A Streetcar Named Desire
Tennessee Williams
A Streetcar Named Desire
The first Pulitzer, also directed by Elia Kazan, with another marriage fought out in two small rooms.
Read our takeCat on a Hot Tin Roof
Tennessee Williams
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
A rich family gathers for the patriarch's birthday on a Mississippi plantation, and nobody will tell the truth: not about his illness, not about the money, and not about why his favourite son drinks.
- 1955
- 208
About Tennessee Williams
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeCat on a Hot Tin Roof opened at the Morosco Theatre in New York on 24 March 1955, staged by Elia Kazan. Barbara Bel Geddes played Margaret, Ben Gazzara played her husband Brick, and Burl Ives played his father, Big Daddy. The run lasted 694 performances.[1] The play won the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Tennessee Williams's second.[2][3] The family has come together at a plantation house in the Mississippi Delta for Big Daddy's sixty-fifth birthday. He is dying of cancer, and the news slowly spreads through the house.[4][5][6] Paris saw the play on 19 December 1956, directed by Peter Brook, with Jeanne Moreau as Margaret.[7]
The story, in more detail
The whole play happens in one room on one summer evening. The first production set it in a bed-sitting room and part of the gallery of a plantation home in the Mississippi Delta.[1] The printed play opens with someone taking a shower behind a half-open bathroom door.[6]
The man in the shower is Brick Pollitt, a former football player who now drinks all day and keeps away from his wife.[6] His wife, Margaret, is called Maggie the Cat. She wants Brick back, and she wants a child, partly because a grandchild would help their claim to the estate.[8][5][9]
Brick's older brother, Gooper, and Gooper's wife, Mae, have come with their children. They want to see Maggie put in her place and Brick lose his position as the favourite son.[5] Big Daddy owns the plantation, and both sons' families are thinking about who will inherit it.[9][8]
Brooks Atkinson explained the title in his first-night review. Most of the family, he wrote, live as uncomfortably as the proverbial cat on a hot tin roof.[4] Tennessee Williams's father, Cornelius Williams, was the model for the blustering Big Daddy.[3]
The full plot
Big Daddy is sixty-five today, and the family has gathered at his plantation in the Mississippi Delta. The party is cheerful on the surface. Underneath, old wrongs, greed and fear spoil it.[4][5]
In their bedroom, Brick drinks steadily and turns away from his wife's affection. Maggie made an error of judgement in the past that nearly ended their marriage, and she wants to make up for it.[5][6]
Big Daddy is dying of cancer, and the knowledge is slowly making its way round the family.[5][6] Gooper and Mae, with their many children, work to make sure the estate goes to them.[5][9]
Big Daddy and Brick finally have a long talk, father to son. Big Daddy hates insincerity, and the talk brings up memories and truths that father and son have both avoided.[4][6]
How it ends — spoilers ahead
By the end of the evening everyone knows Big Daddy is dying. Maggie gives him the news he has wanted: she says she is pregnant by Brick. Her nerve and determination carry the evening.
Brick's love for his father, never said aloud before, pulls him back from destroying himself. The play ends with Brick returning to Maggie. Williams rewrote this last stretch of the play more than once, and theatres choose between his versions.
Themes and analysis
Broadway, March 1955: long talks in one room
The Playwrights' Company produced the play at the Morosco Theatre. Elia Kazan staged it, Jo Mielziner designed the set and lighting, and Lucinda Ballard made the costumes. Mildred Dunnock played Big Mama, and Pat Hingle and Madeleine Sherwood played Gooper and Mae.
Brooks Atkinson called it Williams's finest drama. He noticed how little happens. Most of the play, he wrote, is long conversations between two people, and sometimes the actors speak straight to the audience. Mielziner built the bedroom on a platform pushed out towards the seats.
Atkinson saw a family held together by lies: lies about health, about the past and about the future. The characters mostly want to be kind to each other, he wrote, but lies are the only shelter they have from the truth.
The play won the Pulitzer Prize and a third New York Drama Critics' Circle award for Williams. The production was nominated for four Tony Awards in 1956, including Best Play, and won none. Williams later dated the decline of his own work from 1955, the year of Cat.
A play Williams never stopped rewriting
Tennessee Williams once said that no play of his was ever finished, even after production. The Harry Ransom Center, which holds his papers, quotes the remark in its guide to the collection. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is one of the plays that fill the most boxes there.
