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“Glengarry Glen Ross” is a chilling portrait of American businessPowerful revival of Mamet play hits at greed and corruptionBy Lucy KomisarDavid Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross” is curiously dated now as a play about business corruption. These days, we are used to hearing about corporate executives such as Kenneth Lay and Bernie Ebbers who bilked investors of billions. Instead, we see a gaggle of sleazy small-time real estate salesmen who are struggling to make deals denominated in thousands. Of course, this play was first produced in 1984 (when it got the Pulitzer Prize), and it takes place in 1969. That was before we learned that the real big-time crooks are big-time corporate leaders. So we are supposed to care here about what is small change. But actually, the dollar figure doesn’t matter. We are watching a pounding display of the corrupt, huckster culture of American business. The men are selling real estate, which means they are selling America, and the real estate is the quintessentially American “Rio Rancho Estates”—the American dream that often turned out to be a real estate scam, built on swamps, bereft of streets and water pipes, a deal looking for patsies.
The ones who seem to make it, like Richard Roma (a perpetually sneering Liev Schreiber), are crude and merciless. His every other word is “fuck.” His credo is that weakness is a trap; there is only greed. Schreiber acts with every sinew of his body; note even the twist of his neck when he loses a sale to a persistently doubtful mark (TomWopat).
The salesmen flail about in an office trap furnished with gray steel desks and typing chairs that conjure up a prison. It’s an apt metaphor since the several who fight to succeed according to rules elaborated by greed could end up there. That’s the link to Lay, Ebbers and their ilk. “Glengarry Glen Ross,” By David Mamet. Directed by Joe Mantello. Starring Alan Alda, Liev Schreiber, Frederick Weller, Tom Wopat, Gordon Clapp, Jeffrey Tambor, Jordan Lage. Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre (formerly Royale Theatre), 242 West 45th St., NYC. Tue - Sat 8pm; Wed & Sat 2pm; Sun 3pm. Running time 1:45. $46.25 - $96.25. 212-239-6200. http://www.glengarryglenross.biz/ Images by Scott Landis |
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TM
Everything
here seems tacky. Shelly Levine (Alan Alda) is enveloped in a thick New Jersey
accent. It grates in its reality. The Chinese restaurant where he meets John
Williamson (Frederick Weller), the office manager who could give him prospect
leads, is decorated in garish red and gold. It even has an aquarium. Williamson,
a young hotshot will make Shelly a deal: he wants $50 a lead and 20 percent of
the sale. Ah, corruption, kickbacks. But Shelly doesn’t have $100.
Under
Joe Mantello’s intense direction, events overheat precariously close to
melodrama. Tragedy is in the offing from the start. Mantello highlights the fear
that underlies the men’s empty macho toughness.
