Giving Mamet another chance

After a month off, my fall theatergoing starts this weekend. I'm heading back to the profane, cynical world of playwright David Mamet for Glengarry Glen Ross at the Gamm Theatre.

I've said before that I think Mamet has become less interested in writing a compelling narrative than in bludgeoning the audience with his views on politics or culture or the society in which we live.

My previous two Mamet outings, Speed-the-Plow and Race on Broadway, were disappointing for that reason. Neither his characters nor the situations they were in seemed wholly believable.

(Although I did love Raul Esparza's take on a desperate Hollywood producer in Speed-the-Plow.)

But I have hopes that the third time will be the charm, because I enjoyed the 1992 movie version of Glengarry Glen Ross.

It has a terrific cast including Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin, Jonathan Pryce, Ed Harris, Al Pacino and of course, Kevin Spacey, delivering the line: Will you go to lunch? (With you Kevin, anytime!)



The Pulitzer-winning Glengarry Glen Ross was first produced on Broadway in 1984. I think that was a time, before Speed-the-Plow and Race, when Mamet was still interested in telling a story. His small-time Chicago real estate agents, willing to do anything to make a sale, seemed real.

Bottom line - I don't mind a playwright's view of the world onstage but diatribes bore me. You've got to tell me a story. That's why I'm sitting in the theatre. So one more chance for you, David Mamet.

David Mamet's red sequined dress

Is it just me or does anyone else think this "promotion" for David Mamet's play Race at Broadway's Barrymore Theatre is in poor taste?

According to an article at BroadwayWorld.com,

"To celebrate the arrival of spring, RACE will take over Times Square on Wednesday, March 24, 2010 from 11 am - 1 pm and will have nearly two dozen women wear red sequined dresses for the public. This event will also celebrate the fact that RACE is currently the longest-running play of this Broadway season. The women will be coming from all over the city to wear the show's famous red sequined dress, a major plot point in the play."

Okay, spoiler alert if you haven't seen it: Race is about a white man accused of raping a black woman who was wearing the red sequined dress in question and the lawyers who have to decide whether or not to represent him.

So a play about a woman allegedly used as a sex object is marketed by using women as sex objects. How meta! (Guess someone considered it more eye-catching than a group of lawyers in suits carrying briefcases.)

I'll admit I was not a fan of this play so maybe I'm looking at it from a jaundiced perspective. But given the subject matter, having a group of women wearing tight-fitting dresses parade around Times Square is a little unseemly.

What were the producers thinking? Is the point to titillate passersby so they pony up for a ticket? If so, they're going to be awfully disappointed because the woman in the red sequined dress never appears in the play.

Surely there must be a better way to celebrate the arrival of spring on Broadway.

Update: Here are pictures from the event, posted at Broadway World, including one with producers Jeffrey Richards and Jerry Frankel. What a tawdry, disturbing publicity stunt. Don't they realize this is a play about an alleged rape?

Race in America and on stage

I've now seen and reviewed five Broadway shows that deal in some way with race in America, from the fantasy of Finian's Rainbow to the history of Ragtime and Memphis to the contemporary Superior Donuts and Race.

There's no doubt Superior Donuts was my favorite. I loved the story and the characters contained in Tracy Letts' play, which sadly is closing Jan. 3. It's not a sunny, everything is perfect optimism. People struggle and they're certainly not perfect. Still, you get the sense that we can move beyond our fears and stereotypes and reach out to each other as human beings.

While these plays and musicals have strong, interesting black characters and some terrific performances - most notably Jon Michael Hill in Superior Donuts and Montego Glover in Memphis - I don't think any of them has a story or music written by an African-American. (Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.)

Now, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the fact that they were all largely created by white men - and one white woman, Lynn Ahrens, lyricist of Ragtime. We all ought to be able to write about any subject or group of people, even if we don't happen to belong to that group.

I just think that when you're talking about race, it's beneficial to have some different perspectives and it's a shame we didn't get that on Broadway this fall. Yes, I know that a revival of the late August Wilson's Fences is planned for the spring but the play was written in 1983 and takes place in the 1950s.

I'd like to see more African-American playwrights, like Pulitzer winner Lynn Nottage for example, have a chance to get their works on Broadway. Because talking about race in America in the 21st century should be a two-way street.

Race

Gratuitous Violins rating ** out of ****

Knowing how much David Mamet likes to press those hot-button issues I was really looking forward to a provocative evening when I went to see his latest play, Race, at Broadway's Barrymore Theatre.

