Hei-Kyung Hong and Jamie Barton in the Mark Morris production of Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice.”
➤ BELLA BELLA, from p.26
important Azbug was and how
much we benefi t to this very day
from her legacy.
Many of Tennessee Williams’
plays are stylized and abstract,
even when dealing with realistic
characters and plots. The plays
chronicle dreams, disillusionment,
and passionate souls — some lost,
some searching — trying to make
their ways through an overwhelming
and baffl ing world. No phrase
Williams ever wrote more explains
his work than Tom’s fi rst speech
in “The Glass Menagerie,” when he
says, “I give you truth in the pleasant
disguise of illusion.”
“The Rose Tattoo,” Williams’
1951 play of love lost and regained
in an Italian-American community
on the Mississippi coast, is one
of his few comedies, but it shares
the barely contained emotions and
turbulence of his better-known,
more often-produced works. While
Blanche DuBois in “A Streetcar
Named Desire” removes herself
from life and descends into madness,
Serafi na Delle Rose in “The
Rose Tattoo” returns from a selfcreated
hell to her life, but it is
passion that drives both characters.
Serafi na ultimately releases
KEN HOWARD/ METROPOLITAN OPERA
her illusions, just as Blanche is
destroyed by them.
Director Trip Cullman’s poetic,
warm-hearted, and occasionally
hot-blooded production of “The
Rose Tattoo” now at Roundabout
embraces the play’s sprawling
style, fi lling the world of the play
while staying focused on the story
of Serafi na who, having lost her
husband early in a truck accident,
has retreated into persistent
mourning and celibacy. When the
sexy and goofy Alvaro Mangiacavallo
drops into her life, she fi nds
that love, if not necessarily lovelier
is at least possible a second time
around. Alvaro is not her fi rst husband,
a paragon Serafi na has held
onto for years, but he is alive and
present and loving. Alvaro’s clumsy
but well-meaning wooing, such
as getting a rose tattoo to impress
Serafi na, ultimately wins her over.
There are other plot points, such
as Serafi na’s wrestling with her
faith, learning that her husband
was unfaithful, and her confl ict
with a daughter who is in the fi rst
throes of her own passion, all of
which broaden the world of the
play and amplify the central theme
of loss and redemption.
Marisa Tomei is spellbinding as
Serafi na. She fi lls the full range
of the character with passion and
excitement. This is not naturalism,
and her larger-than-life portrayal
has a center of fi re that is operatic
and compelling. Emun Elliott as
Alvaro plays the role with an inherent
sweetness that is intended
to be a counterpoint to Serafi na’s
memory of her husband, and it is
that charm and a healthy dose of
sexual energy that open Serafi na’s
heart.
The supporting cast is excellent,
notably Ella Rubin as Rosa, Serafi
na’s daughter who is just awakening
to her own passion, Greg
Hildreth as a lecherous traveling
salesman, and Tina Benko as Estelle
Hoehengarten, the unapologetic
woman with whom Serafi na’s
husband had an affair.
It’s a sad fact of Broadway economics
that an 18-member cast
is a rarity, but each of these characters
and the fi ne actors who fi ll
them are what make the world of
this play so vibrant. Though this
has often been called a diffi cult
play and atypical Williams, in the
hands of Cullman and Roundabout
it’s full of life. And these
days, a happy, hopeful ending is
welcome indeed.
BELLA BELLA | Manhattan Theatre
Club at City Center Stage 1, 131
W. 55th St. | Through Dec. 1: Tue.-
Wed. at 7 p.m.; Thu.-Sat. at 8 p.m.;
Wed., Sat.-Sun. at 2 p.m.; some
schedule variations | $99-$139 at
nycitycenter.org or 212-581-1212 |
One hr., 25 mins., no intermission
THE ROSE TATTOO | Roundabout
at the American Airlines Theatre,
227 W. 42nd St. | Through Dec. 8:
Tue.-Sat., evening schedule varies;
Wed., Sat. at 2 p.m.; Sun. at 3 p.m.
| $59-$299 at roundabouttheatre.
org or 212-719-1300 | Two hrs., 30
mins., with intermission
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