Review Roundup: CHINA DOLL, Starring Al Pacino, Opens on Broadway - All the Reviews!

CHINA DOLL is the new play by David Mamet starring Tony, Emmy and Academy Award-winner Al Pacino. Directed by Tony Award-winner Pam MacKinnon (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf) and co-starring Christopher Denham ("Master Harold"... and the Boys, Argo, "Manhattan"), China Doll officially opens tonight, December 4th, at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre (236 West 45th Street).

CHINA DOLL tells the story of Mickey Ross, a man of means who is ready to walk away from it all to start a new life with his young fiancée. Then one phone call changes everything...

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

Michael Dale, BroadwayWorld: And even if that Bluetooth device that's stuck in his ear for most of the night has someone cueing him for every line...Pacino's not letting on. He's detailed, committed and always interesting to watch. The play itself is pretty meat-and-potatoes Mamet with the star playing a standard Mametian patriarchal, alpha male son of a slime ball...While Pacino's Mickey is erratic and caustic, speaking in an unpredictable cadence and tone, Christopher Denham's Carson is soft and unobtrusively in control of every potential crisis. Though onstage for nearly the entire play, he spends much of it quietly handling matters in the background, while Mickey is bullying his way through an unseen cast of supporting characters...but the balance he adds to the play is invaluable and the most effective asset of director Pam MacKinnon's production.

Ben Brantley, The New York Times: The "China Doll" that has now been deemed fit for public consumption would seem to be a classic Mametian study of competitive, clumsy men behaving badly to one another...One of the biggest problems (though not the only one) in comprehending "China Doll" is that Mr. Pacino's lurching, stammering performance is not easy to follow in terms of content, character or subtext. There has been more than enough evidence in the past to certify that Mr. Pacino is a bona fide genius, so let's assume that there are reasons for what he's doing here...Traditionally, Mr. Mamet's plays are conducted at high velocity, with his characters spraying words like machine-gun bullets...But fast talk is rare in "China Doll," meaning that it creeps, hunched and sluggish, instead of rushing forward.

Mark Kennedy, Associated Press: There's no understudy for Al Pacino in David Mamet's new Broadway play "China Doll" -- and nor could there be. No one else could possibly fit into the main character -- a blustery, charming and venal political mover and shaker -- like Pacino. The part has been tailored for him like the snappy three-piece Georgio Armani suit he lounges in. And while the Oscar- and Tony-winner is impossible to stop watching -- mostly because he never leaves the stage and also because the only other character is an assistant -- the play itself is a meandering one-note character study of a doomed man.

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter: If the expiration date on Donald Trump's turn in the political arena should arrive any time soon, and he wants to try his hand at another kind of acting, there's a vehicle tailor-made for his blustery shtick in David Mamet's new play, China Doll. In fact, during the boring parts -- and yes, there's no shortage of them in this windy anecdote about the clash between one-percent arrogance and political opportunism -- it's mildly entertaining to imagine Trump vomiting indignation as besieged moneybags Mickey Ross. In the meantime, Al Pacino, for whom the role was written, huffs and puffs his way through a performance that remains oddly tentative despite all the showboating mannerisms.

Marilyn Stasio, Variety: Come back, come back, wherever you are, David Mamet. All is forgiven (even "Race") if you will just quit jerking us around on non-plays like "China Doll" and get a grip. There's material for maybe a one-act in this overblown character study of a power broker whose sins are about to catch up with him. But even with Al Pacino putting him through his emotional paces, this tarnished titan is going through hell in a vacuum, with no one to play off but unheard voices on the other end of the telephone.

Linda Winer, Newsday: Little wonder there were rumors that Al Pacino couldn't remember his lines in David Mamet's new "China Doll"...The playwright has given Pacino, apparently one of his favorite actors, almost no story to build around his character and given him lines that pick over the same obvious plot points, mostly with the same barking emphasis, to nonexistent people supposedly on the other end of his phone's Bluetooth earpiece...Pacino is legendary for his obsessive work for years on the same handful of plays, including Mamet's "American Buffalo." It is always a kick to watch him wrestle with a character - and this one is a beast...With his unsettling gray bouffant, his lizard eyes and his wrinkled black power suit, he cuts a scary yet baleful figure in a penthouse as big and cold as an airplane hangar...He yells at Carson, wheedles and hollers and goes mock-humble on the phone. Every so often, Mamet gives him a wonderful line that sums up the dark side of humanity. More often, however, the writing is as lazy as Mickey calling someone "more fun than a Swiss Army Knife."

