Different Blanche prowls the Rep's stage in 'Streetcar'
By KEVIN NANCE
Staff Writer

You say you know Blanche DuBois? You say that the heroine of A Streetcar Named Desire, the character in Tennessee Williams' classic play made famous onscreen by Vivien Leigh, is a fragile, faded flower who flirts and charms her way through life because she has no other resources?

Wake up and smell the Southern Comfort. In Tennessee Repertory Theatre's enormously entertaining new revival, Nan Gurley's magnificent Blanche has plenty of other resources. This Blanche flirts and charms, sure, but she's got a whole lot more up her sleeve: the regal bearing of Rosalind Russell, the humor of Mae West, the predatory sexuality of Marilyn Monroe and the indomitable spirit of, yes, Vivien Leigh's Scarlett O'Hara.

Out of work, between beaux, pacing around her sister's New Orleans flat in the late 1940s (stunningly executed here by the masterful Gary C. Hoff), Gurley's Blanche is a caged lioness, her barely retracted claws razor-sharp.

And she's always hunting. When she sets her sights on sex-starved Mitch (Todd Olson in the show's other knockout performance), he has absolutely no chance. One look at those still-gorgeous gams peeking strategically out of her silk nightgown and the poor guy's a goner.

Later, when another male snacklet (Nathan Lacey) drops by to collect for the newspaper, Blanche is like a black-widow spider eyeing a fly caught in her web; it takes superhuman effort for her to avoid devouring him on the spot.
Only Stanley Kowalski, her sister's husband, could pose any serious challenge — and therein lies the one significant weakness in this otherwise perfectly cast, imaginatively directed production by David Grapes.

The towering Jeremy Childs certainly looks the part of the strapping Stanley, but at the core of this actor's persona is a sweetness and innocence that betrays him here. He's a pussycat. He has great erotic chemistry with Denice Hicks' Stella, but he's no match for Blanche, which leaves their ultimate collision straining for motivation and credibility.

Still, this is a bracing return to form for Grapes, who has treated the script like a musical score, playing it like a virtuoso who doesn't mind embellishing here and there. He has composed a series of grace notes — actors moving in the margins around and above the Kowalski apartment, arguing, fighting, playing music at critical junctures — that turn Williams' perspiration-soaked fever dream of a play into a symphony of sorrow, violence and, yes, desire.

Getting there
A Streetcar Named Desire, a professional Actors' Equity-affiliated production by Tennessee Repertory Theatre, continues through Nov. 10 at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Polk Theater. Show times are 7:30 p.m. today, 2:30 p.m. Sunday, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 9, 2:30 p.m. Nov. 10. Tickets ($13-$38, $8.50-$19 for students): Ticketmaster outlets or 255-ARTS (2787). Student ''rush'' tickets ($10) are available one hour before curtain