AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

Updated October 27, 2008 - 9:54AM EST

The New Yorker

Hilton Als: The art of selling in “Speed-the-Plow.”

ny1

NY1 Theater Review: "Speed the Plow"

Philadelphia Inquirer

Philadelphia Inquirer

Full 'Speed' ahead
David Mamet's deliciously vicious Hollywood satire returns to Broadway in a brisk, stylish production.

AmericanTheaterWeb

Review - Speed-the-Plow - Hollywood and Its Players Dissected

New York Times

Do You Speak Hollywood?
When the curtain falls on this short and unsparing study of sharks in the shallows of the movie industry, it’s as if you had stepped off a world-class roller coaster.

New York Daily News

'Speed-the-Plow' goes inside
David Mamet's "Speed-the-Plow" is back on Broadway for another go-round of behind-the-scenes greed and movieland maneuvering. That theme has been covered extensively in the 20 years since the play's first run.

amNY

Broadway Review of Speed-the-Plow

Newsday

Review: Jeremy Piven in David Mamet's 'Speed-the-Plow'

New York Post

Speed your way to revival of Mamet's 'Plow'
When Hollywood meets Broadway, sparks fly and Tinseltown's incinerated - especially if the flamethrower is David Mamet. So it is with "Speed-the-Plow." Now, 20 years after its premiere - in which Madonna took much of the initial limelight - the beautifully played revival that opened last night establishes the play as a modern...

New York Journal-News

Review: Plowing TV stars' popularity
Happily, "Speed-the-Plow" hasn't aged by one minute.

Star-Ledger

'Speed-the-Plow' features TV stars
Really more of a keen study in personal loyalties than a satire of Hollywood amorality, David Mamet's "Speed-the-Plow" returns to Broadway in an excellent new production

Associated Press

David Mamet's Take on Moviemaking Is Still Savage
The bilious business of moviemaking remains as hilariously nasty as ever in David Mamet's ''Speed-The-Plow,'' now two decades old but still packing heat in a sizzling revival which opened Thursday at Broadway's Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

Reuters / Hollywood Reporter

With top cast, Mamet satire funnier than ever
Watching Jeremy Piven as a rapacious Hollywood type and Elisabeth Moss as an awkward but ambitious secretary, it's easy to imagine that you're flipping channels between HBO's "Entourage" and AMC's "Mad Men."

USA Today

20 years later, Broadway's 'Speed-the-Plow' is timely-good-comedy
With Wall Street in ruins and businesses of all stripes facing greater consumer discretion, there is at least one place left where a guy or...

Wall Street Journal

Life in Hell, Hollywood Style
Neil Pepe's "Speed-the-Plow" is a well-meaning production that isn't as good as it ought to be.

Bloomberg.com

Piven, Esparza Play Mamet's Scathing `Speed-the-Plow' as TV: John Simon The Broadway revival of David Mamet's 1988 ``Speed-the-Plow'' stars Raul Esparza, Jeremy Piven and Elisabeth Moss, all currently on TV (in ``Pushing Daisies,'' ``Entourage'' and ``Mad Men,'' respectively). Though at least two of them are fine stage actors as well, there is something unmistakably TVish about this production at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

Variety

Review: Speed-the-Plow
...Neil Pepe's taut Broadway revival keeps the verbal sniper fire swift and scathing, while the three accomplished actors make the air between them crackle with tension.

Back Stage

Speed-the-Plow reviewed by David Sheward
A new generation of young stars is tackling David Mamet's dark screed against movie land — and by extension all of our popular culture.

Washington Post

In Two Revivals, Some Stars Are Brighter Than Others
It requires no leap of imagination to envision ferocious Jeremy Piven of "Entourage" fame in a play by David Mamet -- especially one drenched in filthy Tinseltown lucre. And yet, amid the toxic delights of the Broadway revival of "Speed-the-Plow," Piven is not merely summoning his inner ...

TheaterMania

Review: Speed-the-Plow
David Mamet's pungent take on Tinseltown gets a more-than-acceptable revival.

Talkin' Broadway

Review: Speed-the-Plow
At last, the voice we didn’t know we needed to hear this election season has chimed in: David Mamet. What’s the message from this churningly clear-eyed, vinegar-tongued playwright? Blow away the stardust. Close the dream factory. Hope and change are buzzwords. What you can sell is the only thing that matters. . .