A trio of cast changes

Was it something I said?

Three shows made a major cast change in midstream during the Broadway season that just ended and what do they have in common? I saw all three of them before the unexpected departure of the performer in question.

First, hoofer Christian Hoff hurt his foot on Nov. 21 and withdrew from the musical Pal Joey while the Roundabout Theatre Company revival was still in previews.

Then, in mid-December, Jeremy Piven told the producers of Speed-the-Plow that he had to leave the revival of the David Mamet play because of a high level of mercury in his body, presumably caused by eating too much fish.

And yesterday, the producers of the musical Rock of Ages announced that Amy Spanger would be leaving for "personal reasons" after being out of the show on vocal rest since the Tony Awards in early June.

I know people get hurt and I'm sure performing eight times a week can be a strain on your vocal chords. I suppose it's not unheard of that an actor has to drop out. And sometimes cast changes are made before a show starts previews or in between an out-of-town tryout and Broadway.

But still, isn't three major cast changes during the season unusual? And what are the odds that I would have seen all of them, especially since Hoff wasn't in Pal Joey for all that long and Spanger has been in and out of Rock of Ages?

Next season, I hope everyone stays healthy.

Exit Jeremy Piven

Wow, a second actor I saw on my recent trip to New York has been forced to leave a show early. First, Christian Hoff pulls out of Pal Joey with a foot injury and is replaced by his understudy, Matthew Risch. Now, Jeremy Piven has left his role as Hollywood producer Bobby Gould in Speed-the-Plow because a high level of mercury in his system has made him sick.

According to a statement from the show's producers released today, "We have been advised by Jeremy Piven's medical representatives that he is seriously ill and is unable to fulfill his contractual obligation to Speed-the-Plow. Consequently, he has left the production ten weeks early."

Well this is live theatre, after all, and I do understand that people get sick. I certainly wish Piven a quick recovery. What I don't understand is this bizarre quote playwright David Mamet gave to Variety: "I talked to Jeremy on the phone, and he told me that he discovered that he had a very high level of mercury. So my understanding is that he is leaving show business to pursue a career as a thermometer." Huh?

Speed-the-Plow continues at the Barrymore Theatre with Raul Esparza and Elisabeth Moss. Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz will play Gould from Dec. 23 to Jan. 11, followed by Academy Award nominee William H. Macy from Jan. 13-Feb. 22.

While I didn't love the play, I thought Esparza gave an amazing performance. If I could, I would definitely be interested in seeing it again with Butz or Macy. I feel sorry for Moss, of AMC's Mad Men, who's making her Broadway debut. The whole second scene is her character and Gould. Now, she'll have to get used to playing off two different actors.

So far, there's been some anger on the part of fans, judging from these comments on a New York Times message board. Several people said they had bought tickets to Speed-the-Plow as Christmas presents for spouses or made plans to see the play themselves solely because they were fans of Piven's from his role on HBO's Entourage.

I can certainly understand how they feel. Moss and Piven were the two main reasons I had for wanting to see Speed-the-Plow and I would have been very disappointed if they'd been out. (Even though, in the end, I enjoyed Esparza's performance much more. It was definitely the highlight for me.)

I've been extremely lucky (knock on wood) with nearly all the actors I've come to Broadway to see. The handful of times that I've had understudies, I thought they were great - including Ariana Grande in 13 and Saycon Sengbloh in The Color Purple.

Interestingly, the producers of Speed-the-Plow are going for established actors to replace Piven, rather than give the role to his understudy, Jordan Lage. (Who's playing the role for a few performances.) I guess that's simply a reflection of the fact that you almost always need a "name" in a play on Broadway.

There's a story in The New York Press by Dana Rossi about the actors who are understudies to celebrities on Broadway. "Let’s face it; we’re such a fame-obsessed culture that celebrity alone often draws people to theater in droves."

Rossi takes issue with fans who come just to see a star and questions why they're at the theatre in the first place. "It comes down to this: Why are you seeing this show? If it’s just to see Shirley Famouspants in a role anyone could play, maybe you belong at the venue where the performers are inside the big screen."

I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to see a play or musical because it features an actor you know from television or the movies. That's often the reason I'm interested in seeing a play. Whenever I go to New York, my coworkers want to know "who" I'm seeing that they might have heard about.

But honestly, the actors who end up impressing me the most are people like Eve Best, Raul Esparza, Hallie Foote, Gregory Jbara, Laura Benanti, the entire cast of August: Osage County. They're actors most people have probably never heard of unless they're theatre fans.

