Robert Wright for The New York Times The playwright David Mamet with Patti LuPone, center, and Debra Winger, stars of his new play, “The Anarchist.â€Yesterday Ben Brantley, the chief theater critic of The New York Times, answered readers' questions about new scores, populist theater and other topics. Following is the final installment of his responses.
What do you think has happened to David Mamet? He hasn't had a legitimate hitâ€"or even a critical successâ €"in over a decade. There was a time when his newest play was a major event (even if didn't open on Broadway). - Joseph Millett, Blacksburg, Va.
The question of Mr. Mamet deserves more space than I can give it here. But the short answer would seem to be that Mr. Mamet is less interested in theater as an art these days than as a platform for discussion. I failed to detect anything resembling a real character in his most recent works on Broadway: “November,†“Race†and the current “Anarchist.†Nor did I hear that singular, pulse-racing music that I associate with Mamet's dialogue. This saddens me.
I don't think Mamet has reached his sell-by date â€" at least not in th e sense that he's a terminally topical writer stuck in the era he emerged from. He's not that. The early stuff, when seen in revival, feels as vital as it ever did (though I haven't yet seen the current “Glengarry Glen Ross†on Broadway). But whether sitcom glib (“Novemberâ€) or graduate-school pedantic (“Anarchistâ€), his work of the past decade has mostly registered as a set of position papers. And “Anarchist†appears to have no real interest in drawing in its audience; it is almost as if it were written in disdain for anyone who might expect to be engaged by the theater. (Putting this 70-minute essayistic play on Broadway, and charging Broadway prices for it, did it no favors; I think audiences might be more receptive to it if they experienced it in something more like a theater-lab environment, like the Ensemble Studio The ater's bill of one-acts.) How I'd love to see a new Mamet play that jolted, rattled and excited me the way his early work did.
I am off to London in February and am wondering if you have any suggestions of things I should try to see. - Marc Happel, New York City
There's a lot to choose from in February. If you're arriving on the 15th, or later, you'll have the chance to see Helen Mirren reincarnating the role for which she won an Oscar, that of Queen Elizabeth II. But this is in a new play by Peter Morgan, called “Audience.â€
If you're a fan of Harold Pinter, the new revival of “Old Times†sounds especially seductive, with Kristin Scott-Thomas and Lia Williams alternating in the two female roles. And you may be there just in time to catch Mark Rylan ce as Olivia in the all-male production of “Twelfth Night,†one of the most astonishing Shakespearean performances I've ever seen.
Have you ever been approached/threatened about a bad review? - Davis, Boston
I have received hostile voice-mail messages and e-mails. They are often anonymous, I'm sad to say, as anonymous messages are delivered only by very low forms of human life, in my opinion. I have been denounced in various public forums (on television, in symposia, in print) by people who feel I have been unjust or obtuse about a certain production or performance. Elton John called me something unprintable in an interview at least once. The columnist Liz Smith once proposed in print that I be lynched in Shubert Alley, which was one of the more thrilling moments of my career. We have sin ce become friends (Liz and I, I mean; I've never met Sir Elton).
How important are Internet blogs, message boards, chat rooms etc. in shaping opinion of a production? Professional critics are just one part of the mix these days. - Larry, Chicago
The cliché was always that “everybody's a critic,†but it becomes truer every day. Long before reviews appear in the traditional outlets, you can now usually discover â€" somewhere in the thickets of the Internet - reactions to shows from people who've seen them in previews. Professional critics, being held to certain responsibilities that the maverick blogger is not, tend to be more measured and usually (though not always) more accurate. I personally read criticism â€" at least by writers I enjoy â€" to stimulate a conversation in my own mind, and I like to think that's the function I serve for others. The all-mighty power of the theater critic was always a bit of a myth, though. Go back a century and look at the original reviews for “Abie's Irish Rose,†which went right under the fence of critical disdain and became a smash hit.
What are some shows that you have changed your opinion on over the years? What is the most overrated and underrated show you have ever seen? - Herbert, Bloomfield, N.J.
I never disagree with my own reviews, when I look back on them, because they reflect the way I felt when I wrote them originally. But everything changes in time, including critics and the works they write about. And with great plays, from “King Lear†to “The Importance of Being Earnest,†I often find myself discovering that they aren't at all what I thought they were about when I saw them before. More particularly, when I first saw the Tony-winning Off Broadway musical “Once,†it struck me as too twee, though I loved its music and its dance. But I think I was prejudiced against it in part from having seen the movie that inspired it on the same day. When the show opened on Broadway, some months later, my original objections remained but they felt less significant. (Of course, it also helped that Broadway is such a taxidermy museum these days, that anything young and fresh assumes the status of a major blessing.)