The first edition came out from New Directions in 1955, running to 197 pages. Williams kept changing Cat for about twenty years. The text New Directions now publishes is the one he prepared for the American Shakespeare Festival production of 1974, which he treated as final.
The New Directions edition prints an essay by the Williams scholar Brian Parker, "Swinging a Cat", which traces the rewrites. The edition also includes Williams's own essay "Author and Director: A Delicate Situation", about working with a director, and an introduction by the playwright Edward Albee.
Paris, December 1956: Peter Brook and Jeanne Moreau
La Chatte sur un toit brûlant opened at the Théâtre Antoine in Paris on 19 December 1956. Peter Brook directed it and designed the set himself. André Obey wrote the French text.
Jeanne Moreau played Margaret and Paul Guers played Brick. Antoine Balpêtré was Big Daddy and Jane Marken was Big Mama. Jane Marken had played Amanda in the first Paris Glass Menagerie in 1947.
Obey's text was published in 1957 by Éditions J.-P. Mauclaire in Paris, with photographs. Robert Laffont included it in a collected Théâtre the next year. The production went on to the Théâtre des Célestins in Lyon in November 1957, with Ginette Leclerc as Margaret.
The 1958 film and what it left out
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released the film in colour in September 1958. Richard Brooks directed, Elizabeth Taylor played Maggie and Paul Newman played Brick. Burl Ives and Madeleine Sherwood kept their Broadway parts, and Judith Anderson played Big Mama.
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times noticed a large change. The play strongly suggests that Brick's trouble has to do with homosexuality. The film replaced that with a complicated story of hero-worship. Crowther thought the change left the film's explanation of Brick unconvincing.
The play keeps coming back to Broadway. There were revivals in 1974, 1990, 2003, 2008 and 2013. The 1990 production won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor, and a London revival won the 2010 Olivier Award for Best Revival of a Play.
Quotes from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
At the rise of the curtain someone is taking a shower in the bathroom, the door of which is half open.
Why we recommend it
The second Pulitzer
The 1955 Pulitzer Prize for Drama went to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times called it Williams's finest drama.
Three great parts
Maggie, Brick and Big Daddy each get a long scene that actors fight for. Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives and Jeanne Moreau have all played them.
Watch a writer revise
The New Directions edition prints Williams's 1974 text with Brian Parker's essay on how the play changed over twenty years. Few plays let a reader see the rewriting so clearly.
Peter Brook's Paris production
In December 1956 Peter Brook staged the play at the Théâtre Antoine with the young Jeanne Moreau as Maggie, in André Obey's French text.
What this book explores
The people in its pages
Margaret (Maggie the Cat)
Brick's wife, quick, frank and determined to save her marriage and her share of the estate. Barbara Bel Geddes created the part, Jeanne Moreau played it in Paris, and Elizabeth Taylor on film.
Brick Pollitt
Big Daddy's favourite son, a former football player who drinks to shut the world out and will not say why. Ben Gazzara created the part, Paul Guers played it in Paris, and Paul Newman on film.
Big Daddy
The owner of the plantation, loud, rich and dying without knowing it. He was modelled on Williams's own father. Burl Ives played him on Broadway and in the film.
Big Mama
Big Daddy's wife, silly on the surface and stronger than she looks. Mildred Dunnock created the part, and Jane Marken played it in Paris.
Also in the book
Gooper
Brick's older brother, known as Brother Man, with a large family and a close eye on the inheritance. Pat Hingle created the part.
Mae
Gooper's wife, known as Sister Woman, mother of a crowd of children and Maggie's rival. Madeleine Sherwood played her on Broadway and in the film.
Bring it to book club
- Everyone in the family lies about something. Which lie did you find easiest to forgive?
- Why does Brick drink? How much does the play tell us, and how much does it leave for us to guess?
- Maggie wants Brick back and wants the money. Can you separate the two?
- The 1958 film removed the play's suggestion of homosexuality. What did the story lose?
- Williams rewrote the ending several times. Which ending would you choose to stage?
Timeline
1955
Opens at the Morosco Theatre in New York on 24 March, staged by Elia Kazan, with Barbara Bel Geddes, Ben Gazzara and Burl Ives. New Directions publishes the text.
1955
Wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Williams's second, and his third New York Drama Critics' Circle award.
1956
Receives four Tony Award nominations, including Best Play. The Broadway run closes on 17 November after 694 performances.
1956
La Chatte sur un toit brûlant opens at the Théâtre Antoine in Paris on 19 December, directed by Peter Brook, with Jeanne Moreau as Margaret.
