University cast ‘excellent’ in Williams’ ‘Cat’

Joe Delaney

Friday, Dec. 11, 1998 | 11:27 a.m.

UNLV's University Theatre has given Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof," a production and performance worthy of this classic drama. It continues through Sunday in the Judy Bayley Theatre. We saw the play on Broadway at the Morosco Theatre in 1955, when folk singer Burl Ives won accolades for his portrayal of Big Daddy, owner of the Pollit Plantation on the Mississippi Delta.

Big Daddy was the focal point on Broadway. In the film version, it was Elizabeth Taylor as Maggie, the Cat, and Paul Newman as her alcoholic husband and Big Daddy's favorite son, Brick, who dominated the action. The setting here is the plantation on an early evening in the summer of 1955. The action is continuous, with two 15-minute intermissions over a three-hour total playing time.

Jennifer Kaplan is a believable Maggie. The first of the three acts is hers, although she shares it with Jim Ballard, also believable as Brick. Brick has turned away from Maggie. He is suffering with a broken ankle, incurred while jumping hurdles at the high school in the middle of the night. They also establish that there was a relationship of sorts between Brick and Skipper, a former classmate, now deceased.

Maggie is mostly absent in the second act, which is really a confrontation between Brick and Big Daddy, portrayed by George S. Cohan, coherent but lacking the force associated with previous portrayals of the owner of the plantation -- a self-made man about to face the fact that he has cancer and his time is short. Big Mama comes to the fore in Act III.

There is another brother, a lawyer, Gooper (Joel Hanson) who wants to make sure that he gets his share of the inheritance, led by his wife Mae, pregnant with her sixth child. Anne-Marie Lazaroff succeeds in making you dislike Mae more than any of the dysfunctional lot. Amy Ross (Big Mama) is one of the more consistent UNLV players. She is outstanding once more in a thankless role. The balance of the cast is uniformly excellent.

Maggie, ever resilient, is the ultimate "winner" with the tacit assistance of Brick, and the curtain closes as the husband and wife attempt to make her "lie" a truth.

The Judy Bayley theatre was not full. The tribute is that no one left early despite the three-hour length. Look for near-capacity crowds Friday through Sunday. Make your reservations early.