Sweet Tornado: Margo Jones and the American Theater

Margo Jones died too young and too soon but not before leaving a lasting legacy of being a pioneer in the regional theatre movement. Margo Jones was born, bred and raised in Texas. She loved theatre and wanted to give theatre to the world. She nurtured playwrights like Tennessee Williams, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. With a documentary style and theatre presentation, Judith Ivey inhabits Margo Jones very well. She becomes this larger than life personality and a woman ahead of her time. Richard Thomas played Tennessee Williams. They were kindred spirits in sorts. Margo Jones was a force in American theater. She wanted theaters around the country to produce first rate entertainment that you don't need to go to New York City or Hollywood. She influenced the regional theatre movement. She had a vision to produce new and innovative plays for the stage.

"Sweet Tornado" is an invaluable documentary not just because of its creative virtues -- namely, combining archival footage with scenes re-created from actual letters and transcriptions. The film also virtually resurrected the persona of Margo Jones, the highly-charged producer/director who might otherwise have slipped into obscurity (did anyone know, for instance, that she was the first to stage "Inherit the Wind" in Dallas, of all places, where instead of railroading her out of town sanctimoniously, she was wildly embraced). Obviously, her contributions to the emergency of Tennessee Williams are more well-known and certainly salutary. So Kay Cattarulla and her crew have pulled off a very impressive and important work.