Stanley Kowalski

Yes.

I mean, you go back and watch Streetcar and just, like, he is so mesmerizing and s- to the extent that he changed acting with that one performance, basically, as Stanley Kowalski, in that he was so good and brought this naturalistic acting to film that changed it for forever and, and, you know, that was, what, in the '50s and then that kind of acting took over and then really kind of hit its zenith, I believe, in the '70s.

You know, the '70s were a real golden age for film.

Yeah.

They're found not guilty, right? That's the way that the system works, and I don't know that it could work any other way.

I know that in France, in some, many cases, I think it's Napoleonic code, according to Stanley Kowalski, uh, you have to prove your innocence.

A little bit tougher.

A lot tougher.

Did I tell you about that play I went to, talking of bad reviews? No, I don't think so.

Who did you see? Kowalski.

About Stanley Kowalski?

Oh, you

saw that? Yeah.

It's so f- it's so fascinating to me that at the same time that this is all unfolding in the collective, in the zeitgeist conversationally, the play I am producing is about domestic violence and narcissistic abuse.

Literally, A Streetcar Named Desire is about Blanche and Stella, two sisters, and Stanley Kowalski.

Stella and Stanley are together, and Blanche comes to stay with her sister for a moment, and you watch it unravel from there because of Stanley.

He is a misogynist.

I, I mean, the one I've always heard is we ta- you know, you, you guys heard it at the offices way back.

It was like, "You don't look like him, but you've got the same sort of raw energy as Stanley Kowalski."

[laughs]

Marlon Brando in Streetcar.

We also know that the more sexual partners a woman has, the more likely she is to divorce.

And it's, you know, it's DDD, it's dick dose dependent, right? So the more sexual partners a woman has prior to getting married, the more likely she is to divorce her husband.

Now, of course, we can say, ah, yes, but in the past divorces were rare.

Okay, but sleep or cheat around or something like that.

And Mitch is frustrated and upset that he doesn't get any action, especially for a woman who's like 40 or however old she is.

And...

He ends up being told by Blanche's sister's husband, Stanley Kowalski, famously portrayed by Marlon Brando, of course.

Her sister's husband tells his friend Mitch, because they were in the army together, he doesn't want to see him get exploited, and finds out that Blanche DuBois was a real degenerate.

If you haven't ever been here, it's time for you to come because the show that we'll bring you here now is called Kowalski.

It is a play about a true evening, an evening that happened in 1947 when Marlon Brando made his way to the Provincetown home of Tennessee Williams because he wanted to be cast as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire.

It's a true story.

We don't know much about it.

Uh, uh, he was more compassionate than most.

Mm.

Kowalski, the show itself I think is about transformation, right? This is Brando becoming, um, Stanley Kowalski.

Can you walk me through a moment maybe in the rehearsals where you felt that click, that shift?

A new play imagines what the first meeting between Tennessee Williams and a young Marlon Brando might have been like.

Set over the course of one evening in 1947 at a time when Williams was searching for the right actor to take on the role of Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire.

The play, Kowalski, is running at Lookingglass Theater.

It comes from Greg Ostrand and stars Emmy nominee and Oak Park native Johnny Galecki.

And the production's getting lots of attention because of Galecki, who listeners might know from his work on popular sitcoms like The Big Bang Theory and Roseanne.

There are only five characters.

But most notably, Jacob Moskowitz as the 23-year-old Marlon Brando.

Now, he doesn't look like Brando facially, but his build, his body language, and his speech mannerisms are just right for Brando, at least for someone trying to act like Stanley Kowalski, as listeners probably know.

You've got Blanche Du Bois arriving at her sister's place, dressed in white, clinging to this idea of old Southern refinement.

And then there's Stanley Kowalski, who's pure, raw, present-day physicality.

Exactly.

Blanche is a ghost from a lost world.