December 14, 2009

Mamet's 'Race' play divides critics: good vs. very bad

Although David Mamet has his champions, they did not come out in force for his new stage drama, “Race,” which opened on Broadway on Dec. 6 starring James Spader, David Alan Grier, Kerry Washington and Richard Thomas.

Mamet, who also directs the production, examines race in America through a legal lens as a white billionaire is accused of raping a black woman.

“Race” has an open-ended run at the Barrymore Theatre, 243 W. 47th St., map. Regular tickets are priced $59.50 to $121.50. Premium seats are $176.50 to $251.50. Student rush tickets cost $26.50.

Producers advise the material “may be inappropriate for children 12 and under.”

The “Race” on Broadway reviews:

New York Times - “Yet despite the tension of its subject, and an abundance of the corkscrew plot twists for which Mr. Mamet is known, ‘Race’ lacks real dramatic tension.”

Variety - “Slick but hollow, ‘Race’ entertains as it unfolds, but grows increasingly wobbly as it twists its way to an unsatisfying wrap-up.”

Daily News - “‘Race’ purports to be about the hot-button title topic, but the action veers to what Mamet really seems to have on his mind — distrust of women and how they manipulate.”

Time Out - “And in contrast with much of the author’s flimsy work in recent years, there is active intelligence on display in the play’s dissection of the complexities of racial interaction in America.”

New York Observer - “Race, Mr. Mamet’s sure-to-be-great new play, isn’t great at all. It’s not even very good.”

New York magazine - “We open with an O.J. joke—an early indicator of the mid-nineties mindset that informs Race, David Mamet’s fleet, fidgety, focused little Sudoku of a ‘shock’ drama.”

Associated Press - “It’s a warning delivered in style by the excellent David Alan Grier, who gets some of Mamet’s choicest, brashest lines in this short play, barely 100 minutes — with an intermission, and which the playwright has directed with punchy speed.”

Bloomberg - “All four actors perform compellingly; Santo Loquasto’s decor, Tom Broecker’s costuming, and Brian MacDevitt’s lighting could not be better.”

Chicago Tribune - “America may have its first black president, and may think it’s finally inching its way toward post-racial detente, but here comes that unreconstructed, acerbic, argumentative balloon-pricker from Chicago, arguing that any and all of that progress is either forced, cosmetic or a lie (or all three at once), and doing so in such a way that you can’t ignore it any more than you can a wreck on the side of an expressway.”

Los Angeles Times - “These actors have no problem handling their author’s machine-gun-fire sarcasm yet they find ways of hinting at more fully drawn characters. In other words, they’re not just Machiavellian mouths in breathless motion. Mamet should work with both gentlemen more often. “

Hollywood Reporter - “Fans of the television series “Boston Legal” would be well advised to head to David Mamet’s new play “Race,” in which James Spader is once again doing a crackerjack job of portraying a ruthless lawyer.”

Post - “Audiences might expect this type of awkwardly constructed, flailing acrimony from a 15-year-old with a Twitter account, not from a Pulitzer Prize winner.”

NY1 - “In this case, the character Susan doesn’t even get a last name. We know very little about her or her motivations while Mamet reveals far more about the men. All the action in this play seems contrived to justify a convoluted premise.”

Wall Street Journal - ” But Mr. Mamet doesn’t quite make it to the finish line this time, and when the curtain came down I felt the kind of frustration that can be inspired only by a first-class talent who fails to deliver the goods.”

Financial Times - “As for the cast, James Spader, as Lawson, extends the entertaining, tough-lawyer routine he has been doing for years on TV’s Boston Legal; David Alan Grier, as Brown, gives gruffness a good name; and Kerry Washington, a vivid film actor, is, as Susan, too limited in stage technique. The ageless Richard Thomas portrays Strickland, and if his professorial-looking character is a billionaire, I’ve got a bridge to sell you. “

New Yorker - “Having declared recently, in a piece he wrote for the Times, that debates about race are, for the most part, “nothing but sanctimony,” Mamet offers instead nothing but cynicism.”

Newsday - “The more troubling question is whether, ultimately, we end up caring what he thinks in ‘Race.’”

Related: Playbill’s “Race” opening night pictures.

See more “Race” reviews at the Critic-O-Meter.

December 14, 2009 9:29 AM in Broadway

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