A Review of "A Streetcar Named Desire," at Yale Repertory Theater By Robin Lindsay, David Frank, Kriston Lewis, Abe Sater, Amy Rio and Pedro Rafael Rosado In Performance: Joe Manganiello: Joe Manganiello plays Stanley in the Yale Repertory Theater's revival of the Tennessee Williams drama "A Streetcar Named Desire." That Blanche DuBois - what a cutup! Carol Rosegg Sarah Sokolovic as Stella, René Augesen as Blanche, and April Matthis as Eunice in the Yale Repertory Theater's production of "A Streetcar Named Desire." The friend who accompanied me to the Yale Repertory Theater's production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" didn't know a lot about the play, having seen only the 1951 film version with Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh, directed by Elia Kazan. But he was pretty sure it was not a comedy. So imagine his confusion (and mine) as Act I unfolded and the New Haven audience began laughing it up. As poor, disgraced, discombobulated Blanche (René Augesen) arrives in New Orleans, horrified by the squalor in which her sister, Stella (Sarah Sokolovic), is living. As she meets and is appalled by Stella's coarse husband, Stanley (Joe Manganiello). As she desperately looks for and finds a drink in their apartment. As she realizes what she has gotten herself into by seeking refuge there. "Streetcar," for which its playwright, Tennessee Williams, won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize, is still a work of art, but this production is largely a letdown. Mark Rucker, the director, has done fine work at Yale Rep in the past, including "The Mistakes Madeline Made" in 2006. He was the man behind the camera for Charles Busch's performance in the film "Die, Mommie, Die!" (2003), and for that alone he deserves a star on the high-camp walk of fame. But "Streetcar" calls for a considerably different touch. Part of the problem, regrettably, is the leading man. Mr. Manganiello - who has built a devoted fan base as the powerful, sexy, frequently bare-chested werewolf Alcide on HBO's supernatural drama series "True Blood" - looks handsome onstage and delivers his dialogue competently, but that's about it. No one expects him to equal Brando's Stanley Kowalski, but other actors have at least brought some passion, some anger, some of the man's pain to their characterizations, if not all three. When Mr. Manganiello's Stanley tells Blanche, "We've had this date from the beginning" in the play's most menacing scene, he might as well be talking about dinner and a movie. Mr. Manganiello's fans hoping to see his impressive pectoral and abdominal muscles in person will not be disappointed. Those assets are not hidden, as admirers might fear, by the sweaty T-shirt that is Stanley's fashion signature; Mr. Manganiello goes shirtless part of the time. Ms. Sokolovic is a vibrant Stella, a character who has become easier for actresses to play robustly as the decades have passed; adult female sexuality was a tough sell 66 years ago. But it is her fragile older sister's story, and Ms. Augesen does bring poignancy to the revelations about Blanche's past, including the discovery that the young man she married was gay (which Williams was able to convey delicately, despite the era's squeamishness about the subject). There are some unusual casting choices here. Adam O'Byrne, who plays Mitch, Stanley's pal and perhaps Blanche's last chance at love, is a little too handsome for the role. Mitch (Karl Malden on Broadway and in the movie) is written as an insecure mama's boy who should thank his lucky stars that a beauty like Blanche even acknowledges his existence. Here, when he confronts Blanche with bright lights and the truth, some of the impact - of a rejection by a man beneath her - is lost. Nick Erkelens, who plays the newspaper-delivery collector, looks young enough in his program photograph. But he seems so mature onstage that we don't grasp Blanche's descent into the attempted seduction of teenage boys. You rarely hear people mention what a great Eunice Hubbell a production of "Streetcar" has, but here goes: April Matthis does a splendid, attention-getting job as Eunice, the Kowalskis" upstairs neighbor, who has marital-violence problems of her own. "A Streetcar Named Desire" relies on some rickety 1940s cultural assumptions. That husbands who beat their wives are the norm and, while not admirable, are not criminals either. And that a brief fling of promiscuity makes a woman unfit for marriage and respectability. Maybe because Williams saw the world more broadly and clearly than many of his contemporaries, his disapproval of those mores is written between the lines, and 21st-century audiences can see beyond period attitudes and be enveloped by the tragedy of a life deliberately destroyed. "A Streetcar Named Desire" by Tennessee Williams is at Yale Repertory Theater, University Theater, 222 York Street, New Haven, through Oct. 12. Information: yalerep.org or (203) 432-1234.