Broadway Blog - OLEANNA Reviews

Direct from a smash Los Angeles engagement, David Mamet's Oleanna is a gripping account of a power struggle between a male university professor and one of his female students. Starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles and directed by Tony Award winner Doug Hughes, David's Mamet's incendiary play is regarded as one of the most provocative dramas of our time -- dividing audiences into heated debate by compelling them to side with either character. This new production marks the long-awaited Broadway premiere of this visceral, modern-day classic. 

David Rooney, Variety: "There are key phrases in David Mamet's "Oleanna" that in their banal simplicity reveal as much about the two adversarial characters and their corrosive dilemma as all their heated verbiage combined. For frustrated student Carol, it's "I don't understand." For her heedless professor John, it's "I can't talk right now." And both of them favor multiple variations on "Do you see?" Miscommunication more than gender politics is the central issue in this incendiary 1992 two-hander, and that gulf is exposed with bristling conviction by Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles. But Doug Hughes' meticulously calibrated production can't correct the imbalance of a manipulative play that only feigns impartiality."

Ben Brantley, The New York Times: "When I first saw this two-character battle of the sexes (and the classes) off Broadway at the Orpheum Theater, it seemed to move at warp speed, and I left it with shortened breath and heightened blood pressure. Yet the latest version, which pits the excellent Bill Pullman against the luminous Julia Stiles, often seemed slow to the point of stasis, and its ending found me almost drowsy."

Joe Dziemianowicz, NY Daily News: "The actors get somewhat upstaged by director Doug Hughes' uncharacteristically misjudged production, beginning with John's huge inner sanctum. It's supposed to convey power, but it's so absurdly enormous you have to figure that tenured teachers have room for a pool and tennis court."

Elisabeth Vincentelli, NY Post: "The play certainly has its problems -- the incessant calls are increasingly contrived, for instance. But at its best, "Oleanna" shows what happens when parallel lines are on a collision course."

Michael Kuchwara, Associated Press: "The play caused quite a stir when it was staged off-Broadway in 1992. And there's no reason to expect that this fine new production won't generate a similar response, even among people who saw it some 17 years ago. That's when the then still-smoldering case of Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill - involving her accusations of sexual harassment by the Supreme Court nominee and his claims of a "high-tech lynching" - made the two-character drama feel as if it were ripped from current headlines."

Elysa Gardner, USA Today: "When David Mamet's Oleanna premiered in 1992, it was widely perceived as a response to the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in which Thomas was accused of sexual harassment by former assistant Anita Hill.
It has been 18 years since that real-life drama played out. But as the very different controversy now surrounding David Letterman reminds us, the debate over what constitutes an abuse of power between a male authority figure and a female subordinate isn't going away. And the gripping new production of Oleanna (* * * ½ out of four) that opened Sunday at the Golden Theatre reinforces how tricky and multilayered that issue can be."

John Simon, Bloomberg News: "The revival does profit here from good performances and apt direction. Pullman is an expert at good-natured masculinity turning ugly when sorely beleaguered, and Stiles consummately conveys not-so-passive aggression. Doug Hughes has directed them with a mastery of expressive movement and changes in tempo and pitch. Neil Patel's somewhat too posh set cleverly indicates time lapses by the stately rise and fall of motorized shades."

David Sheward, Backstage: "At 75 minutes, "Oleanna"-the ironic title is derived from a folk song about a utopian community-is the most intense show on Broadway. "