The Reviews Are In: Mamet is a ‘Sexist’

Last night, David “I’m No Longer a Brain-Dead Liberal” Mamet’s “Oleanna” opened on Broadway.  The production (a transfer from Los Angeles’ Mark Taper Forum) stars Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles.  As discussed on these pages Friday, this play was originally produced off-Broadway 18 years ago and is now receiving its first, official Broadway production. “Oleanna” and the upcoming “Race” are two opportunities for Mr. Mamet’s work to be evaluated by the heavily-left-leaning theatre critics.

The play received quite positive reviews.  Here are some interesting things I read in the reviews…

In Elysa Gardner’s positive review in USA Today, she refers to the contrasting times in which the play is now produced versus the original production:

When David Mamet’s Oleanna premiered in 1992, it was widely perceived as a response to the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in which Thomas was accused of sexual harassment by former assistant Anita Hill.  It has been 18 years since that real-life drama played out. But as the very different controversy now surrounding David Letterman reminds us, the debate over what constitutes an abuse of power between a male authority figure and a female subordinate isn’t going away. (more…)

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Tags: anita hill, backstage, ben brantley, bill pullman, broadway
Posted Oct 12th 2009 at 4:34 pm in Featured Story, Politics, Theatre | 24532231 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/sright/2009/10/12/the-reviews-are-in-mamet-is-a-sexist/The+Reviews+Are+In%3A+Mamet+is+a+%27Sexist%272009-10-12+23%3A34%3A05Stage+Right

‘Non-Liberal’ Mamet In For Big Year on Broadway

“I took the liberal view for many decades, but I believe I have changed my mind.” – David Mamet

As I discussed in my very first post here at Big Hollywood, many in the theatre world were surprised to read David Mamet’s amazing article, “Why I am No Longer A Brain-Dead Liberal” in the Village Voice.  In my post, I used the play “Oleanna” as an example of a conservative lean that I recognized in Mamet’s work when it premiered off-Broadway in 1992.  I concluded with a couple of questions: (more…)

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Tags: broadway, david mamet, NY Times, oleanna, race
Posted Oct 9th 2009 at 2:55 pm in Politics, Theatre | 24145440 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/sright/2009/10/09/non-liberal-mamet-in-for-big-year-on-broadway/%27Non-Liberal%27+Mamet+In+For+Big+Year+on+Broadway2009-10-09+21%3A55%3A02Stage+Right

Top 10 Things for Conservatives to Look for in the Upcoming Broadway Season

Summer is the slow time on Broadway as theatre pros recover from their Tony Award hang-overs and try to rush out to the Island for a few days of R & R before the new season begins.  This year it seems there are a few plays aiming for early fall openings hoping to ride a crest of popularity into the always-lucrative holiday season.

Just as last season brought a record number of plays as well as stellar gross sales (despite doom-sayers in the industry) this season already looks locked and loaded with a huge number of shows scheduled to open between October 1st and the first week of May (the traditional Tony nomination cut-off).  So to help the readers of Big Hollywood plan their trip to the Great White Way (we can still say that, can’t we?), I submit the top 10 things to look for from the center/right perspective:

10.  ”Superior Donuts” – A transfer from Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre (one of my personal favorite regional houses in America), the play stars “Spinal Tap”’s Michael McKean as an aging hippie who owns a donut shop in a largely black neighborhood and Jon Michael Hill (do all young Broadway actors HAVE to go by three names now?) as a 21-year-old from the neighborhood who talks his way into a job at the shop.  From the New York Times review:  ”In one of the play’s most amusing exchanges Franco challenges Arthur to name 10 black poets. Arthur names a few, then stands dumb, a look of deep concentration on his face. “It’s like watching George Bush on ‘Jeopardy!’ ” Franco cracks.” (more…)

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Tags: a steady rain, Ana Gasteyer, anita hill, barrymore, bebe neuwerth
Posted Aug 16th 2009 at 9:14 am in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics | 20520626 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/sright/2009/08/16/top-10-things-for-conservatives-to-look-for-in-the-upcoming-broadway-season/Top+10+Things+for+Conservatives+to+Look+for+in+the+Upcoming+Broadway+Season2009-08-16+16%3A14%3A15Stage+Right

A Conservative Journey Through Literary America – Part 6: Mamet of Tarsus

In March 2008, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright David Mamet, author of “Glengary Glen Ross” and the man many consider America’s greatest living dramatist, wrote an essay for The Village Voice titled “Why I am No Longer A Brain Dead Liberal.”  This essay was a thunder clap in the arts community, leaving, as Dinesh D’Souza put it, the “left-leaning literary and cultural intelligentsia…in shock.”

The Saul-like conversion of Mamet has produced reams of commentary from both the left and the right, but it is the reaction of the left that is especially interesting.  Many in the liberal “intelligentsia” have greeted the news by openly wondering whether such a political shift will result in the loss of Mamet’s famous creative powers.  A “depressed” Michael Billington, for one, writing in The Guardian, is fearful of what Mamet’s conversion portends for his work because, “the precedents for a shift to the right on the part of creative artists are not exactly encouraging.” (more…)

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Tags: "Why I am No Longer A Brain Dead Liberal", david mamet, Dinesh D'Souza, george w. bush, Michael Billington
Posted May 31st 2009 at 7:14 am in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics | 1439982 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mpatterson/2009/05/31/a-conservative-journey-through-literary-america-part-6-mamet-of-tarsus/A+Conservative+Journey+Through+Literary+America+-+Part+6%3A++Mamet+of+Tarsus2009-05-31+14%3A14%3A48Matt+Patterson

Tony Award Nominations 2009

In what is becoming an annual rite of self-destruction, Broadway has once again chosen to snub many of the big-name stars who have put their film careers on hold to trudge onto the boards eight times a week, take a significant pay cut, and run the risk of being ridiculed for being unable to cut the mustard as a theatre actor  (As Alan Swan famously said before having to appear on live television in “My Favorite Year”:  ‘I’m not an actor, damn you, I’m a movie star!’).  This week’s announcement of nominees for Broadway’s top prize, the Tony Award, was more newsworthy for the names left off the list than for the relatively unfamiliar names singled out for the honor. 

