Paramount Theatre’s long-delayed revival of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ is stellar

“A Streetcar Named Desire” — 4 stars

In February 2020, Paramount Theatre announced Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” would mark the debut of the theater’s Bold Series in the newly renovated, 165-seat Copley Theatre.

Three weeks later, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Paramount to postpone the series and cancel the inaugural production. Four years later, Paramount concludes its second Bold season with its long-delayed revival of Williams’ 1947 classic tale about a disgraced Southern belle forced her to leave her Mississippi home and take refuge with her sister and brother-in-law in their cramped New Orleans apartment.

What a stellar revival it is.

Paramount’s taut, smoldering production was worth the wait. Steady tension animates co-directors Jim Corti and Elizabeth Swanson’s charged, well-paced production whose climax (still harrowing no matter how many times one sees it) is followed by a nicely ambiguous coda. The final image unfolds as a kind of standoff between Casey Hoekstra’s sinewy, tightly coiled Stanley Kowalski and his wife, Stella, played by Alina Taber, whose raised chin suggests a woman set to challenge her husband and assert her independence.

Corti and Swanson’s production also has more humor than I recall in previous “Streetcar” productions. Case in point is the perfectly timed barbs Stanley and Blanche (Amanda Drinkall) hurl at each other. Equally striking is how deftly Corti and Swanson balance realism reflected in Stella and Stanley’s gritty, sweaty existence and the magic that Blanche craves.

The former comes courtesy of set designer Angela Weber Miller, who covers the Kowalskis’ cramped apartment in what appears to be a thin layer of grime. Within this abode the bed is perpetually unmade and a once-elegant arm chair is stained and sagging. Weathered and dim, it is every inch the trap that Blanche perceives it to be. Forrest Gregor’s urban soundscape — with its squalling cats and clanging streetcars — provides a fitting accompaniment.

Conjuring magic falls to lighting designer Cat Wilson and composer Kevin O’Donnell. O’Donnell supplies the barely perceptible melodies that haunt Blanche. Wilson incorporates shadows to excellent effect, particularly during the second act’s disastrous birthday dinner. She alternates casting Drinkall’s Blanche in stark white (a nod to unforgiving reality) and enveloping her in the misty blue and gossamer gold of her delusions.

Wearing a wrinkled white suit with a dirty hem and a smudged sleeve (Mara Blumenfeld’s costumes are as enlightening as ever), Blanche arrives at her sister’s home off balance (literally and figuratively). A fragile mental state and a fondness for liquor make her unsteady.

Her vanity demands flattery and the pretense of gentility; her disdain requires a target (Stella’s shabby abode and her uncouth spouse); and her dire financial straits necessitate a savior. He appears as Stanley’s sweetly awkward, fundamentally decent buddy Mitch (fine work by the tender, authentic Ben Page), who courts the fading beauty.

Drinkall is radiant as a woman undone by sexual appetites compounded by the loss of her home and family. Hanging onto her sanity by her fingernails, Blanche resembles under the “merciless glare of a naked bulb” a deer-in-the-headlights, unable to avert destruction. Rooted in desperation and desire, her carefully complex performance (which should earn Drinkall a Joseph Jefferson Award nomination) suggests a woman aware of but unable to contain her self-deceit. Brava.

Hoekstra’s coarse, calculating Stanley is equally compelling. Bold and brutal, Hoekstra’s fiery performance suggests Stanley is two steps ahead of everyone else.

Equally self-aware is Taber’s resolute Stella, whose passion allows her to overlook her husband’s volatility. Her nuanced performance reveals a survivor, not nearly as helpless as she appears, who understands the power she has over her husband and — as the final scene suggests — is unafraid to wield it.

There’s also fine work by supporting actors Andrea Uppling, as passively pragmatic landlady Eunice, and Joshua L. Green, as her philandering husband Steve, whose violent bickering foreshadows Stella and Stanley in 10 years.

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Location: Copley Theatre, 8 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora, (630) 896-6666, paramountaurora.com

Showtimes: 1:30 and 7 p.m. Wednesday; 7 p.m. Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 5:30 p.m. Sunday through April 21

Running time: About 2 hours, 40 minutes with intermission

Tickets: $40-$55

Parking: Limited street parking, paid lots nearby

Rating: For teens and older; adult subjects reference domestic abuse, sexual assault and violence