|
 |
PLAYBILL ON OPENING NIGHT: Speed-the-Plow — Heart vs. Commerce
By Harry Haun
24 Oct 2008
 |
|
Jeremy Piven, Raúl Esparza, Elisabeth Moss and Neil Pepe
|
| photo by Aubrey Reuben | At 8:53 PM on Oct. 23, the curtain rose at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Speed-the-Plow — which, contrary to that title, may be the latest an opening-night curtain has lifted since the olden days when life on Broadway began regularly at 8:30.
That may well have been the idea for the vintage starting-time — to evoke perhaps that bygone era of the play-play. And certainly the morsel on display was compact enough to make for a light sentence, but the buzz and hoopla that preceded the play galloped out of control as usual, and a long night was had by all. The after-party, shoehorned into The Red-Eye Grill, sported a full complement of red-eyed guests.
David Mamet's ferociously funny, fast-track roller-coaster ride through the ups and downs, hills and hells of Hollywood clocked in at a concise 85 minutes, under Neil Pepe's tight-reined direction. And the dialogue was dished out at 90-mph by Jeremy Piven, Raul Esparza and Elisabeth Moss in roles of snarling Tinseltown pit-bulls originated in 1988 by Joe Mantegna, Ron Silver and some kind of Madonna.
Piven is Bobby Gould, the new and wobbly Head of Production at a major studio, and Esparza is Charlie Fox, an ambitious also-ran he always saw over his shoulder in the studio mail-room 11 years ago. What a difference a decade makes. Fox is now a deal-packaging producer with a plausible blockbuster to bounce off the susceptible Gould. Scene One is their "Let's Make a Deal" dance all over the executive's office.
Scene Two takes place at Gould's den-of-iniquity-away-from the office — i.e., his home where his temporary secretary, Karen (Moss), has been summoned to deliver a book report on one of his "courtesy reads," an esoteric, apocalyptic novel by "a sissy British writer" that positively screams uncommercial. She, however, sees the good in the story and, even more importantly, the good in Gould, effectively turning his head around to the noble and high-minded. Comes the dawn, and Scene Three, it falls to Fox to annihilate this sex-sealed deal and restore Gould to his former crassness.
"It's like a tennis match," proffered Esparza about his high-octane war, "a vaudeville routine. It's like a couple of great comics kicking the crap out of each other. I especially love it because it reminds me of the work I got to do out in Chicago."
It doesn't hurt — at least in a painful way — that his sparring partner also has some Chicago acting chops: "Jeremy knows what it is. He's fearless, and that's fantastic to work with. I love that, and he knows this. He has been on stage most of his life.
"It's a difficult balancing act. I keep saying this over and over — it's like 'I've got the noun, and you've got the verb.' David doesn't write in complete sentences. He throws the idea around between his actors and forces you to be an ensemble."
Esparza rants and rails like a seasoned Mamet malcontent, but in truth this is his first whack at The Anvil Chorus. "I've seen a lot of Mamet's work," he quickly qualified. "I saw Steppenwolf do The Cryptogram. I've seen William Petersen do his work. I've seen Mike Nussbaum do his work. I've seen [Mamet's] 'guys' do his work so I knew what the sense of it is. It's exhilarating when you're doing it right. Exhilarating. As a matter of fact, the other day we were flying and Neil had to flag us down."
And what does Esparza like about his character? "Well, I think Charlie's honest," he replied after some thought, careful to give that last word a "there's that" inflection. "He's pretty despicable, but he is who he says he is." Then, again, on second thought: "I don't know if he's despicable. He's a hard worker, and he wants what he wants."
It is, he was reminded, the kind of role that wins Tonys. "That's what I heard. Ronnie won it, right? Yeah." Twice-burned, he broke into Tony-cured mode: "I've given up on that gig, let me tell ya. It's whatever. Whatever, baby. Don't do it for the prizes." Continued...
Click Here to Buy Tickets to This Show
Contact Us | Advertise | Privacy Policy
Send questions and comments to the Webmaster
Copyright © 2008 Playbill, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
|
|
|
|
|