Brandon Flynn and Robin Lord Taylor Are Marlon Brando and Tennessee Williams in New Off-Broadway Play (Exclusive)

Brandon Flynn and Robin Lord Taylor bring two pop culture giants back to the theater.

PEOPLE can exclusively reveal the two actors — Flynn, 31, of 13 reasons why fame and Talyor, 46, known for his role in Gotham — will star actor Marlon Brando and playwright Tennessee Williams Kowalskithat is, Gregg Ostrin’s new play inspired by the true story of their infamous first meeting.

Preview performances begin January 12, 2025, before the January 25 premiere at The Duke on 42nd Street at New 42 Studios in New York City. The play, directed by Colin Hanlon, will run until February 16, 2025.

Other stars include Alison Cimmet (as director Margo Jones), Ellie Ricker (as Jo) and Sebastian Treviño (as Pancho Rodriguez).

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Marlon Brando in a scene from ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’.

(Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

As legend has it, the paths of Brando and Williams first crossed in 1947, when Brando—then a 23-year-old actor with a string of Broadway credits but still somewhat unknown—came from New York to Provincetown, Massachusetts to audition for the role of Stanley Kowalski in Williams’ new play, A tram called desire.

Brando initially tried to back out of the audition, worried, as he wrote in his 1994 book, that “the size was too big.” But when he called director Elia Kazan to turn him down, the line was busy. And while they were talking, he was convinced that he could try.

Now it was time for Williams to get involved. As Kazan recalled in his 1997 memoir, he gave Brando $20 to get to Provincetown. “After three days I called Tennessee and asked him what he thought of the actor I sent him. ‘Which actor?’ he asked,” Kazan said. “Nobody showed up, so I figured I’d lost $20 and started looking elsewhere.”

Brandon Flynn and Marlon Brando.

Cindy Ord/Getty; John Kobal Foundation/Getty

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But Brando showed up – just a few days later. It turned out that despite the $20, he was broke and decided to hitchhike to the Cape Cod destination with his girlfriend instead. “He was about the most handsome man I ever saw,” Williams said in his 1975 autobiography. Memoirs.

It gets crazier from there. The Glass menagerie the playwright recounted that his house was in “domestic cataclysm” when Brando showed up. A fuse blew, there were problems with the pipes, the bathroom was clogged and water flooded the kitchen floor. So Brando got to work—just not on his audition.

“First he stuck his hand into the overflowing toilet and unclogged the drain, then he tackled the fuses. Within an hour, everything was working,” Williams said. “You’d think he’d spent his whole previous life fixing drains. Then he read the script aloud, just as he played it. It was the most magnificent reading I’d ever heard, and he got the part right away.”

Robin Lord Taylor and Tennessee Williams.

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty; Jack Mitchell/Getty

A tram called desire would catapult Brando to stardom. Although he would never return to Broadway, he would have a six-decade career on screen, including a 1951 film adaptation of the play. He is generally considered one of the greatest actors of the 20th century, and he has two Oscars among his many awards.

Williams, meanwhile, would continue to thrive as a playwright, penning hits such as Rose tattoo, Cat on a hot tin roof, Suddenly last summer and Sweet bird of youth (among many, many others) and winning two Pulitzer Prizes and two Tony Awards. He would also write screenplays, television dramas, short stories, novels and poetry.

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It’s unclear how many of those will come to that Kowalski. According to the official release, the play “transports audiences to a pivotal moment in theater history, exploring the intricate relationships and creative tensions surrounding Williams as he creates his masterpiece.”

The play “takes place over the course of one sultry night” and “offers a behind-the-scenes look at the raw forces that produced one of the greatest works of the 20th century, weaving memory and myth into a terrifying exploration of ambition, art and desire.”

Tickets for Kowalski they are on sale now.

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Source: HIS Education