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The Anarchist

The Anarchist
Patti LuPone & Debra Winger
(Photo credit: Joan Marcus)
This is supposed to be the season to be merry, but there's nothing to be merry about what Broadway has been dishing up in the way of new fare. I suffered through the unfunny and vulgar comedy, Performers, and the the forgettable musical Scandalous and dutifully wrote reviews on both.

Upon returning from last night's performance of i>Anarchist, David Mamet's new 2-hander I found an e-mail from the press agent. Seems that though Debra Winger who plays the prison administrator you know from the get-go of this play's interminable 70 minutes will never let life-time prisoner Patti LuPone out of jail, but the producers have decided to release both Cathy (LuPone) and Ann (Winger) from the talky debate masquerading as a play on December 16th.

And I've decided to take a cue from the producers and parole myself from spending any more time trying to figure out just what has happened to Mr. Mamet's special kind of poetry or Mamet-speak. Suffice it to say, both LuPone and Winger (LuPone more successfully) do their best with this confrontation between the relentless jailer and the Jewish born, born again former member of a '60s terrorist group the Weather Underground who participated in a Brinks robbery that killed two policemen.

Maybe the producers should have found a reason to keep the critics from seeing this until it comes closer to its scheduled closing as they did with one of Mamet's older and better plays, the Pulitzer-Prize winning Glengarry Glen Ross which has been selling out its Spider-Man-like extended previews — less because people are eager to see it again (it had a terrific revival just 7 years ago), but because the high priced ticket-seller Al Pacino is in it. Speaking of that show, I'm writing this just before heading to finally see a press performance, and I promise to review that one. However, it will have to wait since, even with people paying as much as $399 for tickets, the official opening is not until December 8th!

Production Notes
The Anarchist
Written and directed by David Mamet
Cast: Debra Winger and Patti LuPone
(Set and Costume Design:
Lighting Design: Jeff Croiter
Running Time: 70 Minutes without intermission
Golden Theatre 252 West 45th Street (212) 239-6200
11/13/12; opening 12/02/12.; closing 2/17/13.
Tickets, $59 - $134.
Seen by Elyse Sommer at December 4th press performance--just before announcement of December 16th closing
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