When I first saw David Mamet's American Buffalo in 1976, it was just a short time after the United States Supreme Court opened the way to free verbal expression on the stage, and the use of vulgar expletives was new, groundbreaking, shocking. Now, "fuck," the word that got Lenny Bruce arrested, is so common in everyday speech, it is used as an adjective, and most comedians overuse it in their routines. So all shock value in Mamet's naturalistic dialogue is absent, and the story of three losers planning to steal a coin collection, despite some funny phraseology, is reduced to rambling banter with emotional outbursts. John Leguizamo is exciting -- a dynamo let loose, Cedric the Entertainer is an adequate junkstore owner, and Haley Joel Osment, an actor who is vivid on screen or television, playing the apprentice thief, is invisible- no impact, therefore it's a bit difficult to feel for him even when he is brutalized -- we don't know his internal makeup well enough to empathize.
The physical staging by director Robert Falls keeps the play active and dynamic, the junk-filled set by Santo Loquasto is spectacular -- I loved the costume he put on Leguizamo, and Brian McDevitt's lighting enhances everything.
Although much of the show is entertaining, most missing for me at the end is the lost feeling of desolation -- the deep devastating feeling of abandonment, of hopelessness the three men should be experiencing as they are left in a vast, empty, barren desert. What we have here is a modern clown show, including (beautifully staged) mayhem.
Previews:
October 31, 2008
Opened:
November 17, 2008
Ended:
2008
Country:
USA
State:
New York
City:
New York
Company/Producers:
Elliot Martin, Ben Sprecher, Louise Forlenza, Bryan Bantry/Michael S. Rosenberg, Max Weitzenhoffer/Nica Burns, Wendy Federman, The Bozeman Group LLC, Stewart F. Lane/Bonnie Comley, Jay Harris, William Franzblau, Oscar Joyner, Ken Wydro/Vy Higginsen, Ray Larsen & Nelle Nugent.
Theater Type:
Broadway
Theater:
Belasco Theater
Theater Address:
111 West 44th Street
Phone:
212-239-6262
Running Time:
2 hrs
Genre:
Drama
Director:
Robert Falls
Review:
Cast:
Cedric the Entertainer (Don), John Leguizamo (Teach), Haley Joel Osment
Technical:
Set/Costumes: Santo Loquasto; Light: Brian MacDevitt; Fight Dir: Rick Sordelet.
Other Critics:
TOTALTHEATER David Lefkowitz 11/08 ?
Critic:
Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
November 2008
