When Uta Hagen went into A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE to take over as Blanche from Tandy, in preparation for the national tour, Harold Clurman was brought in to direct (and re-direct) it. The word is that Clurman (and Hagen) brought the play’s sympathetic center back to Blanche, something which Brando and director Elia Kazan had wrested from Tandy in the original production. There’s a clip somewhere of Uta Hagen talking about this. Fascinating, I think.
Hagen reportedly played against a number of Stanleys, including Anthony Quinn and Ralph Meeker, and, on a couple of occasions, she went on opposite Brando, on Broadway, with no prior rehearsal with him. |