In some cases, I'd never heard of them before seeing them on stage. But they totally won me over and they've become the reason to see the show. And that's become part of the thrill - which actor will I see for the first time who'll really excite me?

Speed-the-Plow

Gratuitous Violins rating: ** 1/2 out of ****

I've seen a couple of David Mamet's movies and I've watched the 1992 film of his play Glengarry Glen Ross but I wasn't quite prepared for hearing Mamet's staccato dialog spoken onstage at Broadway's Barrymore Theatre in Speed-the-Plow.

The opening banter between Hollywood producers Bobby Gould (Jeremy Piven, from HBO's Entourage) and Charlie Fox (Raul Esparza) is so fast paced, I had a hard time figuring out what they were talking about for the first few minutes. But even though it was a bit confusing, it was also kind of exhilarating and both actors do a good job delivering Mamet's lines.

Gould and Fox are two longtime friends whose relationship is about to move to a new, more lucrative, level. Gould's gotten a big promotion and Fox has convinced a popular action star to make a prison buddy movie, which he wants to bring to Gould's studio. The two giddily contemplate the money they'll rake in - but the deal has to be wrapped up by the next morning.

Enter Gould's temporary secretary, Karen, played by Elisabeth Moss of the tv series Mad Men. In the first act, Moss' character is sweet and innocent and a little timid. Gould asks her to look over a novel he's been handed for a "courtesy read" to determine whether or not it could be made into a movie. She's supposed to come over his house that evening with her report.

The second scene, with Karen at Gould's house trying to convince him to make the movie, is where Speed-the-Plow dragged a little bit for me. I don't think Piven or Moss quite pull it off, but I also think this is the weakest-written part of the play.

Mamet is obviously trying to say something about art versus commerce in Hollywood, how the studios always go for mindless entertainment over more thoughtful subjects. But this book seems so unworthy I can't understand why anyone would get worked up over it, especially not someone as savvy and experienced in the movie business as Bobby Gould. From the snippets we hear, it sounds awful - it's about the history of radioactivity and the end of the world, or something like that. I could never quite figure it out.

Plus, I didn't think Moss' Karen was so wily and seductive that she could have persuaded Gould to take on such a risky project. As he tells Karen, "if the films I make lose money, then I'm back on the streets with a sweet and silly smile on my face." And I didn't think that Piven's Gould seemed truly transformed after their evening together. I didn't sense that he had an epiphany and saw the light.

Another thing that bothered me: Mamet has constructed the play as a false dichotomy. Lots of movies get made every year, and some of them are the small, thought-provoking films that this book is supposed to represent. In fact, I think most of the major studios have specialty divisions where directors and producers can make "independent" films as well as action movies. So it's not really an either/or situation, no matter how Mamet tries to represent it.

But for me, what saves Speed-the-Plow and makes it worthwhile is Esparza's performance in the play's final scene. I wanted to see the play mainly for Piven and Moss, whom I've enjoyed in their tv roles, but I ended up loving Esparza. This was my first time seeing him on stage and he was awesome.

His disintegration at the end, his desperation, was thrilling to watch. You can see him grasping at straws, thinking on his feet. It's like this battle of wits with Karen. His life is at stake, his livelihood, everything he's tried to achieve. Here he is, about to reach the summit of his professional life, and this nobody comes from out of nowhere to block his ascent. And I didn't know who was going to win, which made it even more thrilling.

Fox can't believe that Gould wants to make a movie out of this bizarre and indecipherable book. He has a great line: "You can't tell it to me in one sentence, they can't put it in TV Guide." Which is so true - even if hardly anyone one reads TV Guide anymore. But we subscribed to it when I was a kid and I read it faithfully every week, so I knew what he meant.

Still, Speed-the-Plow got me thinking. I've discussed it with a more knowledgeable friend, and maybe there's some nuance to Mamet's writing or Piven's and Moss' performances that went by me. Unfortunately, I can't pop the dvd in for another go-round. If I lived in New York, I'd buy a cheap ticket and see it again just to make sure - and for Raul Esparza.

And Moss makes three

I love the television series Mad Men, about a New York City advertising agency in the 1960s, so I'm happy to hear that one of its stars, Elisabeth Moss, will make her Broadway debut in this fall's revival of David Mamet's play Speed-the-Plow.

On Mad Men, Moss plays Peggy Olson, the new girl in the secretarial pool at the Sterling Cooper ad agency. Her character is sweet and a little naive, but also ambitious, working her way up to junior copywriter in a very male-dominated world. She's also the source of a very big, and dramatic, surprise in the plot at the end of the show's first sesason.

