Plot
While Homer, Bart and Lisa are watching television, Marge announces that she is going to audition for a local musical production of A Streetcar Named Desire. She wants to meet new people, since she usually spends all day at home with Maggie. The rest of the family reacts with indifference and continues to watch television.
The musical is called "Oh, Streetcar!" and is directed by the acerbic Llewellyn Sinclair. After Ned Flanders is cast as Stanley Kowalski, Marge and several other women audition for Blanche DuBois. Llewellyn immediately rejects Marge and the others, explaining that Blanche is supposed to be a "delicate flower being trampled by an uncouth lout". However, as a dejected Marge calls home and takes Homer's dinner order, Llewellyn realizes that she is perfect for the role.
The next day, Maggie causes distractions when Marge brings her to rehearsal, so Llewellyn instructs Marge to enroll the baby at his sister's daycare center, the Ayn Rand School for Tots. Ms. Sinclair runs a strict daycare, and she immediately confiscates Maggie's pacifier. Maggie and the other babies later engage in a Great Escape-style attempt to retrieve their pacifiers, but Ms. Sinclair thwarts their efforts and sends Maggie to "The Box" (a playpen).
During rehearsal, Marge struggles with a crucial scene in which Blanche is supposed to break a glass bottle and shove it in Stanley's face. She cannot muster enough hatred towards the Stanley character to break the bottle, and Llewellyn eventually leaves in disgust. After coming home, Marge asks Homer to help her learn her lines, but Homer is more interested in his handheld bowling game. The day before the performance, Marge and Ned are again practicing the bottle scene as Homer arrives to drive Marge home. Homer repeatedly interrupts the rehearsal, then heads back to his car and honks for Marge to come out. Imagining that Stanley is Homer, Marge finally smashes the bottle and lunges at Ned. At dinner that night, Marge leaves early to practice with Flanders. Homer asks her to open his can of pudding, but Marge reacts with disdain and calls him a "big ape".
The next day at the Ayn Rand School for Tots, Maggie again attempts to regain the pacifiers and this time succeeds. Homer arrives to pick her up and discovers hundreds of babies sucking on pacifiers. He collects Maggie, and he and his children go to watch the musical. Homer immediately falls into boredom, but he perks up when Marge appears on stage and becomes saddened over the way Stanley treats Blanche. At the end of the musical, Marge receives a warm reaction from the crowd, but she misinterprets Homer's sadness for boredom. Afterwards, she confronts him with hostility, but Homer is able to explain that he was genuinely moved by Blanche's situation. Thus, he reacted with sadness because he wanted to be the husband that she deserves to have in her life who loved and cherished her, not like Stanley who neglects and mistreats her. Marge realizes that Homer really did watch the musical, and the two happily leave the theater.
Read more about this topic: A Streetcar Named Marge
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