AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

AmericanTheaterWeb

Review - American Buffalo - Small-Time Theft Played Small

New York Times

A Junk Shop Breeding Best-Laid Plans
Robert Falls’s deflated revival of David Mamet’s “American Buffalo” evokes the woeful image of a sports car’s flat tire, built for speed but going nowhere.

New York Daily News

'Buffalo' not worth a wooden nickel
Another week, another David Mamet revival. Or so it goes this season on Broadway, where "American Buffalo" opened last night, just three weeks after Mamet's Hollywood hate letter "Speed-the-Plow."

amNY New York City Theater

Theater Review of American Buffalo
You know that you’re watching a David Mamet play when the pre-show announcement instructs you to “turn off your f***ing cell phones.”

Newsday

Review: 'American Buffalo'
Broadway's unofficial David Mamet festival and revival smack-down continued last night with an enjoyable if not revelatory "American Buffalo."

New York Post

Barely worth a plugged nickel
Just how many f - - - ing David Mamet revivals do we need this season? For the moment, Broadway's got two: "American Buffalo" blundered into the Belasco last night, hard on the heels of "Speed-the-Plow." Thanks to Neil Pepe's pitch-perfect staging, "Plow" has the rat-a-tat rhythms of a speed-talking FedEx...

New York Journal News

'Buffalo' actors go their own way
Talk about stunt casting: Comic actor Cedric the Entertainer proves remarkably serious as Donny Dubrow, the owner of a Chicago junk shop. Haley Joel Osment is Donny's somewhat slow protégé Bobby. But the Broadway veteran of the trio, John Leguizamo is wrong here.

Hartford Courant

Mamet's 'American Buffalo' Is Darkly Funny in Revival

Bergen Record

Chuckleheads buffaloed, again
We've recently learned that capitalism can be a fiasco at the highest levels. In David Mamet's "American Buffalo," it's also quite rickety at the bottom.

Associated Press

A tension-free 'American Buffalo' arrives on B'way

Bloomberg.com

Leguizamo Drops F-Bombs in Mamet's `Buffalo'; Woolf Goes Video: John Simon
“American Buffalo” (Chicago, 1975; Off Broadway, 1976; Broadway, 1977, 1983) made its steady progress to becoming David Mamet’s breakthrough play. Revived on Broadway with Cedric the Entertainer, John Leguizamo and Haley Joel Osment, it has now become multicultural (black, Hispanic, Caucasian) but still concerns three lowlifes botching a heist.

USA Today

Mamet's 'American Buffalo' just might steal your heart

Variety

Review: American Buffalo
...the influence of its speech patterns has become increasingly pervasive in films, cable TV and imitative theater, while humanized hoodlums have turned up everywhere. Maybe that's why this starry revival sits so flatly on its impressive set. Or maybe it's the lack of a connective thread among its performers. Either way, something isn't working.

Back Stage

American Buffalo reviewed by David Sheward
Director Robert Falls provides a solid, straightforward framework for David Mamet's deceptively simple story. Unfortunately, his actors are not as perfectly balanced as the material.

TheaterMania

Review: American Buffalo
Robert Falls directs an effective if not explosive revival of David Mamet's career-making play about three small-time crooks.

Talkin' Broadway

Review: American Buffalo
The con is on, but it’s not on the audience. The new revival of David Mamet’s American Buffalo at the Belasco takes so many uncalculated risks in its casting, it might at first seem the names were pulled out of a very tattered, very multicultural hat. John Leguizamo? Haley Joel Osment? Cedric the Entertainer? On the short list - heck, on the long list - of high-born interpreters of Mamet’s piercing machine-gun dialogue, these are not names on which your mind’s eye alights. Yet this production, as directed by Robert Falls, turns their potential liabilities into major strengths. . .

Chicago Tribune

Mamet revival on Broadway leaves Chicago setting far behind

Los Angeles Times Culture Monster Blog

One Mamet revival is genuinely reviving
Charles McNulty on 'Plow' & 'Buffalo'