From what little Mamet revealed about the plot in advance, I knew it concerned three lawyers - two black and one white - defending a prominent white man accused of raping a black woman.

And the cast sounded promising - James Spader from Boston Legal, comedian David Alan Grier, Kerry Washington from Ray and The Last King of Scotland. But most exciting for me was a chance to see Richard Thomas on stage - John Boy Walton in the flesh!

The tortuous history of race in America is a subject I care about - passionately. I've had numerous, lengthy discussions over dinner with friends and colleagues - black and white - about matters like affirmative action. I've heard expressions of anger, hurt, frustration and yes, bigotry. I've also heard painful accounts of discrimination. I've tried to listen as much as I've talked and I hope through that process, I've gained greater understanding and empathy.

But in all of those discussions I never experienced the overriding emotion that struck me while watching Race. I was bored. At times, the play felt more like a legal brief than an incendiary piece of theatre designed to provoke impassioned debate. It seemed so contrived and I really didn't care about any of these characters, whether they were guilty or innocent.

(I also had trouble hearing some of the actors, especially Spader and Washington, both of whom are making their Broadway debuts. But I learned later that Washington wasn't feeling well, so maybe that was part of it.)

Spader and Grier, as law partners Jack Lawson and Henry Brown, get off some good one-liners as they try to decide whether to defend Thomas' Charles Strickland, the man accused of rape.

As Lawson, Spader is an arrogant know-it-all, without his TV counterpart Alan Shore's charm or humor. "There is nothing that a white person can say to a black person about race which is not both incorrect and offensive," Lawson says early on. He then proceeds to spend practically the entire play doing just that!

Washington seems kind of stilted and unconvincing as Susan, their young associate. It doesn't help that Mamet has her behave in a way that seems unlikely for someone in her position. Grier is good in a forceful role, as the partner who doesn't quite trust her.

And Thomas, as much as I loved him in The Waltons, is disappointing here. He seems too meek and unsure of himself to be convincing as someone wealthy and prominent. His character is so mild-mannered I didn't believe he could have done what he was accused of doing.

But my biggest problem is that Mamet really doesn't have anything very interesting or revealing to say about race. Too often the dialogue sounded unrealistic. I found myself thinking, "people don't really talk that way."

He's also incredibly cynical, basically doubting that black and white Americans will ever understand each other or trust each other. Well, hello! I used to be pretty pessimistic on the subject of race, too. But now that we've elected a black man as president, I find it hard to maintain that same level of pessimism.

Maybe I'm simply not a Mamet fan, because I didn't like last year's Broadway revival of Speed-the-Plow very much either. He seems to write plays that are more about ideas rather than fully developed characters and stories.

In fact, I think Race is less about the relations between black and white Americans and more a critique of the legal system.

Through Lawson, Mamet has some pointed things to say about how lawyers manipulate juries. It's as much about psychology as it is about presenting evidence. (Not that there's anything wrong with that. If I were accused of a crime I'd want my lawyer to use everything in his/her bag of tricks.)

But you know, even Mamet's digs at the legal system weren't terribly thought-provoking. If you've watched Boston Legal you've probably heard them before. And at least you would have been entertained.

My next New York theatre trip

I have tickets for my next New York City theatre trip!

I'm going to see two new musicals on Broadway next month: Fela! and Memphis. Plus, I'll be taking in the revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, the premiere of David Mamet's Race and the long-running Wicked. Finally, I'll be seeing off-Broadway's Love, Loss and What I Wore, with Kristin Chenoweth in the cast!

It's tough, because I always want to see everything. Okay, there are exceptions: I could not bring myself to sit through 3+ hours of Hamlet. And I have zero interest in Burn the Floor. But I'm happy for people who love them because Broadway shouldn't be all about me and my tastes.

Sometimes events are beyond my control, in the case of highly praised off-Broadway shows that close before I get there, like Circle Mirror Transformation. Others, like A Streetcar Named Desire, are sold out the weekend I'll be in New York.

There are some shows I knew I wanted to see, including Race and A Little Night Music. But I was on the fence about a few until they started getting good buzz from my friends and fellow bloggers: Fela!, Memphis and Love, Loss and What I Wore.

Sure, I pay attention to the professional critics, too. A pan can deflate my interest and praise can pique my curiosity. But a positive word from a friend really puts it on my radar.

