--- title: Brando Takes Broadway: On the Set of 'Streetcar Named Desire,' 1947 description: On the anniversary of the Broadway premier of 'A Streetcar Named Desire,' LIFE presents photos from rehearsals for that famous production canonical: https://time.com/3605994/brando-takes-broadway-life-on-the-set-of-a-streetcar-named-desire-in-1947/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-30T17:31:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:06:54.155Z og:title: Brando Takes Broadway: On the Set of 'Streetcar Named Desire,' 1947 og:description: On the anniversary of the Broadway premier of 'A Streetcar Named Desire,' LIFE presents photos from rehearsals for that famous production og:url: https://time.com/3605994/brando-takes-broadway-life-on-the-set-of-a-streetcar-named-desire-in-1947/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71ba4d257a0e837d/69876b04428a9ef64acc5a15/141125-streetcar-named-desire-03.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: A Streetcar Named Desire 1947 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Brando Takes Broadway: On the Set of 'Streetcar Named Desire,' 1947 twitter:description: On the anniversary of the Broadway premier of 'A Streetcar Named Desire,' LIFE presents photos from rehearsals for that famous production twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71ba4d257a0e837d/69876b04428a9ef64acc5a15/141125-streetcar-named-desire-03.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Brando Takes Broadway: LIFE on the Set of 'A Streetcar Named Desire' in 1947 by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Nov 30, 2014 5:31 PM UTC  Caption from LIFE. Her sister and her sister's Polish husand Stanley (Marlon Brando), after a fierce querrel brought about by Blanche's endless meddling, are reconciled in a touching love scene on stairway of their ramshackle little flat. Caption from LIFE. Her sister and her sister's Polish husand Stanley (Marlon Brando), after a fierce querrel brought about by Blanche's endless meddling, are reconciled in a touching love scene on stairway of their ramshackle little flat.Eliot Elisofon—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Nov 30, 2014 5:31 PM UTC Along with Arthur Miller’s _Death of a Salesman_, Eugene O’Neill’s _Long Day’s Journey Into Night_ and a few other notable modern works, Tennessee Williams’ 1947 masterpiece, _A Streetcar Named Desire_, helped shape the look and feel of American drama for decades to come. But nothing that occurred during the play’s original Broadway run eclipsed the emergence of a young Marlon Brando as a major creative force and a star to be reckoned with. Here, on the anniversary of the play’s Dec. 3, 1947, Broadway premiere, LIFE.com presents photos — some of which never ran in LIFE — made during rehearsals by photographer Eliot Elisofon. Directed by Elia Kazan and starring Brando, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden, the 1947 production remains a touchstone in American drama, winning both the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle award for the year’s best play, as well as a Best Actress Tony for Tandy for her seminal performance as the unstable, alcoholic, melodramatic Southern belle, Blanche DuBois. Despite all the accolades it earned, however, the 24-year Brando’s galvanizing turn as Stanley Kowalski — in both the play and in Kazan’s 1951 film adaptation — was what really seared the production into the pop-culture consciousness. Gritty, sensual, violent and bleak, Williams’ great play remains one of a handful of utterly indispensable 20th-century American dramatic works, while the sensual ferocity of Brando’s Stanley can still shock, seven decades after he first unleashed the character on a rapt theatergoing public.  Kim Hunter (left), Marlon Brando, Karl Malden and others in rehearsal for the original production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Eliot Elisofon—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Blanche DuBois, is a Southern girl who lives in a make-believe world of grandeur, preens in faded evening gowns and makes herself out to be sweet, genteel and deliccate. She comes to visit her sister Stella and brother-in-law in the French quarter of New Orleans. Eliot Elisofon—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Her sister and her sister's Polish husand Stanley (Marlon Brando), after a fierce querrel brought about by Blanche's endless meddling, are reconciled in a touching love scene on stairway of their ramshackle little flat. Eliot Elisofon—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Blanche and Stella (Kim Hunter) undress in a bedroom which is divided from living room by partly closed curtains. Though Blanche complains about the noisy poker party which is going on in the adjoining room, she purposely stands so she can be seen by Mitch (Karl Malden, third from left). Eliot Elisofon—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Acting the coquette, Blanch curtsies to Mitch, whom she has lured into courting her. Mitch proposes marriage but jilts her when he discovers in her home town Blanche is practically a prostitute. Eliot Elisofon—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "We've had this date with each other from the beginning," says Stanley to Blanche. For weeks she has been insulting and trying to attract him. When his wife is in the hospital having a baby, Blanche hysterically attacks him with the top of a broken bottle. In a half-drunken fury, Stanley rapes her. Eliot Elisofon—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. The drama ends when Blanche, clinging to her pitiful delusion that she is a grand lady, is pronounced insane, is led away by asylum attendants. Her sister and husband can now resume their happiness, proving Williams' thesis that healthy life can go on only after it is rid of unwholesome influence. Eliot Elisofon—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Jessica Tandy (center) playing in the Broadway production A Streetcar Named Desire. Eliot Elisofon—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Playwright Tennessee Williams sitting on theater set of his play, A Streetcar Named Desire. 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