This is one Tennessee Williams woman you won't soon forget. Marisa Tomei plays Serafina, a widow who rekindles her desire for love, lust and life in the arms of a fiery suitor. Sharply directed by Cullman, Williams' lesser-known gem sizzles with humor and heart in sultry New Orleans. Serafina erupts from the depths of despair to the heights of passion in this Tony Award-winning Best Play.
Past productions have starred actors with a heft of gravitas - Anna Magnani, Mercedes Ruehl, Maureen Stapleton - women who may have given the gags somewhere weightier to land. Tomei is a lighter, flightier presence - sensuous and delightful - and she plays even the darkest moments brightly, in on the joke. She and Elliott have great fun together, but they don't sell sex as life-affirming. It looks effortful and cheap. The whole cast screams and flails and races around Mark Wendland's set, which scrambles any sense of indoors and outdoors in something like an orgasmic frenzy. The plastic flamingos look on, unmoved.
Remarkably, you believe Tomei throughout. Most Sarafinas I have seen have nailed one or the other; Tomei, never contained by either, gets them both. It's a remarkable picture of restlessness and need, and reason enough to see Cullman's staging, which also leans wryly into the comedy of the piece, even to the point of including a bunch of pink flamingos in a rich setting from Mark Wendland that shrewdly suggests the immigrant's need to replicate their homeland, even as American visual banality shoots that desire in the foot.
1951 | Broadway |
Broadway |
1966 | Broadway |
Broadway |
1995 | Broadway |
Broadway |
2019 | Broadway |
Roundabout Theater Company Broadway Revival Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2020 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Marisa Tomei |
2020 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | The Rose Tattoo |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Costume Design of a Play | Clint Ramos |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Original Score | Fitz Patton |
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