Nathan Lane and John Goodman are selling tickets hand over fist for their revival of “Waiting for Godot” but neither received the honor of a nomination.  Same with David Hyde Pierce, Frank Langella, Mary Louise Parker and Matthew Broderick. 

It was no surprise that Jeremy Piven was included out of the Best Actor category after his famous sushi defense for missing performances in David Mamet’s “Speed-the-Plow,” but not honoring John Lithgow’s brilliant turn in “All My Sons” in the same category is a crime against humanity!  It ranks up there with the snub of Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman in the 1984 revival of “Death of a Salesman.” Brian Dennehy was honored with the Best Actor award when he did Willy Loman in 2000, but that goodwill did not anoint him worthy of a nomination this year for his turn in “Desire Under the Elms.”  (more…)

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Tags: Angela Lansbury, Brian Dennehy, broadway, Christine Ebersol, Daniel Radcliffe
Posted May 9th 2009 at 6:15 am in Celebrity News, Entertainment, Featured Story | 129722No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/sright/2009/05/09/tony-award-nominations-2009/Tony+Award+Nominations+20092009-05-09+13%3A15%3A30Stage+Right

Ron Silver

Meeting Ron Silver humbled me. Never have I been more wrong in assessing a person before knowing him.

Until I met him, he was just another Hollywood liberal loud mouth.

Yes, he was an award-winning actor and prolific film star. And, yes, he had strong political opinions. (The net sum of his positions added up to no partisan’s delight.)

But Ron Silver was also astoundingly intelligent. Ask anyone who knew him. He spoke fluent Mandarin Chinese and Spanish to go with having a Master’s Degree in Chinese History.

These facets combined to make Silver a most compelling public person, a natural leader and the type of man who automatically commanded respect and admiration no matter the social or vocational circumstance. (more…)

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Tags: "Speed the Plough", Creative Coalition, david mamet, Frank Rich, george w. bush
Posted Mar 16th 2009 at 9:10 pm in Celebrity News, Featured Story, News, Politics | 8214643 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/abreitbart/2009/03/16/ron-silver/Ron+Silver2009-03-17+04%3A10%3A05Andrew+Breitbart

Another Celebutard of the Week: Jeremy Piven

You are what you eat, I guess. 

It was the performance of Jeremy Piven’s life. Last week, he tearfully persuaded five fellow actors that he was deathly ill from mercury poisoning due to his lifelong love of sushi – and not merely slacking off with Britney – when he abruptly walked away from the Broadway production of “Speed-the-Plow.’’ I predict future actors will have “no raw fish” clauses attached to their contracts. Entire A-list restaurants will tremble at the loss of high-profile business. On the bright side, fish will live.

Piven dodged a financial bullet by pleading his case to a grievance committee of Actor’s Equity. He could not escape the hilarity that ensued over his fishy tale. As “Plow’’ playwright David Mamet joked to the New York Post’s Michael Riedel, “My understanding is he is leaving show business to pursue a career as a thermometer.’’

This is why Piven is my latest “Celebutard of the Week,’’ in keeping with my new book, Celebutards: The Hollywood Hacks, Limousine Liberal and Pandering Politicians Who Are Destroying America. (more…)

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Tags: Britney Spears. Mercury Poisoning, david mamet, jeremy piven, Speed The Plow, Tony Award
Posted Mar 4th 2009 at 7:51 am in Celebrity News, Uncategorized | 7217477 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/apeyser/2009/03/04/another-celebutard-of-the-week-jeremy-piven/Another+Celebutard+of+the+Week%3A+Jeremy+Piven2009-03-04+15%3A51%3A47Andrea+Peyser

Overlooked: The Top 10 Best Performances of 2008 that you may not have heard about!

The Academy Awards for 2008 have been handed out, and the “popular kids” have Oscars on their mantles, but the dirty little secret about winning awards is that you’ve gotta campaign for them. Thousands of dollars were spent by the distributors and filmmakers behind Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight), Milk (Focus Features), The Reader (Weinstein) and other assorted winners and nominees, but not all performances received that sort of big money backing.

I am an unabashed lover of the acting craft. I see virtually every movie, large and small, that passes through the US marketplace, and, taking nothing away from Sean Penn, Kate Winslet, Penelope Cruz and Heath Ledger, not all of 2008’s best performances have been recognized. I’m not going to be obvious here. Clint Eastwood was snubbed for Gran Torino, but he received lots of acclaim for the role including being named Best Actor by the National Board of Review. My goal is to highlight 10 performances from last year that have received virtually no acclaim in the US. Many of these roles can be found in hardly-seen, under-appreciated movies that came and went without much notice. Each and every one of these movies deserve a spot in your Netflix (or Blockbuster) cue. (more…)

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Tags: "Traitor", 2008, academy awards, acting, alan rickman
Posted Mar 1st 2009 at 2:10 pm in Celebrity News, Entertainment, Featured Story | 7013043 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/03/01/performances/Overlooked%3A+The+Top+10+Best+Performances+of+2008+that+you+may+not+have+heard+about%212009-03-01+22%3A10%3A58Steve+Mason