Penny Fuller. This version brought back all the sexual innuendoes that the 1958 film had muted. Both Stanley and Fuller were nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Special, and Stanley went on to win.

Famous quotations

  • Brick: One man has one great good true thing in his life. One great good thing which is true! I had friendship with Skipper. You are namin' it dirty!
  • What's that smell in this room? Didn't you notice it, Brick? Didn't you notice the powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room?
  • Maggie: I'll win, alright.
    Brick: Win what? What is the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof?
    Maggie: Just staying on it, I guess. As long as she can.
  • I'm not living with you! We occupy the same cage, that's all.
  • The only thing Brick can carry is a football and a highball.
  • Maggie, you are ruinin' my liquor.
  • And nothing's more determined than a cat on a hot tin roof. Is there? Is there, baby?
  • Wouldn't it be funny if that were true?

External links

Plays by Tennessee Williams
Apprentice plays Candles to the Sun (1936) • Spring Storm (1937) • Fugitive Kind (1937) • Not about Nightingales (1938) • Battle of Angels (1940) • You Touched Me (1945) • Stairs to the Roof (1947)
Major plays The Glass Menagerie (1944) • A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) • Summer and Smoke (1948) • The Rose Tattoo (1951) • Camino Real (1953) • Cat On a Hot Tin Roof (1955) • Orpheus Descending (1957) • Suddenly, Last Summer (1958) • Sweet Bird of Youth (1959) • Period of Adjustment (1960) • The Night of the Iguana (1961)
Later plays The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (1963) • The Seven Descents of Myrtle (1968) • In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel (1969) • Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis? (1969) • Small Craft Warnings (1972) • The Two-Character Play (1973) • The Red Devil Battery Sign (1975) • This Is (An Entertainment) (1976) • Vieux Carré (1977) • Creve Coeur (1979) • Clothes for a Summer Hotel (1980) • The Notebook of Trigorin (1980) • Something Cloudy, Something Clear (1981) • A House Not Meant to Stand (1982)
Other One act plays by Tennessee Williams

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
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American Theater Guide. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
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Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof".  Read more

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