It also helps that Fela! has a Sunday evening performance. I've had great luck catching musicals on Sunday nights. I always keep Chicago, which I've never seen onstage, as my fallback but so far, I haven't had to use it. Someday.

My must-see fall shows, Broadway edition

Maybe it's the Obama Effect or just a coincidence but there are five shows opening on Broadway this fall that deal with the subject of race in America - musicals Ragtime, Memphis and Finian's Rainbow and plays Superior Donuts and Race.

Three of them - a revival of Ragtime and two new plays, Tracy Letts' Superior Donuts and David Mamet's Race - are among the shows I'm most looking forward to seeing as the 2009-2010 Broadway season gets under way.

Why those three? Well, I've always been interested in 20th century American history, not so much from the perspective of momentous events but from a social and cultural angle - where we come from and how we get along.

Ragtime, based on E.L. Doctorow's novel, with a score by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, focuses on three families - African-American, Jewish immigrant and WASP - at the turn of the century. I loved the book and from listening to the music, I think it does a wonderful job of telling those intertwined stories.

Superior Donuts, fresh from the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, is a contemporary look at a diverse, changing Chicago neighborhood. After seeing so many terrific Chicago actors in August: Osage County, I'm eager for more, including Jon Michael Hill, who's making his Broadway debut. He's won raves for his performance as a teenager who works in a doughnut shop owned by Michael McKean. (From Spinal Tap! Laverne & Shirley!)

And Race - well, no doubt Mamet will have something interesting and incendiary to say. Plus, of all the big-name movie and tv actors who'll be treading the boards this fall, it has the one I'm most excited about - Richard Thomas. Yes, I realize James Spader is in it, and David Alan Grier and Kerry Washington. But c'mon, The Waltons! I grew up pre-VCR, pre-cable. Network tv was all I had. 'Nuff said.

I'm also pretty pumped about seeing A Steady Rain. Yes, I want to see how Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig will transform themselves into Chicago cops in Keith Huff's two-hander play. But no doubt about it, I'm also looking forward to staring dreamily at Hugh Jackman for 90 uninterrupted minutes. (Although the Playbill, which features their melded faces, is creepy beyond words.)

And I simply cannot miss the revivals of two Neil Simon plays, Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound. I'm really looking foward to seeing what Chicagoan David Cromer, who directed the amazing Our Town, will do with them.

The plays are thinly veiled accounts of Simon's youth growing up in Brooklyn in the 1930s and '40s. Which means, I know, creaky, self-deprecating Jewish humor. What can I say? Lines like this truly make me laugh:

"I hate my name - Eugene Morris Jerome. How am I ever gonna to play for the Yankees with a name like that? All the best Yankees are Italian. My mother makes spaghetti with ketchup. What chance to I have?"

And this:

"And when they saw the Statue of Liberty they started to cry. The women wailing and the men shaking and everyone praying. And you want to know why, because they took one look at that statue and said, 'That's not a Jewish woman, we're gonna have problems again.' ''

Oy, I can't wait!

John-Boy returns to Broadway

I was already interested in the new David Mamet play just from the title: Race. Then, when it was announced that James Spader, the womanizing lawyer Alan Shore from Boston Legal, would be in the cast, I got even more interested.

Now, my interest has risen to a whole new level because Richard Thomas has also been cast in the play. John-Boy, on Broadway! Okay, I know The Waltons was a long time ago but that's how I'll always think of him.

The 1970s were prime tv-watching years for me and I loved The Waltons, which aired on CBS from 1972 to 1981. It featured a great cast and wonderful storytelling about growing up in rural Virginia during the Depression. John-Boy was my favorite character, maybe because I also viewed myself as a sensitive aspiring-writer type.

Anyway, I know that Thomas, 57, been on Broadway numerous times, starting at age 7 when he played one of Franklin Roosevelt's sons in Sunrise at Campobello. (The play also marked the Broadway debut of James Earl Jones.) But obviously, I've never seen him on stage.

The producers of Race aren't revealing anything about the plot, except to say that it should be self-evident from the title. And they've now revealed cast members for two weeks in a row. Good way to build up interest, I guess. It hooked me, because I can't wait to see who they announce next week.

Race is scheduled to begin previews Nov. 17 at the Barrymore Theatre and open on Dec. 6. It's definitely one of my most anticipated shows for next season. I can't wait to hear Spader and Thomas take on that rapid-fire Mamet dialog.

Update: David Alan Grier and Kerry Washington, from Ray, have joined the cast.