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David Mamut’s Pulitzer Prize winning play, Glengarry Glen Ross has been revived and opened at the
Macha Theatre, and will run until May 25th, 2008. Producers
David
Lipper and
Christine Lynne worked hard to make this original dramady a success and it was. The proceeds of the play go to the
USC Shoah Foundation since
David Lipper had lost many of his relatives in the Holocaust and was deeply touched by their work.
The original work had run in 1984 and won a
Pulitzer Prize, staring
Joe Mantegna and J. T. Walsh. It then became a much darker movie before returning to its dramady roots now.
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Glengarry: the cast William Russ, Anson Mount, David Lipper, Ian Gomez, David Lascher, Michael Monks, Kevin Benton
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The play’s title, coming from two of the real estate developments in the play, confused many originally but they soon learned. The scalding comedy deals with the cutthroat compettiton among real estate salesmen for the top ladder. Currently Roma (
Anson Mount) is the monthly lead while down and out salesman, Shelly “The Machine”Levene (
William Russ) is fighting his bad luck and trying to convince the new office manager, John Williamson (
David Lascher) to give him some A+ leads.
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Glengarry: John and Shelly (William Russ) talk shop
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John finally agrees to help Shelly, for a cost, not realizing that in the next booth over, two of their other team members – George Aaronow (
Ian Gomez) and Dave Moss (
David Lipper) are plotting to rip off the agencies leads and sell them to a competitor.
The second act is the most comedic because we believe that George has been played a patsy by Dave Moss and has stolen the leads. He certainly acts guilty enough but apparently he didn’t have quite the desperation or the courage because someone beat him to it. Everyone is blaming everyone else and police officer Baylen (
Kevn Benton) is hard assing whoever will talk.
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Glengarry: James (Michael Monks) gets out of contract with Roma
Shelly accused of theft.
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The intricate workings of the salesmen – save me from Time shares!! – were horrifyingly revealed when Roma tries to convince James Lingk (
Michael Monks) to buy property despite his wife’s reluctance. Shelly, always up for the game, plays along until John accidentally ruins it by a slip of the tongue.
That slip leads to another, which leads us to the guilty party.
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Glengarry: confrontation between John (David Lascher) and Roma (Anson Mount)
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The idea for going back to a Broadway play came to David while he walked the strike lines for his fellow artists at WGA but it took him over two months to obtain the rights to produce the play.
Mr. Lipper with the help of casting
Michelle Levy and Elisha Gruer put together an all star cast who were stage managed and lit by
Adrian Tafoya and
Danny
Truxow as prop master, set designer. Music always helps a mood and background music provided by
Buck Damon set it.
After opening night,
Hugo’s Restaurant, next door, helped the cast and press celebrate the success.
The acting was superb, especially that of
Ian Gomez when he pretends he didn’t do anything and we think he did.
Odalys Nanin of The
Macha Theatre at 1107 N Kings Rd, West Hollywood, Ca 90069, known for its Advocate plays, made a decision to run a drama such as part of her effort to bridge cultural gaps between the gay and straight communities of West Hollywood.
Refreshments are sold at the theatre and the 90 minute play start 8 pm Thurs –Saturday and 7 pm Sundays. Tickets cost $34.99. For reservations, go on line to or call 323 960 4412
For more information go to www.plays411.com/glengarry
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