O.C. THEATER : Alternative Rep Offers a Class ‘Menagerie’

“The Glass Menagerie,” which heralded the arrival of Tennessee Williams, opened here over the weekend in an auspicious revival that ought to do the same for the Alternative Repertory Theatre.

This small storefront company has launched its fifth season with a bankable production of Williams’ classic family drama that is sturdy as well as sensitive, poignant but not precious, delicate yet full of dry humor.

Orange County playgoers, if they’re smart, will beat a path to the ART door.

As a writer of genius, Williams performed a miracle of sorts with this partly autobiographical work, not only imbuing his detailed observations of a particular social milieu with lasting poetic insight but endowing very specific characters of the ‘30s with universal significance.

In fact, “The Glass Menagerie” has proved far more durable over the years than most critics initially thought it would. Even in the glowing Broadway notices of 1945, several months after the play had its premiere in Chicago, there were condescending hints that it might be as fragile as the glass figurines of the title.

True to the theatrical commerce of the time, moreover, it might never have reached Broadway without Laurette Taylor’s stunning performance as Amanda Wingfield, a former Southern belle who clings to her illusory past while living in a St. Louis tenement apartment with her two grown children.

Be that as it may, this production has its own Amanda to brag about in Sally Leonard. The keynote she strikes is not bittersweet, nor does it quiver with the tremulous neurasthenia of deluded gentility--though it suggests both of those qualities at times. This Amanda has a neurotic pungency that dominates, all the more credible for its heroic disguise as motherly love and its herculean effort at self-denial.

Under Joel T. Cotter’s astute direction, Leonard plays Amanda with real sentiment from beginning to end, never lapsing into archness, never yielding to the temptation to overact, always keeping Amanda’s fulsome behavior sharply in focus and her authentic Southern accent absolutely in key.

The rest of the cast works with more variable success.

Ted Escobar brings a knowing, if overdone, cynicism to the role of Amanda’s disillusioned son, Tom, a would-be writer who resents the low-paid drudgery of his factory job, which he must keep to support his mother and sister. But while he has a monotonous tendency to strike a pose--clenching his jaw to underscore Tom’s moody tension or glancing sidelong for comic effect--he nevertheless makes forceful contact with the audience as the narrator whose memory of events colors the entire play.

Tracy Merrifield’s portrayal of the compulsively shy Laura, who collects tiny glass figurines and listens with a dreamy fixation to phonograph records, is less successful. She seems undefined, as well as too healthy for a limping, sheltered creature whose vitality has been drained by isolation and failure.

Greg Izay turns in a surprisingly effective performance as the romantic figure of the Gentleman Caller. When he makes his appearance, you can’t help thinking he has been miscast because of the slightness of his physical stature. After all, the Gentleman Caller is referred to as a former high-school basketball star. But Izay brings the sort of charm to his cameo that makes you forget such contradictions.

In technical terms, meanwhile, the production is a marvelously deft piece of work. D. Silvio Volonte’s airy scenic design, outlined by a lace-draped molding and half-suggested doorways, conveys a spacious impression for an otherwise tiny playing area. The costumes and lighting are right. And the choice of Debussy for the phonograph music, an idea borrowed perhaps from Terrence McNally’s “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune,” is also an apt touch in an overall sound design that works beautifully.

‘The Glass Menagerie’

An Alternative Repertory Theatre presentation of Tennessee Williams’ drama. Directed by Joel T. Cotter. Produced by Kathleen A. Bryson. With Ted Escobar, Sally Leonard, Tracy Merrifield and Greg Izay. Scenic design by D. Silvio Volonte. Lighting by David C. Palmer. Costumes by Karen J. Weller. Sound and makeup design by Gary Christensen. Through Nov. 16 at Alternative Repertory Theatre, 1636 S. Grand Ave., Santa Ana. Performances are Thursdays to Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 7 p.m. Tickets: $12.50 to $15. (714) 836-7929.