Sam Gold directS this TONY-NOMINATED revival

Two-time Oscar winner Sally Field and two-time Tony winning actor Joe Mantello are set to star in a new revival of Tennessee Williams' celebrated drama, The Glass Menagerie in spring 2017. Tony Award-winning director Sam Gold (2015's Fun Home) takes the helm for this production, which he first directed with Toneelgroep Amsterdam to critical acclaim; he will also be bringing the creative team with him for this revival. Sally Field has been Tony nominated for her leading role in this talked-about production!

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

A heartbreaking tale that explores depression, thwarted love and disability, this memory play set in 1937 St Louis is told from the perspective of a troubled man, Tom Wingfield, and how his actions destroyed the fledgling confidence of his younger sister Laura.

Fading Southern belle and single mother Amanda Wingfield is at the end of her tether with her two children; her adult son Tom holds down a hated job in a warehouse, but freely spends money on movies and other pastimes that she considers trivial. Furthermore, her daughter Laura is crippled from pleurosis during her school years, and isn't attracting any potential suitors to their door; quite unlike Amanda, who was a celebrated beauty in her day. Instead, the painfully shy Laura is content to roam the city during the day, and play with her collection of glass animals at home.

Pressuring Tom to invite a potential suitor for Laura to dinner, he chooses Jim, a handsome youth from the warehouse to come to dinner; much to Laura's horror, Jim is the boy who she had a huge crush on in high school, and is paralysed with fear.

However, Jim is a kindly soul and slowly succeeds in coaxing Laura out of her shell, even dancing with her and kissing her in a moment of passion; unfortunately, he is already engaged to another woman, leaving Laura devastated and Amanda in a fury at her son for knowing about his engagement - the truth of the matter was that he was too selfish to make a proper effort, and the guilt to this day follows him wherever he goes.

DID YOU KNOW?

Sam Gold was inspired to cast Sally Field as matriarch Amanda after watching her in the movie Lincoln, and has waited for her to be free from other engagements before agreeing to stage the Broadway production - now that is one hell of an endorsement! Field previously performed the role in the 2004 Washington D.C production.