On Broadway, Moss will be paired with the already announced Jeremy Piven, of HBO's Entourage, who'll also be making his Broadway debut, and Raul Esparza in the three-person play. Hopefully Esparza, being a Broadway veteran, will show them the ropes.

It's kind of interesting that two-thirds of the cast will be making their debut on the Great White Way, although both have off-Broadway credits. Moss made her stage debut in 2002, in Richard Nelson's Franny's Way. And Piven, whose parents founded the Piven Theatre Workshop, in Evanston, Ill., appeared off-Broadway in 2005 in Neil LaBute's play Fat Pig.

While they've made movies, Piven and Moss are probably best known for their television work. Before Mad Men, Moss played the president's daughter in The West Wing. And they're both playing characters in Speed-the-Plow that remind me a little of their current television roles.

In Speed-the-Plow, a caustic, satirical look at the movie business, Piven plays Hollywood production executive Bobby Gould and Esparza will be producer Charlie Fox. Moss will portray Karen, Gould's secretary. She'll be following in the footsteps of Madonna, who played the role on Broadway in 1988.

Here's a description from Playbill: "Speed-the-Plow focuses on two high-powered Hollywood executives, Charlie Fox and Bobby Gould, who have come up from the mailroom together," according to press notes. "Charlie brings Bobbie a surefire hit with a major star attached. Bobby seems certain to give the green light, until his beautiful new secretary gets involved."

I haven't read Speed-the-Plow, but Piven's character sounds like it might bear more than a little resemblance to Ari Gold, the frenetic, ruthless and hilarious Hollywood agent he plays on Entourage. I'm not sure how Moss' character compares with Peggy Olson, but my guess is that she'll be a very different type of secretary than she is on Mad Men. And I think the cast sounds pretty promising.

If you're not familiar with Moss, I highly recommend checking out Season 2 of Mad Men, which starts Sunday at 10 p.m. on AMC. If you want to catch up beforehand, Season 1 is available on DVD. Speed-the-Plow begins previews at the Belasco Theatre on Oct. 3.

Good as Gould?

Joe Mantegna, Kevin Spacey - and Jeremy Piven?

Those are three well-known actors who have, are currently or will soon appear in David Mamet's caustic, satirical look at the movie business, Speed-the-Plow. Mantegna created the role of Hollywood producer Bobby Gould on Broadway, Spacey is enjoying raves in the role of fellow producer Charlie Fox in London, and apparently, Piven will make his Broadway debut as Gould in a revival this fall.

I was holding out hope that Spacey's production, which also features Jeff Goldblum as Gould and Laura Michelle Kelly as Gould's secretary, Karen, would transfer from London's Old Vic Theatre to Broadway. But according to The New York Times, another version has won out, and will feature Piven. The Times article says that the play will be directed by Neil Pepe of the Atlantic Theater Company, which Mamet helped start. The producers, the same team behind the 2005 Tony-winning revival of Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, are aiming for an Oct. 23 opening.

While I'm disappointed I won't get to see Kevin again, I'm looking forward to seeing Piven on stage. He's so wonderfully obnoxious, ruthless and insensitive as Hollywood super-agent Ari Gold in HBO's Entourage. Playing a Hollywood producer probably won't be a big stretch for him. My only concern is, a little bit of Ari goes a long way and I can easily see Piven being too over-the-top. But he comes from a theatre background - his parents founded the noted Piven Theatre Workshop in Evanston, Ill. According to a story in Variety, Piven was last seen in New York in a 2004 off-Broadway production of Neil LaBute's Fat Pig.

This will be the first Broadway revival for the six-hander. (Ok, I know you'd normally call it a three-hander, because there are three people in the cast, but each person has two hands, right? So doesn't a six-hander make more sense?) It opened on April 9, 1988, with Madonna as Karen, Mantegna, (a Mamet regular, and an actor I really like) and Ron Silver as Charlie Fox, and closed on Dec. 31, 1988, after 279 performances. In his review for the Times, Frank Rich called Speed-the-Plow "by turns hilarious and chilling," and said that Mamet created "riveting theatre."

I've never seen a Mamet play on stage, and I like the idea of a witty, acerbic, inside look at the business of making movies. And I'd really like to see Piven on stage, albeit in a role that's pretty close to the one he plays on Entourage. Even though Kevin Spacey won't be in this one, I'm putting Speed-the-Plow on my Broadway wish list.