It’s the mid 1980s. We successively meet five real estate sharks at a local Chinese restaurant. Shelley Levene (Bob Odenkirk) has been in a slump too long. Desperate to secure leads reserved for top performers, he offers stoic office manager John Williamson (Donald Webber, Jr.) a percentage of commissions. Shelly’s tat-a-tat delivery broaches no interruption. We can feel him sweat.
Dave Moss (Bill Burr); George Aaronow (Michael McKean)
Dave Moss (Bill Burr) sucks up the air in any room. He’s so shifty and smooth that sad sack George Aaronow (Michael McKean) momentarily considers Dave’s scheme to rob the office, selling leads and contracts to a competitor. Top earner Richard Roma (Kieran Culkin) slowly reels in nerdy, unsuspecting stranger James Lingk (John Pirruccello) with homey philosophy.
Act II finds the office ransacked and robbed; a cop (Howard W. Overshown) questions personnel. Having made an enormous sale, Shelly celebrates the return of his mojo. Richard’s pigeon shows up to get his money back. Much that seems obvious turns out to be red herrings.
These cutthroat salesmen make Willy Loman look like a wuss. They compete for a Cadillac peddling land at a bogus Florida development Glengarry Highlands. Second prize, a set of steak knives, adorns the theater curtain. Third prize is being fired. David Mamet’s 1984 play boasts 138 F bombs. Brutal, rhythmic language opened a theater door to successors. To their credit, the cast manages this well.
Richard Roma (Kieran Culkin); Shelley Levene (Bob Odenkirk)
In retrospect, the play’s malfeasance seems minor compared to a contemporary succession of huge Ponzi schemes and prevalence of purposefully dishonest politicians. It’s dated. Though gimcrack dialogue remains, there are reasons this iteration doesn’t resonate as much as the other three – and the film.
Casting is hit or miss. Bob Odenkirk’s Shelly Levene has more savvy, spitfire energy than Kieran Culkin’s Richard Roma. His warts-and-all embodiment is marvelous. The latter appears, as he has in every role, too neurotically hidebound to act as narrative’s central battery, whirring away on his own axis. (This improves in the second act.)
As Dave Moss, comedian Bill Burr credibly exudes the drive of a heat-seeking missile. He might better have played Roma. Neither he nor Culkin, however, personify the tough guy persona of virtually all their predecessors, eliminating variation of background. Michael McKean’s reliably exceptional timing fleshes out George Aaronow with nuance.
Shelley Levene (Bob Odenkirk); John Williamson (Donald Webber, Jr.)
In a play normally executed as constant barrage, acting doesn’t sustain punch and lacks momentum. I was fascinated by audience laughter I don’t recall during previous productions. Perhaps they took sleaze and scams more seriously back then. Today, people are inured.
Scott Pask’s Chinese restaurant and run down office Sets are pitch perfect. Unfortunately, the stage is so large, it swallows up what is, in essence, claustrophobic circumstance. Costumes describe personalities.
Director Patrick Marber offers visual variety and defining personal tics, but never lights the fire. Glengarry Glen Ross remains a good and entertaining play, but will fare better with those who have nothing with which to compare.
Photos by Emilio Madrid
Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet
Directed by Patrick Marber
Palace Theater
160 West 47th Street