Elysa Gardner, USA Today: In Mamet's new play, China Doll (*** out of four stars)...both businessmen and politicians take their lumps, but the latter emerge as the real scourge...During much of the play, Mickey is on the phone, making his case to different key players whom we neither see nor hear. The only other character present is his assistant Carson, a stoic but patently ambitious young fellow played with marvelous discretion by Christopher Denham...Pacino, stooping slightly, paces and gesticulates; his pauses and occasional mumbled lines (others are shouted, with sometimes alarming intensity) seem entirely in character...The play itself is not always coherent, veering from obvious political commentary...to recurring references to "seduction" and "protection" in male-female relationships...But if China Doll is sometimes shaky or confounding, it is never boring. Whatever Mamet's points, he and Pacino consistently engage us -- which is more than you can say for a lot of the folks the playwright is targeting here.

Robert Kahn, NBC New York: Mickey spends most of "China Doll" yammering away in one-sided conversation...Pacino doesn't veer far from his usual delivery, working in a characteristically disheveled and hot-tempered fashion...Mamet raises subjects that feel provocatively timely. One need only skim the business pages to read about the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and a crack about politics...earns the biggest reaction of the night. But "China Doll" too often gets itself revved up with no place to go and no clear position. The climax, which occurs impossibly soon after the events that set it in motion, would have benefited from a firmer hand by director Pam MacKinnon ("The Heidi Chronicles"). "China Doll" is muddled, but it's still a treat to see Pacino, even if we're not always sure what he's doing.

Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Daily News: David Mamet said his new play, written for frequent muse, Al Pacino, would be "better than oral sex." Oral sex? "China Doll" is not even better than oral surgery. At least for that sort of medical procedure you get painkillers. And it's not a complete waste of time and money. "China Doll" - henceforth "China Dud" - is both. Pacino is Mickey Ross, who's on his cellphone for three-quarters of the show. Not the stuff of great drama...Director Pam MacKinnon...makes only one discernible contribution. She signed off on one of the clumsiest, least convincing fights ever on stage...Pacino fails to make phone calls anything but drudgery. He lacks authority playing this millionaire and he doesn't get traction from his customary eccentricities. The trademark shrugs, hand gestures, wide eyes and that gravelly voice feel like the same old, same old.

Jesse Green, Vulture: Al Pacino is not an actor of much breadth but he stakes a narrow territory deeply, and that can be brilliant to watch onstage. China Doll, his shaky new Broadway vehicle, by David Mamet, offers flashes of that brilliance between long mucky passages in which he appears to be hunting for the narrative, if not the next line...The construction of China Doll is most peculiar. Very little conflict unreels in our presence...It's hard to figure what Mamet is up to...But eventually you can't help facing the fact that Mamet has built what plot there is around the hypocrisy and venality of liberal politicians; the story is rigged to make Mickey, of all people, a victim...Anyway, China Doll doesn't provide convincing evidence even for its own case study, and Pacino's star quality prevents us from inferring any evidence on our own...This gives the play the air of a one-percenter paranoiac fantasy...Whatever one thinks of that sort of attitude as policy, as the basis of a drama it's disastrous.

Matt Windman, AM New York: For the most part, "China Doll" is a rambling, incoherent monologue. Since we never hear from the people that Pacino is speaking to by phone, it is the equivalent of a conversation where half the lines are missing...With big gestures and expressions, Pacino delivers a highly worked-up, outlandish performance that could be interpreted as a desperate attempt to add entertainment. Despite the play's problems, Pacino's theatrics throw it off further dramatically. The visual opulence of Pam MacKinnon's production is also questionable. It would be interesting to compare this with a leaner production of the play. But on second thought, it may be best to just put "China Doll" to rest.

Jeremy Gerard, Deadline: ...China Doll is virtually a monologue, possibly with more lines than Richard III, a favorite role of Pacino's...Plays depending on phone conversations with unseen participants are almost always a bad idea, and China Doll is no exception. However, bad as it is (and worse still after the intermission), China Doll has one major asset, and that is the star's unrequited commitment. It may be a dopey play that keeps tripping over its MEGO-inducing minutiae, but Pacino delivers every line with relish, with mustard, onions, the works: The hand raised, thumb against forehead, while absorbing bad news. The flash of anger in a raised voice that inspired genuine fear. The hangdog gaze of eyes that have seen it all and more and can respond only with weariness.

