“Streetcar” in D.C.”: A Report
A theatrical opening in Washington, D.C. is different from a theatrical opening in New York — or so I was reminded last night, when I shuttled down to the nation’s capital for the bow of the Sydney Theatre Company‘s production of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” starring Cate Blanchett. (If you have to ask, “In what role?” then you should probably surf back to the Business section.) As I looked around the Eisenhower Theatre at the Kennedy Center, I concocted a little ditty: ‘Opening night/And not a star in sight.’ At intermission, however, I got a closer view of the crowd. The heavy contingent of security goons in the lobby indicated the presence of VIPs, and, sure enough, I soon spotted Treasury secretary Tim Geithner, Senator majority leader Harry Reid, and a couple of Southern senators. (Perhaps they were there to imbibe the play’s Dixie vibe; these politicians were Republican moralists of the type loathsome to Tennessee Williams, and so they will not be named.) I had a belt of scotch (as close as I could get at the bar to the Southern Comfort Blanche tipples onstage) and noticed a few more liberal luminaries. Chief among them was Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, looking effortlessly chic in black. (Apparently, her color choice doesn’t vary on the bench or off it.) Emboldened by the booze, I sauntered over and told her I thought of her more as an opera fan than a theater fan. “It’s true,” she said, “I do probably go to more opera than plays, but I had to come tonight to see Cate Blanchett.” She is not alone in her fervor; the Washington run has been sold out for weeks, and the only way to procure seats for “Streetcar”‘s run at New York’s BAM at the end of the month is to become a patron of the organization.
But what did you think of the production, Mrs. Lincoln? I am professionally forbidden to say, else my Financial Times employers might sick one of those lobby goons on me. You’ll know soon enough.
