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Kowalksi Brings Drama and Desire to Off-Broadway
January 27, 2025, 7:52.12 pm ET

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By Brian Scott Lipton

Gregg Ostrin’s new play “Kowalski”, about the first meeting between playwright Tennessee Williams and actor Marlon Brando, has officially opened and will now run through February 23 at The Duke on 42nd Street (229 West 42nd Street).

Directed smoothly by Colin Hanlon, the play transports audiences to a 1947 Provincetown beach house (beautifully designed by David Gallo) where Williams (a superbly flamboyant Robin Lord Taylor) first encounters the enigmatic young Brando (a charismatic Brandon Flynn in a properly tight t-shirt).

While Williams had expected Brando three days prior, the playwright – left alone while his longrime friend Margo Jones (a fine Alison Cimmet) and his companion Pancho Rodriguez (Sebastian Trevino) go to a local bar – is taken aback when the young actor enters his home, Moreover, Brando doesn’t announce who he actually is, and Williams first takes Brando to be nothing more than an adoring fan – and possible sexual conquest.

Instead, a game of cat-and-mouse ensues, with the pair alternately bonding and fighting (and constantly boozing) as Brando slyly sets out to prove that he’s the right actor for the role of the thuggish Stanley Kowalski in Williams’ upcoming play “A Streetcar Named Desire” even as he insists that he hasn’t read the script.

Brando’s “scheme” runs into a slight complication when his traveling companion (and for-the-moment girlfriend) Jo (a fine Ellie Ricker) tracks him down at the house. She quickly becomes enamored of Williams, who pours on the charm (and pours the liquor), leading to some explosive and revealing behavior by Brando.

A glimpse into theatrical history (although clearly a mix of fact and faction), “Kowalski” is a satisfying combination of drama and melodrama, much like many of Williams’ plays.

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