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.
Tomei knows from Italian-flavored portraiture. (She won an Oscar playing a character named Mona Lisa Vito in 'My Cousin Vinny.') If, in the closefitting 1950s slips and dresses the costume designer Clint Ramos has provided, her affect is more cuddly pixie than temperamental colossus, she is nonetheless a bold and inventive comic performer. Unfortunately, she is in hard-fought competition with her environment. It's not that she's operating in a vacuum, which might be easier. Cullman has populated the stage with an ever-present chorus of singing Italian women and frantic children.
Making his Broadway debut as Alvaro, Scottish actor Emun Elliott (The Paradise, Game of Thrones) matches Tomei with a similarly energetic performance. Though he doesn't appear until the play's second act, he and Tomei have a natural chemistry that helps bridge the question of why Serafina would be so attracted to a man of Alvaro's somewhat questionable character. While they make an appealing pair, sometimes their mutual mugging goes a little overboard and distracts from the sense of romance that should be building between the two.
| 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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