The Night of the Iguana

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The Night of the Iguana is a play by Tennessee Williams that had its Broadway premiere in 1961, and was based on 1948 short story by Williams. There have been two film adaptations made. Set in 1940s Mexico, the main character is an ex-minister turned tour guide, Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon, who has been accused of statutory rape of a seductive sixteen-year-old in his party.

As leader of a tour party of church women, Shannon takes the group to a cheap hotel on the coast of Mexico run by an old friend of his named Fred. He soon finds out Fred has died and the hotel is now run by Fred's promiscuous widow, Maxine Faulk. Shannon, on the edge of a nervous breakdown, trying to manage both his tour party (who hate him) and Maxine (who is interested in him for purely carnal reasons), is struck by the appearance of the strangely virginal spinster, Hannah Jelkes, a painter who travels with her elderly poet grandfather. Hannah is at the end of her means and Shannon convinces Maxine to let her stay the night. Over a long night, and despite Maxine's attempts to separate them, Hannah and Shannon form a deeply human bond that dies out in a slow, tragic ending.

[edit] Original Broadway stage production

The play premiered on Broadway at the Royale Theatre on December 28, 1961 and ran for 316 performances. It starred Patrick O'Neal as Rev. Shannon, Bette Davis as Maxine and Margaret Leighton as Hannah. It also featured Alan Webb, Louis Guss, Bruce Glover and James Farentino. The production was directed by Frank Corsaro and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play. Leighton won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.

[edit] Film versions

Main article:The Night of the Iguana (film)

The 1964 film version was directed by John Huston and starred Richard Burton as Rev. Shannon, Ava Gardner as Maxine and Deborah Kerr as Hannah. It also featured Sue Lyon, Cyril Delevanti and Grayson Hall, who received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in this film. The screenplay was written by Huston and Anthony Veiller. The film won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design (B&W), and in addition to Ms. Hall's nomination, was also nominated for its Cinematography (by Gabriel Figueroa) and Art Direction. The film removed the Nazi tourist characters from the original stage version.

There was a 2000 Serbo-Croatian film version that was directed by Janusz Kica.

[edit] More stage productions

A 1976 Broadway revival at the Circle in the Square Theatre featured Richard Chamberlain as Rev. Shannon, Dorothy McGuire as Hannah and Sylvia Miles as Maxine.

Circle in the Square Theatre also staged a 1988 revival starring Nicolas Surovy as Rev. Shannon, Maria Tucci as Maxine and Jane Alexander as Hannah.

In 1996, a Broadway revival was directed by Robert Falls featuring William Petersen as Rev. Shannon, Marsha Mason as Maxine and Cherry Jones as Hannah. This was based on a 1994 production staged by the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.

In London, a 1992 production at the Royal National Theatre featured riveting performances by Alfred Molina as Rev. Shannon and Eileen Atkins as Hannah. This production was directed by Richard Eyre.

A critically acclaimed 2006 London production at Lyric Theatre starred Woody Harrelson as Rev. Shannon, Clare Higgins as Maxine and Jenny Seagrove as Hannah.

The Plays of Tennessee Williams

Adam and Eve on a Ferry, And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens, At Liberty, Auto Da Fé, Baby Doll (screenplay), Battle of Angels, Beauty Is the Word, Camino Real, Cairo! Shanghai! Bombay!, Candles to the Sun, The Case of the Crushed Petunias, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Chalky White Substance, Clothes for a Summer Hotel, Creve Coeur, The Dark Room, Demolition Downtown, The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, The Fat Man's Wife, The Frosted Glass Coffin, Fugitive Kind, Garden District, The Gentleman Callers (screenplay), The Glass Menagerie, Grand, Hello from Bertha, A House Not Meant to Stand, I Can't Imagine Tomorrow, In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel, I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix, Kingdom of Earth / Seven Descents of Myrtle, Kirche, Küche und Kinder (play), The Lady of Larkspur Lotion, The Last of My Solid Gold Watches, Lifeboat Drill, The Long Goodbye, Lord Byron's Love Letter (libretto), The Magic Tower, The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, Moony's Kid Don't Cry, The Mutilated, The Night of the Iguana, Not about Nightingales, The Notebook of Trigorin, Now the Cats with Jewelled Claws, The One Exception, Orpheus Descending, Out Cry, The Palooka, A Perfect Anaysis Given by a Parrot, Period of Adjustment, The Pink Room, Portait of a Madonna, The Purification, The Red Devil Battery Sign, The Rose Tattoo, Something Unspoken, Slapstick Tragedy (The Mutilated and The Gnädiges Fräulein), Something Cloudy, Something Clear, Spring Storm, Stairs to the Roof, Steps Must be Gentle, A Streetcar Named Desire, Suddenly, Last Summer, Summer and Smoke, Summer at the Lake, Small Craft Warnings, Sweet Bird of Youth, Tiger Tail, This Is (An Entertainment), This is Peaceable Kingdom/Good Luck God, This Property is Condemned, Three Players of a Summer Game, Twenty-Seven Wagons Full of Cotton, The Two-Character Play, Vieux Carré, Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis?, You Touched Me