Somehow I managed to escape spoilers for 30 years before reading & listening to this play. I never saw the movie and only had a faint idea of what the story was about (I knew there was a drunk guy who yells STELLA but in my head he looks like Jack Nicholson yelling HERE'S JOHNNY). I certainly didn't imagine this story—shocking!

I listened to the 1973 Lincoln Center Revival cast recording while I read the script. The minor line edits in the recording were certainly for the better (Sorry, Tennessee!), but the music was all over the place and didn't follow the meaningful and significant "blue piano" instructions in the script (sorry, Tennessee). If I had just listened to it without reading, I would have missed the important lighting and colors, as well as key actions (ie scene 10... what happens there would not have made sense at all).

But I was grateful for this experience. It completely immersed me and I would love to see this on the stage. I am always so appreciative of art that is perfectly designed for its medium. I simply can't imagine how this would be a film instead of a play, so I'm curious to see the famous 1951 Marlon Brando on screen. On a tangent here: Recently I watched Chadwick Boseman's last film, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and it kept slapping me in the face with how it was meant to be on stage. The acting is fantastic, but the only thing cinematic about it was that a camera was involved.