Photos – Video Rehearsal and Interviews Below – Special Discounts to Theater Pizzazz
By Melissa Griegel . . .
Ruth Stage presents the Tennessee Williams classic play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Theatre at St. Clement’s (423 W. 46th Street). Previews begin Friday, February 24th, 2023 with opening night scheduled for March 5th. The production recently had an Off-Broadway run at the same theater and closed on August 14t 2022 after a successful run. The Tennessee Williams estate issued a re-engagement license to the theater group so more audiences will get the chance to see this modern staging of the show. Directed by Joe Rosario, the show uses the original book of the play, but has it set in modern times. This version of the show retains Matt de Rogatis as Brick and Alison Fraser as Big Mama, but brings in new cast members including Courtney Henggeler (Netflix’s Cobra Kai) who is making her NYC stage debut as Maggie the Cat, and Frederick Weller as Big Daddy.
Other cast members and creatives include: Adam Dodway (Gooper), Christine Copley (Mae), Milton Elliott (Reverend Tooker), Jim Kemper (Doc Baugh), Joe Rosario (Director), Joseph Grano (Co-Producer), Matt Imhoff (Scenic Design), Christian Specht (Lighting Design) and Tomas Correa (Sound Design).
Theater Pizzazz met with de Rogatis, Fraser, and Rosario at their recent dress rehearsal to talk about the show and for them to give us a glimpse of what audiences should expect. Director Joe Rosario encourages the audience to come back even if they saw their last production, to see the new cast and changes made to this re-engagement. “We kept the text, but are showing it in a different light,” he said. “We are reigniting the franchise, as you will.” During the first run, Rosario got to talk to a group of teenagers who did not know this was a show originally written and set in the 1950s, and were able to relate to the characters. “When the show is presented in a way in which you are preserving the dialogue but you are giving it this modern flair, without taking away the intent at all, then they are looking at it as ‘wow, this is really great theater.’ That was an important take-away for us. The themes in this show are still relevant today.”
There have been six Broadway productions of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, but this is the first Off-Broadway production, and the first re-engagement. de Rogatis, who is also a producer of the show in addition to being a lead, said, “I think any time you get to do such a classic legendary play, especially in New York City, you jump on the opportunity to do it. The Theatre at St. Clement’s is known as the house that Tennessee Williams built. There is a lot of good joo-joo here.” As a big fan of the playwright, de Rogatis has also performed in A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie. “I’ve done the ‘triple crown’, so to speak,” he added.
“I try to remain faithful to the words the great Tennessee Williams has given us,” Alison Fraser said of her role as Big Mama. “I try to ascertain what he would want me to feel and also what our brilliant director Joe would want to be presented. The Big Daddy is a completely different person/entity than we had last time. I love Christian too, but Frederick is so different. He brings a very dark energy to it, which is very compelling to play opposite. It brings an entirely different viewpoint to where I stand in that marriage than I had before.”
Discussing the play itself, de Rogatis adds, “The themes are all as relevant in 2023 as they were in 1955. Dysfunction is timeless.” Rosario agrees. “Wills, money. Big Daddy has a famous line ‘mendacity is the system that we live in.’ You’ve got to live with mendacity. In a way, he is like, ‘look the whole world is corrupt. You gotta figure out a way to maneuver in that corruption.’ It’s very relevant to what is going on in today’s world. Those are the themes that I think people take away from it.”
Alison Fraser added that this production of the show changes your perception of the characters compared to the movie which starred Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor, and the play brings more depth to the characters. Big Mama is usually played by a large woman who cries all the time. Fraser is a slender woman who shows the strength and tenacity of Big Mama. “I have been told ‘you have been miscast; he calls you fat’. I don’t know a thin woman who thinks she is thin enough,” she said. “For someone who is angry at the world, as Big Daddy is, he wants to be as cruel as possible. So he says ‘you’re fat; you’re old’. Big Mama is the queen of the plantation. It’s power: ‘Big Daddy’, ‘Big Mama’. We rule the roost.”
Theater Pizzazz readers can get a special discount to get tickets. Go to the Ruth Stage website https://www.ruthstage.org/cat for more information. Go to https://www.telechargeoffers.com/ and put in the code CAT23.
Photos and Video by Melissa Griegel Photography (edits Sandi Durell)
Featured Image: Milton Elliott – Jim Kemper – Allison Fraser – Courtney Henggeler – Adam Dodway – Christine Copley
