Blogging Broadway: Jeremy Piven and Raul Esparza battle for top-dog status in "Speed-the-Plow"

Jeremy Piven and Raul Esparza in Speed-The-Plow (Photo Credit: Brigitte Lacombe)

Here's a review of the brilliant, new revival of one of David Mamet's most entertaining plays.  Plus: Charles Busch returns to the stage, The Big Gay Musical begins filming, and hot-hot-hot Adam Pascal does a two-night stand at Feinstein’s.

Read on for full details!

In common with several of David Mamet’s other works, Speed-the-Plow seethes with the alpha-male testosterone of its shockingly aggressive, foul-mouthed, 10,000-percent heterosexual characters. There’s nothing “gay” in Speed-the-Plow or Glengarry Glen Ross — or, for that matter, in Mamet’s American Buffalo, which will be revived on Broadway later this season. But let’s be honest: It can be exciting for gay men to observe the vile behavior of unreconstructed straight male pigs — especially when such observation can be done from the safe distance of a seat in a Broadway theater, and when the roles in question are played as brilliantly as they are by Jeremy Piven and actor Raúl Esparza in the current revival of Speed-the-Plow.

To date, no film version of this gut-punching play has been made. So unless you saw the original Broadway production, which starred Joe Mantegna, Ron Silver, and Madonna (!!!), you may need a précis. In a nutshell: Bobby Gould (Piven) is the newly appointed production head at a Hollywood film studio. One of his cohorts, Charlie Fox (Esparza) comes to Bobby with jaw-dropping news: He has secured the promise of a major star to headline a prison flick project that Bobby has stumbled upon. As Mamet might phrase it, this coup gives the guys hard-ons, figuratively and perhaps literally.

They can’t wait to bring the project to The Big Boss — but an obstacle immediately presents itself in the unlikely form of Karen, Bobby’s temp secretary, played by Elisabeth Moss.

Photo Credit: Brigitte Lacombe

For the audience, the plot of the play is far less important than the often hilarious, sometimes harrowing interaction of the characters. Officially, Bobby is Charlie’s superior at the studio; but the dynamic of their relationship is constantly shifting, with one or the other “on top” at any particular moment. (A simulated blow job is a definite highlight of the first scene.) Mamet’s dialogue is brilliant, and even more so as delivered with total conviction and fearsome energy by this stellar cast.

It’s true that some film and TV actors don’t adapt well to the stage, and vice versa, but rest assured that no such persons may be found among the cast of Speed-the-Plow. Piven is best known for his role on TV’s Entourage, and Esparza is justly famed for his theater work (Company, etc.), but each has been successful in both media; the former gave an excellent Off-Broadway performance in Neil LaBute’s Fat Pig several seasons ago, while the latter has logged TV time on Pushing Daisies. Elisabeth Moss, who’s simply perfect as Karen in Speed-the-Plow, is one of the stars of AMC’s monster-hit series Mad Men.

Neil Pepe’s direction of Speed-the-Plow play is invisible, and I hope it’s understood that I mean that as a great compliment. More pluses: scenic design by Scott Pask, costume design by Laura Bauer, and lighting design by Brian MacDevitt. (I especially enjoyed the “film” effect that accompanied the smooth scene transitions from Bobby’s new, half-painted studio office to his home, and back again.)

I did, in fact, see Speed-the-Plow in 1988, and though I recall that Mantegna and Silver were terrific in it, my only memory of Madonna’s performance is how stiff she looked when she first came onstage to bring Bobby and Charlie their coffee. (One theater pundit lamented, “The woman can’t walk!”) Well, that was then, and this is now. With Elisabeth Moss as a worthy partner for Jeremy Piven and Raúl Esparza, Speed-the-Plow raises the roof of the Ethel Barrymore Theater.

Charles Busch

Charles Busch will soon return to the New York stage! MCC Theater has just announced that it will present Busch’s The Third Story at the Lucille Lortel Theater, January 14-February 28. One of the world’s most beloved drag performers, Busch had the leading female role in the word premiere production of this “epic comic fable” at the La Jolla Playhouse, and he will reprise it at the Lortel.

The plot? “A mother and son screenwriting team hunker down in Omaha after fleeing Commie-obsessed, 1940s Hollywood; a romantically-inclined but socially-inept princess makes a deal with an ancient witch; and tommy guns meet test tubes as a way-too-well-dressed first lady of the mob forms a desperate alliance with a cloning scientist whose experiments have had, um, less-than-consistent results.” (The Third Story replaces Neil LaBute’s The Break of Noon, which MCC had previously announced for that slot in its schedule but which the company will now present in September 2009.)

There was a time when films with gay content were few and far between, but ever since the late ’60s, we’ve had loads of gay movies. We’ve even had Another Gay Movie (2006) and Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild! (2008). Now, get ready for The Big Gay Musical, which recently began filming in New York. The cast includes such theater talents as Jim Newman, Joey Dudding, Marty Thomas, and Liz McCartney.

Marty Thomas

Written and produced by Fred M. Caruso, and directed by Casper Andreas, TBGM is the story of Paul and Eddie, who “have just begun previews for the new Off-Broadway musical Adam & Steve Just the Way God Made 'Em. Their lives strangely mirror the characters they are playing; Paul is looking for the perfect man, and Eddie is dealing with how his sexuality and faith can mix.” Sounds interesting!

A one-night stand with Adam Pascal would be more than any of his fans could hope for, but the hot-hot-hot original star of Rent recently had a two-night stand at Feinstein’s at Loew’s Regency. Looking and sounding better than ever, Pascal ripped through a program that included original compositions plus unique renditions of such Broadway songs as “Maria” (from West Side Story), “What I Did for Love” (from A Chorus Line), and “Mama Who Bore Me” (from Spring Awakening). Among the best moments in the show I attended were Pascal’s unsparing performance of the nearly unsingable “Pity the Child” (from Chess) and his moving reprise of “One Song Glory” from Rent. Larry Edoff did a great job as musical director/pianist.