Television: “The Glass Menagerie” (1973) starring Katharine Hepburn and Sam Waterson

Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” is arguably the greatest American play ever written. Produced on Broadway in 1945 and starring Laurette Taylor, it established TW as a major force in American theater and has never been surpassed by any of his other plays, with the possible exception of “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

There have been umpteen productions of GM, which I first read in junior high school in 1966. But none struck me as the absolute right one as the 1973 made-for-TV version starring Katharine Hepburn.

Having not seen this version in nearly 50 years, I wondered if my youthful infatuation was just that. So this week, I rewatched it via YouTube. And you know what? I wasn’t wrong. In terms of casting, acting, and authenticity to the setting (St Louis, 1930s), to this day it remains the quintessential version.

You may argue, as Pauline Kael did, that a Connecticut Yankee like Hepburn got it all wrong as Amanda Wingfield, the faded Southern matriarch. I disagree, and not so respectfully. With her nonstop blathering, nagging-mother ways and faded antebellum demeanor, KH epitomizes the woman for whom “things have a way of turning out so badly.”

Sam Waterson, looking young, soulful and impossibly skinny as Tom, perfectly captures the restlessness of someone trapped in miserable circumstances and who can only find salvation by “going to the movies.” Young Michael Moriarity is spot-on as the bumptious executive-to-be who realizes he has been set up as the gentleman caller for Tom’s sister.

But even amidst this lofty company, it is Joanna Miles who shines brightest as Laura Winfield. It’s a hard part to get right, but to date I’ve never seen anyone else who gets the character’s frailty and self-consciousness as well as Miles. Any actress who attempts to play Laura needs to understand that there’s beauty beneath the character’s plain-Jane facade, and Miles does. When the gentleman caller takes her in his arms and says, “somebody oughta kiss you, Laura,” Laura’s face lights up. And so does ours.

Miles, Waterson, and Moriarity are all in their 80s now, and deep sensitive performances like the ones they gave in TGM are few and far between. So in between the next episode of your favorite Netflix show, treat yourself to 90 minutes of what for me remains a master

class in acting as well the definitive performance of this 1945 classic. Trust me on this. Like Amanda Wingfield, I never say anything if it isn’t so.