David Mamet Will Not Be Quoting The Anarchist Reviews In Ads
December 3, 2012 1 Comment
Patti LuPone plays a 60′s violent activist imprisoned for 35 years requesting parole from Debra Winger in David Mamet’s “The Anarchist” on Broadway, which got many reviews that will be difficult for the production to quote.
just a wearying lecture~The Hollywood Reporter
strangely gassy~New York Magazine
feels as sterile and lifeless as an interrogation, which it basically is~Associated Press
short, dense and dry drama at the Golden Theatre is often a head-scratcher-Daily News
heavily embroidered slip of a play….where ideas on eschatology, etymology, phenomenology and, yes, criminology are exchanged by intellectual (if not moral) equals~New York Times
LuPone and Winger are restrained to the point of somnambulance-Bloomberg News
a bewildering exercise in audience exclusion~NorthJersey.com
…the characters have no credible stage life; they exist only as puppets for Mamet’s ideas~The New Yorker
He does no favors for the thesps in this two-hander by enabling Debra Winger to drone on and on and Patti LuPone to swallow half her lines~Variety
More needlessly opaque debate than drama~Newsday
the writing, repetitive and blunt, falls short of the lofty aspirations~New York Post
sluggish and inert~Boston Globe
Meandering and academic debate that’s hard to follow~AM-NY
brusque badinage between opaque symbols~Entertainment Weekly
a droning, pompous essay brought to unnatural life~Backstage
Note: There were some mixed to positive reviews, most notably USA Today, and I have no opinion until I see it later this week.
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