Family Ties Come to Dysfunctional Life in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Media Contact:

Kristen Gleason
Director of Marketing
The Paramount Theater
215 East Main Street
Charlottesville, VA 22902
434.979.1922 ext. 103
kristen@theparamount.net

For Immediate Release

March 18, 2008

The sizzling story of a Southern family in crisis, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a play about vital and vibrant characters trapped in a repressive society. Passion, hypocrisy, betrayal, and the inexplicable bonds of family all come to dysfunctional life when Montana Repertory Theatre returns to The Paramount Theater to present Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning classic on Thursday, April 3 at 7:30 pm.

Following the performance, the audience is invited to attend a discussion with members of the company.

This performance is sponsored by Renee and John Grisham. Special Media Sponsor is WHTJ Charlottesville PBS.

In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof the Pollitts, an affluent Southern family, reunite at their Mississippi Delta mansion to celebrate the birthday of family patriarch Big Daddy. The play uncovers the lives of Brick, the alcoholic son, tortured by the death of his best friend and guilt about their relationship; his wife Maggie, tormented by her longing for the husband she can’t possess; and Big Daddy, unaware that he is dying of cancer.

All the relatives in attendance attempt to present themselves in the best possible light, so as to receive the largest share of Big Daddy’s enormous wealth. Sparks fly as greed, hidden agendas, and half-lies are exposed, but there is humor as well, as in all of Williams’ best work.

"Mr. Williams’ finest drama ... faces and speaks the truth" (The New York Times), in a hauntingly beautiful play that finds the author writing at the peak of his power. America's great Southern playwright, Tennessee Williams won two Pulitzer Prizes and wrote 25 full-length plays, as well as dozens of screenplays, two novels, sixty short stories, and over a hundred poems during his illustrious career.

Authored in the mid-twentieth century, Williams' enduring tale of family and forgiveness, love and loss, still rings true. In fact the themes of the play are perhaps more pertinent today than ever. Before there were Desperate Housewives, there was Maggie the Cat; before there was Tony Soprano, there was Big Daddy; and before Survivor, there was Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

The Montana Repertory Theatre, an Equity company based at The University of Montana, has been touring for 40 years. Principal roles are played by actors whose past credits have included Broadway runs and national tours of A Chorus Line, Crimes of the Heart, Into the Woods, Biloxi Blues, Steel Magnolias, Pump Boys and Dinettes, Cabaret, The Will Rogers Follies, George M!, and Execution of Justice, as well as major motion pictures.

In recent years the company has performed productions of To Kill a Mockingbird, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Diary of Anne Frank, Death of a Salesman, The Miracle Worker, A Streetcar Named Desire, Steel Magnolias, The Trip to Bountiful and Lost in Yonkers for more than 450 audiences in over 350 communities from California to New York.

Seats are still available for Montana Repertory Theatre’s production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on Thursday, April 3 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $39.50, $42.50, $45.50, and $51.50. Half-price student rush tickets and group discounts are offered. This performance includes strong language and is not recommended for children.

Tickets are available online or through The Paramount’s Box Office at 434.979.1333.

For more information about Montana Repertory Theatre, please visit www.montanarep.org.