Diva/Mensch pair for Dec 10, 2025

There were three winners for Best Actress in a Play at the 1948 Tonys:

Diva: Judith Anderson (Medea), Katharine Cornell (Antony and Cleopatra)

Mensch: Jessica Tandy (A Streetcar Named Desire)

No one will argue that Medea and Cleopatra are divas down to their toes. You might think that Blanche in Streetcar is a diva, and she's often played that way, but not by Miss Tandy. In Miss Tandy's portrayal she was natural, fragile, delicate, withdrawn, confused. Stanley Kowalski was the diva in that show.

Here's Anderson as Medea:

And here's Tandy in Streetcar.