By Kenneth Jones
04 Feb 2010

David Mamet
photo by Aubrey Reuben

Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel and Steve Traxler, producers of David Mamet's Race, now on Broadway, will usher another Mamet work — A Life in the Theatre — to the Main Stem.

The 1977 two-character play will make its Broadway debut in the fall at a theatre to be named. Neil Pepe, artistic director of Atlantic Theater Company, will direct. (Pepe also staged the recent Broadway Speed-the-Plow for Richards, Frankel and Traxler.)

A Life in the Theatre made its world premiere at The Goodman Theatre in Chicago in February 1977 with Mike Nussbaum and Joe Mantegna, directed by Gregory Mosher. The play opened Off-Broadway on Oct. 20, 1977 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre and ran for 288 performances. That production was directed by Gerald Gutierrez and starred Peter Evans and Ellis Rabb.

Stars are being sought for the 2010 production.

Here's how the new producers bill the play: "Describing life in the footlights from an actor's point of view, A Life in the Theatre focuses on the relationship between two thespians: Robert, an older, experienced performer; and John, a relative newcomer. Though Robert's guidance is welcomed by John at first, as the play progresses Robert falters as an actor and mentor, and John emerges as a mature actor."

Mamet, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Glengarry Glen Ross, has also written Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Lakeboat, The Water Engine, The Duck Variations, Reunion, The Blue Hour, The Shawl, Bobby Gould in Hell, Edmond, Romance, November, The Old Neighborhood and the recent adaptation of The Voysey Inheritance, among other plays.

He is a member of Atlantic Theater Company, which he founded in 1985 with William H. Macy.