CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF Apollo Theatre

Tennessee Williams, who was never afraid to be big and theatrical, always thought Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was his best play. The first surprise of Benedict Andrews’s radical production is Magda Willi’s artificial set. The second surprise is that Jack O’Connell is totally naked. The updating is a mistake. It spoils the play which begins with a non-stop forty-minute monologue, which is as taxing for Sienna Miller as it is for the audience. Things improve dramatically after the interval. Can Big Daddy face that he is dying of cancer? Can his son face the truth of his own homosexuality? There’s a great scene between Colm Meaney and O’Connell and Miller strips completely naked for the play’s very final moments