BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Rather than genteelly depicting Amanda Wingfield as a fluttering, faded belle, Cherry Jones embodies a sharp, spirited woman who spurs her two troubled children to fly right according to her limited sights.

Expect not to see a traditional staging of Tennessee Williams’s ever-lovely “The Glass Menagerie” in its current Broadway revival. The American Repertory Theater’s new production, which is directed by John Tiffany and opened on Thursday at the Booth Theater, cannot live up entirely to its rapturous advance buzz, but it remains a sensitive, sometimes striking realization of this classic.

Williams’s familiar late 1930s drama about a Southern woman’s relationships with her rebellious son Tom and withdrawn daughter Laura is rendered by Tiffany in darker shades than usual.

Observe how the Wingfield family literally teeters on the edges of their shabby little St. Louis apartment. Designer Bob Crowley’s abstract and sparsely furnished setting for Williams’s 1944 memory play reflects how people recall the scenes from their past in intimate visual fragments. Situated against a glistening black background, a stylized fire escape zigzags upwards into the night.

At times the characters anxiously sway upon the brink of this darkness, which possibly represents the abyss of poverty and perhaps madness. Designer Natasha Katz’s exquisite lighting, however, softens these stark visuals with glowing pinks, blues and purples. Composer Nico Muhly’s shimmering violin and piano underscoring sweetens the rueful quality of the play.

Cherry Jones’s robust performance as Amanda is bold and memorable. Wearing a brown marcel, the bristling Jones resembles a mother hen. Frequently flinging her arms about in wide gestures or slapping her palms, Jones’s freewheeling manners as Amanda suggest that the lady’s fabled background may really be more rural than regal. Her throaty voice prickling with sharp notes, Jones creates a doggedly energetic Amanda who seems likely to fend well for herself once she gets Tom and Laura off her hands.

For all of her indomitable character’s vigor, Jones radiantly illuminates the language and emotions of Amanda’s reveries about a springtime of “Malaria fever and jonquils and then – this – boy…” Jones’s charm in these quieter moments compensates for the hideously fussy cotillion gown she sports in the dinner scene (the audience should not laugh when Amanda first appears in it).

A dark-eyed, smoldering Zachary Quinto characterizes Tom with his mother’s expansive gestures and a hard-edged demeanor that eases only when he is with Laura, who is softly and plaintively rendered by Celia Keenan-Bolger. Obliging as the family’s dinner guest, Brian J. Smith is a very nice, kindly Jim. The candle-lit scene between Laura and Jim seems especially tender.

The author amended his work over the years. The text crafted for this production (and approved by the Williams estate) employs extra bits of material from previous versions; most noticeably for Amanda’s telephone arias and as line repetitions. Tiffany paces the action in varying rhythms attuned to the play. The spontaneous quality that the director achieves with his excellent actors lends vibrancy to the show.

Just for the record, the Amandas that I have seen previously include Jessica Tandy, Julie Harris, Jessica Lange and Judith Ivey. The staunch Amanda that Cherry Jones creates is unlike the others and right up there with the best of them.

“The Glass Menagerie” continues through Jan. 5 at the Booth Theater, 222 W. 45th St., New York. Call (212) 239-6200 or visit www.theglassmenageriebroadway.com.