Review Roundup: GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS Opens on Broadway

Glengarry Glen Ross opened, Saturday, December 8, 2012, at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre (236 West 45th Street). The limited run has been extended through Sunday, January 20, 2013.

The cast is led by two-time Tony Award winner Al Pacino, who is joined by Tony nominee Bobby Cannavale, Tony nominee David Harbour, Tony nominee Jeremy Shamos, Emmy Award winner Richard Schiff, John C. McGinley and Murphy Guyer in this revival of David Mamet's acclaimed Pulitzer Prize-winning drama. Tony Award-winning director, Daniel Sullivan directs.

Glengarry Glen Ross has set design by Tony Award winner Eugene Lee, costume design by Tony Award winner Jess Goldstein and lighting design by James F. Ingalls.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Ben Brantley, The New York Times: The fight has gone out of the once-robust boys from "Glengarry Glen Ross,"...That sense of defeat has always lurked beneath the speeding dialogue of "Glengarry." But in Daniel Sullivan's deflated production...subtext has been dragged to the surface and beached like a rusty submarine. This is a "Glengarry" for a recessionary age...Whether comic or bitter, dialogue is often allowed to resonate in empty air...Much of the beauty of this play comes from its revved-up rhythms....though Shelly may be flushed with new confidence, he hardly inspires it...By the way, it doesn't look as if Shelly is addressing his fellow employees; his gaze is focused directly on us, the folks out there in the dark. This performance places Shelly firmly and dominatingly at the center of "Glengarry," which needs to be a tight ensemble piece. There's not much the other actors can do to compete with or even balance Mr. Pacino's grandstanding...The production's strange combination of comic shtick and existential weariness makes it feel rather like a long-running sitcom being filmed before a live audience that knows its characters' signature tics and flourishes by heart.

Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Daily News: David Mamet's 1984 Pulitzer Prize winner "Glengarry Glen Ross," about ruthless salesmen, can grab you by the throat and punch you in the gut. It's a powerful play. But the new Broadway production just gives you a nudge. That's better than nothing in this season of mostly meaningless Broadway plays, but you'd expect more from a production that delayed the opening a month. A lot of that has to do with Al Pacino, the star of the show. Pacino is a terrific actor and gave a riveting performance two years ago in "The Merchant of Venice." But as Shelly Levene, a dinosaur who can't close a deal, Pacino seems small and insignificant. As much as Pacino resorts to trademark tricks — bugging his eyes, talking in falsetto, sticking out his gut — he's not able to generate much empathy for Shelly, who represents the price of American commerce. As the result, the play simmers when it wants to boil.

Jeremy Gerard, Bloomberg News: But enough about me. This revival of David Mamet's 1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about Chicago real estate salesmen makes for a pretty enervating hour and forty-five minutes. That will surprise fans of Mamet's blistering excoriation of business in what was hailed as the successor to Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman."

John Lahr: The New Yorker: Al Pacino, as Shelly (The Machine) Levene, stands out as one of the best messengers of Mamet's gorgeous, vicious music. The play, it occurs to the writer, could be retitled "Death of a Fuckin' Salesman."

Marilyn Stasio: Variety: Al Pacino may be pulling them in for David Mamet's 1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning ode to American con artistry, "Glengarry Glen Ross," but the guy who's blowing them away is Bobby Cannavale, a live wire in the role played by Pacino in the 1992 film version. Show's hefty $377 tab for prime ducats and the long-delayed opening provided much grist for the gossip mill. But despite production flaws, in this post-Recession era of mortgage foreclosures and crooked real estate deals, it's a treat to revisit the best American play ever written about merciless men and their predatory business practices.

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