TGIF: Sloane Shelton
When Tennessee Williams died in 1983, he had not had a hit on stage for more than twenty years. If Broadway is to see no new Williams plays, it has plenty of older ones to enjoy. Ten months after his death, Williams and Jessica Tandy, the original Blanche DuBbois, were reunited in another revival of The Glass Menagerie. Five years later, a revival of A Streetcar Named Desire starring Aidan Quinn and Blythe Danner opened at Circle in the Square, but neither productions were hits with audiences. It took a British import of Orpheus Descending, directed by Peter Hall and starring Vanessa Redgrave, to make Williams box office gold again. This staging was later filmed.
Sloane Shelton played Beulah Binnings, a middle aged town gossip who provides valuable background exposition on Lady's father at the beginning of the play. Shelton has made her career as a character actor on both stage and film. Her Broadway career stretches back to The Affair in 1962 where she was the understudy to Brenda Vaccaro. Her film roles includes small parts in All the President's Men, All That Jazz, and Pollock.