1957
André Obey's French text is published in Paris by Éditions J.-P. Mauclaire.
1958
MGM releases Richard Brooks's film in September, with Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman and Burl Ives.
1974
Williams prepares a revised text for the American Shakespeare Festival production. A Broadway revival opens in September.
1990
A Broadway revival wins the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.
2004
New Directions publishes the current edition, with the 1974 text and an introduction by Edward Albee.
2013
The play's fifth Broadway revival opens in January.
Book editions
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- New Directions
- 1955
- Paperback
- New Directions
- 2004
- 9780811216012
- Ebook
- New Directions
- 2004
- 9780811220774
Reader reviews
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Read our takeCat on a Hot Tin Roof: frequently asked questions
What is Cat on a Hot Tin Roof about?
A wealthy Mississippi family gathers for the patriarch Big Daddy's sixty-fifth birthday. He is dying of cancer, and the news spreads through the house during the evening. His son Brick drinks and ignores his wife, Maggie, while Brick's brother Gooper and his wife Mae angle for the inheritance.
What does the title mean?
The characters are as uneasy as a cat on a hot tin roof, unable to settle anywhere. Brooks Atkinson made the point in his first-night review in 1955. Maggie, Brick's restless wife, is known as Maggie the Cat.
Did Cat on a Hot Tin Roof win the Pulitzer Prize?
Yes. The play won the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Tennessee Williams's second after A Streetcar Named Desire. The play also won the New York Drama Critics' Circle award.
Who was in the original Broadway cast?
Barbara Bel Geddes played Maggie, Ben Gazzara played Brick, Burl Ives played Big Daddy and Mildred Dunnock played Big Mama. Elia Kazan staged it at the Morosco Theatre, where it opened on 24 March 1955.
Who played Maggie in Paris?
Jeanne Moreau, in La Chatte sur un toit brûlant at the Théâtre Antoine, from 19 December 1956. Peter Brook directed, and André Obey wrote the French text.
How is the 1958 film different from the play?
The film, directed by Richard Brooks with Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman, dropped the play's strong suggestion that Brick's trouble involves homosexuality. The screenplay put a story of hero-worship in its place. The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther thought the change weakened the film.
Which edition should I read?
The New Directions paperback, ISBN 9780811216012, prints the 1974 text Williams treated as final. The edition adds Edward Albee's introduction and Brian Parker's essay on the play's many versions.
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, its publication, and its place in literary history.
2↑Tennessee Williams — The 1955 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Drama, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Official recordThe Pulitzer Prizes, Columbia University, 1955Used forThe Pulitzer Prizes' own page for the 1955 award in Drama.
7↑La Chatte sur un toit brûlant, mise en scène Peter Brook (1956)
ArchiveLes Archives du spectacleUsed forThe production record for Peter Brook's Paris staging of 1956.
10Tennessee Williams — Broadway credits, original productions and revivals
Official recordInternet Broadway Database, The Broadway LeagueUsed forThe Broadway League's list of Williams productions, including the play's Broadway revivals.
11Cat on a Hot Tin Roof — Library of Congress catalog record for the New Directions first edition (LCCN 55003093)
ArchiveLibrary of Congress, 1955Used forThe Library of Congress record of the New Directions first edition.
12Tennessee Williams: An Inventory of His Collection
ArchiveHarry Ransom Center, University of Texas at AustinUsed forThe Harry Ransom Center's finding aid, which quotes Williams on unfinished plays.
13La Ménagerie de verre, adaptation de Marcel Duhamel, mise en scène Claude Maritz (1947)
ArchiveLes Archives du spectacleUsed forThe production record for the 1947 Paris Glass Menagerie, for Jane Marken's earlier part.
14La Chatte sur un toit brûlant, texte français d'André Obey (Éditions J.-P. Mauclaire, 1957)
ArchiveBibliothèque nationale de France, 1957Used forThe national library's record of André Obey's published text.
15Théâtre: La Rose tatouée, La Ménagerie de verre, Un tramway nommé Désir, La Chatte sur un toit brûlant, Été et fumées (Robert Laffont, 1958)
ArchiveBibliothèque nationale de France, 1958Used forThe national library's record of Robert Laffont's 1958 collected Théâtre.
16Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
PlayTennessee Williams, 1955Used forThe primary text represented by this page, used for descriptions of the work’s contents and for any quoted passages shown here.
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Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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