Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

A major revival of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning classic play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in London following a sell-out Broadway season.

"An exhilarating evening. A high water mark for the London stage" The Guardian

In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a powerful Southern family gathers at a birthday celebration for patriarch Big Daddy, who does not know that he is dying of cancer. In a scramble to secure their part of his estate, family members hide the truth about his diagnosis from him and Big Mama. Front and center as tensions mount are alcoholic former football hero Brick and his beautiful but sexually frustrated wife Maggie "the Cat"; as their troubled relationship comes to a stormy and steamy climax, a shockwave of secrets are finally revealed.

"Compelling, sensitive and acerbically comic" The Independent

The 2008 Broadway revival cast members James Earl Jones and Phylicia Rashad reprise their roles of 'Big Daddy' and 'Big Mama' in this London staging. Joining them will be Adrian Lester as 'Brick' and Sanaa Lathan as 'Maggie - the Cat'.

"Adrian Lester - SUPERB" The Daily Express
James Earl Jones - STUNNING" The Independent
Sanaa Lathan - SENSUAL" The Daily Telegraph
Phylicia Rashad - EXCELLENT" The Guardian

This revival production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in London is directed by Debbie Allen and comes to London's West End following a season at the Broadhurst Theatre on Broadway where the production previewed from 12 February 2008, opened on 6 March 2008 and closed on 22 June 2008.

"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a powerful, fierce indictment of family dysfunction. The production shines with great performances" The Daily Express

"With some nips and tucks to the script and shifting the time from the Fifties to the Eighties, Debbie Allen has shown that the universal themes of family conflict that Tennessee Williams explores make his words ring true in the mouths of actors, whatever their colour. James Earl Jones seems born to play the dying patriarch Big Daddy. His is a performance jangling with danger. Lester's less so, though he brings a sullen beauty to his alcoholic self-absorption - and gives a masterclass in how to play a drunk with a crutch." The Sunday Telegraph

"Packs an emotional punch" The London Evening Standard

"Debbie Allen's African-American take may sound like a radical revision of Tennessee Williams' play, but she hasn't, in fact, had to alter much of the dialogue. The legerdemain is her specified time-shift, from the 1950s to the 1980s, while retaining the setting of the grand old plantation mansion - all shuttered French windows and the spinning shadow of a ceiling fan... Adrian Lester is superb, with hatred simmering beneath his cold, depressed silences... Meanwhile, in the great father-son confrontation at the heart of the play, James Earl Jones is richly complicated: slumped like a sour-mouthed bulldog, barking rebukes, but then suddenly beaming with paternal love and hidden depths of tolerance... Timelessly poignant." Independent on Sunday

"Debbie Allen's clever adaptation manages to transmute Williams's white Southern family reunion into a black one with ingeniously little strain... Sanaa Lathan, as Maggie, is certainly fabulously sexy, but she fails to vary her tone... Phylicia Rashad, as Big Mama, is loud and funny, but in a crude, sometimes even cartoonish style... The two male leads, on the other hand, are both excellent. James Earl Jones, straight from the Broadway production, is the best thing in it, with a natural charisma and power that few actors can equal... Equally good is the British actor Adrian Lester, as Brick, in a beautifully understated performance. The appallingly bitchy Mae is also nicely realised by Nina Sosanya... Still, this remains a middling production that, for all the rather self-conscious on-stage steaminess, and a couple of fine performances, never really catches fire." The Sunday Times

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in London at the Novello Theatre previewed from 21 November 2009, opened on 1 December 2009 and closes on 10 April 2010.