Robert Hofler, TheWrap: David Mamet has written a devastating portrait of a David Koch/Sheldon Adelson-style tycoon whose deep pockets fund at least one prominent governor...There's only one other character in the play, Ross' assistant (Christopher Denham), who is merely a prop for most of the play's two hours -- until he becomes something much more...What's most fascinating about "China Doll" is Mamet's leisurely drawn-out exposition...It's a very slow burning first act under Pam MacKinnon's direction, but along the way Ross drops tidbits...The carefully parsed-out details that we do learn, however, make for a riveting second act. Much of the language is sublime and there are great one liners along the way...But would "China Doll" work without Pacino or a star of his caliber? No way...In "China Doll," [Pacino] brings out his entire arsenal of shtick: the popping eyes, extremes in vocal register, exaggerated dipthongs, overly punctuated words.

Brendan Lemon, Financial Times: If the character is gung-ho, however, the plot is gossamer...It's a great joy to watch Pacino hold the stage for two hours. He may be aided by teleprompters and his energy may flag here and there -- but his character, an ageing business magnate, is supposed to sputter...Mamet relies so heavily on one-sided telephone calls...that the evening sometimes seems more of a finger exercise than a full-length composition. China Doll, directed by Pam MacKinnon, lacks the delicious byplay of Glengarry Glen Ross and the psychological insight of The Cryptogram, but in its sharper moments Mamet's razor can still draw blood.

Steven Suskin, The Huffington Post: Mamet has come up with something that is not quite an extended monologue, but almost so...China Doll is almost exclusively Pacino on the phone having endless conversations with unseen characters. The advantages of this are several...We never hear what the other people are saying, although one imagines that Mickey Ross--in context--doesn't listen to what other people are saying, anyway...In Act Two, though, we fall into a web of plotting that becomes more and more intricate...As the events spin out, we wonder if maybe the playwright is purposely keeping things enigmatic so he doesn't have to do the work of concisely figuring it out. Ultimately, it feels like a stunt; by keeping the other side of the discussion silent, the playwright doesn't have to justify what Mickey is saying...If China Doll has its weaknesses--and it has--it also has Al Pacino. And Al Pacino, on this occasion, is enough.

Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times: With his gray mane and gravelly roar, Al Pacino skulks around the stage like an old lion in "China Doll," David Mamet's yakking character study of an aging oligarch still trying to intimidate the world despite his declining power. The play...could be interpreted as a commentary on two singular artists, once the kings of their respective jungles, who are now going through the motions of their former majesty. The qualities that lustrously set them apart are being worn here like the disassembled tux of Pacino's character -- fancy attire for a forgotten function from the night before. Style, emptied of meaning, has devolved into mannerism.

Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune: What are we to make of these bizarre later Broadway endeavors by the man from Chicago who wrote some of the greatest dramas of the 20th century? Are they soupcons? Digressions or meditations yet to be understood? Anarchistic jabs of defiance at the hyper-liberal, perpetually self-examining theatrical establishment with its committees, action groups and abiding impotence?...Herewith, a script and production so provocatively dismissive of all that is generally associated with theatrical craft, rule keeping and hive-driven aesthetic understanding that it feels at least partially deliberate.

Christopher Kelly, NJ.com: In David Mamet's new play "China Doll," Al Pacino circles the stage, puttering and muttering in the manner of an adrift and aggrieved Lear...It's an intriguing lion-in-winter performance, one that captures both the vanity and tragedy of a giant trying to hang onto his old glory -- a subject Pacino presumably knows a bit about himself. If only Mamet had given him a coherent story and character to work with...The reality isn't nearly that terrible, but Mamet nonetheless seems to have no idea what he's trying to say here...Whether "China Doll" is actually about old age, or instead about the intersection of politics and money, or how ambition destroys itself -- or something else entirely -- remains anyone's guess.

Alexis Soloski, The Guardian: It's unclear how much Pacino is enjoying the exercise. Certainly he gravitates toward roles like this and in his prowling posture, bent at the knees, but slightly stooped at the waist, you can read the depredations of old age or the crouch of a fighter, just waiting for his chance to spring. But he often seems distracted, stuttering over his sentences. And when he works himself into high dudgeon, many of the lines feel as though they have quotation marks around them -- that he is Al Pacino playing Al Pacino playing Mickey Ross, because that is what the crowd, who applaud loudly at his arrival, ostensibly want.

Photo Credit: Jeremy Daniel