A CurtainUp Non-Review
The Anarchist
Patti LuPone & Debra Winger (Photo credit: Joan Marcus)
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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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