Kowalski by Gregg Ostrin starring Johnny Galecki thru Oct 25

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Brando’s Breakout Meets Williams’ Breakthrough in “Kowalski”; An Unforgettable Night of Theater at Lookingglass thru October 25th. - Review By: Paul Lisnek 

****/4

Brando’s Breakout Meets Williams’ Breakthrough in “Kowalski”; An Unforgettable Night of Theater!

There is something very satisfying about “Kowalski”, Gregg Ostrin’s play about the volatile early collaboration between Tennessee Williams and Marlon Brando; it takes place before either of these artists fully became the monumental cultural figure we now know them to be; and yet Ostrin clearly understands that their magnificence is already there. At Lookingglass Theatre, under Colin Hanlon’s fine direction, the play is less history lesson and more “backstage” pressure cooker—an engaging account of ambition, insecurity, artistic jealousy, and the rare chemistry not often uncovered but required to make a lasting work of theater.

The title, of course, is a reference to Stanley Kowalski, the legendary and frighteningly magnetic character at the center of Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. But Ostrin is less interested in the play’s plot than he is in the people who made Stanley possible: Williams, trying to protect his language and his own hidden past; and Brando, a young actor with a talent we know is ready to burst through. so primary to them that it feels like an act of destruction awaits us.

Ostrin’s play smartly avoids the temptation to turn its subjects prematurely into legends. He knows the audience arrives with the knowledge of what A Streetcar Named Desire would become, what Brando’s performance would mean and how thoroughly Williams’ work would enter the American canon. But rather than treating that knowledge as the drama, Ostrin uses it to create tension. We watch not because the outcome is unknown, because it’s not, but because the artistic process is so vividly volatile. 

Johnny Galecki gives a brilliant, beautifully calibrated performance as Williams. His Tennessee is not filled with mere poetic Southern turns of phrase; He is a working artist fighting for the integrity of something deeply personal, and it is stunning to watch Galecki as Williams get alternately charmed and angered by the brute force Brando (an exceptionally compelling performance by Jacob Moskovitz that creates a Brando well beyond mere imitation) brings into the room. In fact, neither Galecki nor Moskovitz seek to deliver an imitation of the icons. In fact, we don’t actually see that moment when Brando reads for Stanley; instead we feel like we are living it. 

Galecki’s performance gives us the playwright’s sensitivity and depth, taking us way beneath the surface. Williams’ life experiences become a source of insight, but also a source of vulnerability which gets exposed to the people who walk through his home’s front door. Moskovitz captures the dangerous unpredictability that must have made the young Brando so electrifying. His Brando is restless, defiant, and intensely watchable—Moskovitz plays Brando as the kind of actor who appears to be discovering the scene in the moment he plays it, very much as Brando would have done. Yet Moskovitz allows us to see the insecurity which lays underneath his swagger. His Brando does not simply dominate the room; truth be told, Brando appears to need the room so he can prove that he belongs in it.

The charge between Galecki and Moskovitz is the production’s energy. Their scenes have the combative intimacy of two artists who may not entirely understand one another but recognize that his counterpart has a creative force that cannot be dismissed. The collision of Williams’ demanding precision and Brando’s innate if less precise instinct is the play’s central dramatic subject. Director Colin Hanlon makes their clash feel consequential and real without allowing it to drift into Hollywood mythology.

Alison Cimmet, who was a real figure and director, brings intelligence and grounded authority to Margo Jones. Cimmet’s Margo is practical, perceptive and unsentimental. She understands both the fragility of a new play and the ego-driven people who can overwhelm it. She is a welcome correction to the idea that theater history can only be made by male geniuses. In fact, given the disrespectful treatment women faced at that time and in this story, Cimmet’s Margo is no bystander in the presence of greatness; she herself is a skilled artist and strategist.

Ellie Ricker is equally affecting as Jo, the only fictitious character created for this story; she is a friend or maybe girlfriend to Brando, who brings a clear-eyed view to a character who is critical to pointing out the human cost, the collateral damage, behind the professional drama. Ricker’s Jo is warm and critical; she could have become but does not become a mere observer to the artists’ created turmoil.

As Pancho, Williams’ actual boyfriend, Reece Dos Santos is grounded and while of lower class to Williams makes it clear he can put Williams in his place. He makes us wonder just how deep a relationship Williams is capable of handling, or is the front door just an entry for the next playtoy?

Colin Hanlon’s direction is especially effective in managing tone. Kowalski is often witty, with the humor landing with the skills of people who know how to use banter as both entertainment and defense. But Hanlon never lets the comedy flatten the pain and pining beneath it. 

The production flows between theatrical sparring, romantic uncertainty, ego clashes and moments of genuine tenderness. The actors know how to use moments of silence— pauses in which a thought is withheld, a wound is exposed or a character realizes that the work may be asking more of them than they are prepared or capable to give.

Kowalski succeeds because it makes a familiar chapter of theater history feel immediate and lively—it’s a story that honors the legend of Streetcar while reminding us that, before the greatness, there were artists in a room filled with potential, who were ultimately trying to make art work, now realizing they were ultimately creating immortality.

This is a play NOT to be missed!

Kowalski plays at the Lookingglass Theatre thru October 25th. Tickets can be purchased at: www.Lookingglass.org