This was my first live theater experience in many years, so I’m not exactly the person to give an informed opinion comparing this to other productions. All I know is I was entertained, aside from a saggy part in Act Two.
Before the play, they announced that Butz had only had the script for a week, with only four rehearsals. And it’s a tough play to memorize, with a ton of rapid-fire dialogue.
From what I could tell, the 2nd and 3rd acts revolved more around the other two actors (Moss and Esparza, respectively), so they made a choice to try to get Act One from memory at the outset. All things considered, Butz did a pretty good job — he asked for a line twice during one lengthy bit of dialogue, but that’s it.
Then in the next two acts, he read directly from a script in his hand, blocking it from the audience when he could. It was distracting, however understandable it may be, but it didn’t ruin the play for me. The audience seemed equally forgiving and gave the trio a standing O at the end.
The only real disappointment was our timing. Two weeks earlier and we’d have seen Piven. One week later and maybe Butz would’ve had the whole play down. Later still, and Macy’s in the role — and presumably he already has a copy of the script to study. Ah well.
The NFL just moved the Broncos-Chargers game to Sunday night, which means I’ll get to see it since it will be nationally broadcast on NBC. Of course, the only reason the NFL chose to make the game national is because Denver choked against Buffalo and blew its chance to win the division last weekend. Now the game decides the AFC West champion, who will have the honor of being blown out at home by a vastly superior wild card team.
If Denver wins, at least the AFC West champs will have a winning record. If San Diego wins, both teams finish 8-8 and the Chargers become perhaps the second team this year enter the playoffs at .500.
I say that in case Arizona loses to Seattle earlier on Sunday to finish 8-8. The Cardinals clinched the even-more-pathetic NFC West sometime around Labor Day.
What is it with western NFL teams this year? Can anybody west of the Central time zone play this game?
Despite everything I wrote in my last post, I never bothered to call anyone about exchanging tickets for Speed-the-Plow or getting a refund. We’re going to head into town and see the show tomorrow after all.
There are several reasons for this change of heart. One is my innate, overpowering laziness. Another is the logistics of finding another shared day off with Kristie and the unlikelihood of landing a Saturday performance at the same price.
One more big reason? Norbert Leo Butz. The guy’s won a Tony award, and apparently a number of theater fans are excited that he’s replacing Piven. Granted, he seems like more of a song and dance man, and I wonder what he’ll bring to a non-musical role for a short-notice, three-week run. But the way I figure, maybe my first Broadway theater experience should feature, y’know, actual Broadway performers rather than Hollywood movie actors expanding their resumes.
William H. Macy would have been great, too, since he’s appeared in Mamet plays since the beginning of his career. But the other guy with the funny name is no slouch.
Kristie and I are going to see this show at a matinee on Christmas Eve — six days from now — when we share a day off work. The tickets were discounted, but still not cheap. And Jeremy Piven was a big reason we chose to go.
Actor Jeremy Piven has abruptly left the hit Broadway revival of David Mamet’s “Speed-the-Plow,” blaming a high mercury count, Daily Variety reported in its Thursday edition.
The Hollywood satire opened to strong reviews in October and Piven had been expected to perform his role as a foul-mouthed studio executive until late February.
But after missing Tuesday night’s performance and a Wednesday matinee, Piven took his doctors’ advice that he should end his run immediately because of a high mercury count, the paper quoted a spokeswoman for the actor as saying.
Mamet appeared to be sceptical.
“I talked to Jeremy on the phone, and he told me that he discovered that he had a very high level of mercury,” Mamet told Daily Variety. “So my understanding is that he is leaving show business to pursue a career as a thermometer.”
Was Piven eating sushi three meals a day or something? (UPDATE: Um… apparently so).
Mamet says “some really great actors will be helping out and stepping in,” but who knows. We’ll have to look to see if anyone is announced besides the current understudy.
We’ll probably go anyway — it’s still old-school Mamet, after all, and Elizabeth Moss from Mad Men co-stars — but if it comes to it, I wonder if these tickets become refundable when the star drops out. Does anyone know?
UPDATE: Well, that was fast. NY Times says at our performance the lead will be played by Norbert Leo Butz, which sounds like a Simpsons character but is apparently real. Then starting in mid-January, William H. Macy takes over the role. Now I’m wondering if it would be possible to switch to a late-January performance at the same price, because Macy is a fine substitute.
We’re having our first real snow of the year. For whatever reason, it brought on one of those moments of self-reflection earlier this evening.
There I was, walking from my job at a TV network to catch a train home, as snow collected on the Christmas lights and decorations lining the busy streets of midtown Manhattan. If I had tried to guess at the beginning of the year what I’d be doing at the end of it, that would not have made the list.
Some things I’m pretty good at predicting. Apparently my own life isn’t one of them.
Back home now, as of Saturday afternoon. Not much to say about the trip, as the vast majority of it was spent in class, in hotels, or traveling. Apparently I missed a fun, massive ice storm in New York, though.
On the flight there, I was impressed that I was able to watch the 7pm rerun of The Daily Show on the touch TV screen embedded in the seat in front of me. In addition to a free, bar-style networked trivia game that nobody decided to play (boo!), they also piped in programming from one of the satellite services, including Comedy Central. Yay, technology!
But then, somewhere over the Rockies, when I tuned back in at 11pm Eastern for the newest show, the service had lost about three-fourths of the channels, so I didn’t get to watch it. Technology is awesome, but it’s even better when it works.
I’m off to the airport in a couple of hours for my first business trip ever — to warm, sunny Portland, OR, for three eight-hour days of training on Sharepoint 2007, returning on Saturday.
Actually, I really like Portland, but this week I don’t even get to visit the fun parts. The hotel and the classes are both in suburban Beaverton.
Meanwhile, I’ll be missing both a Stella live show in NY tomorrow night AND the company’s big, open-bar holiday party on Thursday.
Is it sad that I’ve watched this video game trailer four times already?
It shows exactly none of the gameplay, and there’s still a good chance I’ll be disappointed, but I would pick this up just for the cutscenes. Or maybe they should skip the game part and just release a computer-animated Ghostbusters sequel?
Every cast member is back except for Weaver and Moranis — they even got William Atherton! — and the script is written by Aykroyd and Ramis. I’m a little surprised they got Bill Murray, given he’s a Serious Actor now.
The housing bust is still only beginning, and it’s already dragged the financial sector to the brink of collapse. The recession that for all practical purposes began in 2007 continues apace, even as clueless economists ponder the “even odds” of its existence.
The U.S. economy has been in a recession since December 2007, the National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday. The NBER — a private, nonprofit research organization — said its group of academic economists who determine business cycles met and decided that the U.S. recession began last December.
