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Review: "Pippin" at the Mark Taper Forum

Variety

Review: Pippin
...Tuner's broader emotional lines first need attending. The problem isn't two Pippins (one hearing, one deaf), but a dramatic spine that's been halved.

Hollywood Reporter

Theater Review: Pippin
Bottom Line: An occasionally extraordinary production but a mostly ordinary musical.

TheaterMania

Review: Pippin
Jeff Calhoun's production of the classic Stephen Schwartz musical -- using deaf and hearing actors -- is imaginative enough to amaze Harry Houdini.

When people look back on the 2008-2009 Broadway season and chronicle its highs and lows, playwright David Mamet and the fortunes of the revivals of his plays Speed-the-Plow and American Buffalo will undoubtedly figure prominently. Last fall "Plow" opened to glowing reviews while "Buffalo" played just a brief run. Then, Jeremy Piven, one of the stars of "Plow" made an unexpected and much discussed exit from "Plow," jeopardizing producers' investments and the show's continued health. Well, although the season is far from over, and no one can say for sure what the future will bring, the final installment in the saga of Mamet this season may have been written last night with Academy Award-winner William H. Macy's official and exhilarating opening in "Plow."

With the addition of Macy to the ensemble that also includes Raul Esparza and Elisabeth Moss, director Neil Pepe's staging of the play seems to be newly minted, and for anyone who saw the show when it opened last October, a return visit seems almost required. For theatergoers who have not taken the show about a pair of viperous film executives and the young woman who finds herself embroiled in their lives, it's probably never been a better time to catch the show.

Macy plays Bobby Gould, the new head of production at a major Hollywood movie studio. Esparza plays Charlie Fox, a long-time associate of Bobby's, who comes to his old friend with news that a big star is ready to come to their studio to make a prison buddy flick. The two men instantly see dollar signs and make a meeting with Bobby's boss to announce their plans for what they believe will be a surefire hit. Unfortunately, when Bobby decides that he'll try to seduce Karen (Moss), the temp who's working for him, by asking her to do the courtesy read on a novel about radiation and the end of the world, a wrench gets thrown into the plans the two guys have made. Karen likes the book and ultimately convinces Bobby that he should make a film based on it rather than the schlock fare he's planned with Charlie.

Macy, whose face and body language both seem to indicate that he's a man who's been through the Hollywood wringer and that he's genuinely earned his new position of authority, gives the production a decided gravitas. It's easy to believe that all of Karen's high ideals about spirituality and finding something meaningful could affect Bobby so deeply. Macy, who co-founded with Mamet the Atlantic Theater Company where Pepe serves as artistic director, certainly knows his way around the playwright's rapid-fire dialogue, and throughout he delivers the text with aplomb. So too does Esparza, whose performance has beautifully modulated to match his new co-star's while simultaneously retaining its feral intensity and razor-sharp comic edge.

Watching these two actors play opposite one another is a treat – albeit a dark one. It's also demonstrates how extraordinarily rich Mamet's script is. Whereas Piven and Esparza seemed to be contemporaries of one another, there is, on some level, a sense that with the new casting Charlie is Bobby's chronological junior, which marvelously colors the men's friendship and the twists of the play.

Moss's performance, too, has deepened with time and with her new castmate. It's great fun to watch her and Macy perform the intricate verbal pas de deux that forms the center of the play, and as the piece reaches its climax, Moss fascinates as Karen calibrates her relationship to both Bobby and Charlie.

For all theatergoers, "Plow" remains ripping good theater, and for those who saw "Plow" in late 2008, a return visit has an additional benefit: it's an exciting lesson in the alchemy of live theater.

---- Andy Propst

Speed-the-Plow plays at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre (243 West 47th Street). Performances are Tuesday at 7pm; Wednesday at 2 and 8pm; Thursday and Friday at 8pm; Saturday at 2 and 8pm; and Sunday at 3pm. Tickets are $49.50 - $110.50 and can be purchased by calling 212-239-6200 or by visiting www.telecharge.com. Further information is available online at: www.SpeedThePlowOnBroadway.com