Hot Lead: Glengarry Glen Ross Returns to Broadway

October 14, 2012 by

If you’re planning on a night out on Broadway this fall, but don’t own enough land and people to afford a ticket to The Book of Mormon, don’t overlook the 30th anniversary revival of Glengarry Glen Ross, which returns for a limited run on November 11 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. The infinitely quotable play, written by the prolific and incomparable David Mamet, earned the playwright a Pulitzer Prize upon its original release in 1984 and introduced a generation of audiences to the best advice any sleazy salesman needs: Always Be Closing.

Although the play received universal acclaim after its original Broadway run, gobbling up awards like a desperate, broken down old salesman chewing through sales leads, Glengarry Glen Ross became truly engrained in American pop culture history when Mamet adapted his play into a feature-length film in 1992. The film’s cast featured cinema legends Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, and Alan Arkin, as well as relative newcomers Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, and Ed Harris, who would go on to become some of the most renown actors of their generation. Mamet’s adaptation of his stage work included a new scene – the only scene in the film featuring Alec Baldwin – that contains a brilliant monologue by Baldwin that has entered the annals of film history. If you can sit through that six minute scene of Baldwin mercilessly berating a team of dejected losers without cracking a smile, you probably are a member of Al Qaeda (and in that case: not cool bro). The film garnered an Academy Award nomination for Al Pacino, making it one of his last great roles before his slow, inexplicable descent into the hammy, babbling, “hoo-ha”-ing embarrassment we know and love today. I equate him to your grandpa that earned a Silver Star in WWII but now tries to use a guitar as a fork and has hour-long conversations with doorknobs.

If the return of this legendary work to Broadway isn’t reason enough to buy a ticket, the cast that has been assembled for this run is truly exciting. Al Pacino headlines the new cast, and despite everything I just said about him, how often do you get the chance to see a cinema legend live, in the flesh, putting on a clinic? Pacino is supported by ubiquitous character actors Richard Schiff (“The West Wing”, “The Lost World: Jurassic Park”) and John C. McGinley (“Scrubs”, “Office Space”), as well as Italian stallion Bobby Cannavale (“Boardwalk Empire”). The amount of talent on display here is enough to work as an alternative energy source that could replace fossil fuels and usher in a new era of prosperity for America.

With only 72 shows scheduled, a lead this good won’t be around for long. TickPick is here to help you score your seats, but if you somehow can’t make it to the show… second prize is a set of steak knives.