As one of the two marquee productions anchoring the Goodman’s David Mamet Festival, “Romance” was an obvious choice. It is his most recent play (it debuted in New York last year), and it hasn’t been seen in Chicago—two good arguments, I suppose, for staging it. These reasons, though, don’t hold up. This is dashed-off Mamet, a faux courtroom farce that is faux funny and faux offensive. If the guy’s name weren’t on the script, you’d think it was faux Mamet. A man stands trial accused of something relating to Hawaii and a leatherbound date planner, while opposing counsel, apropos of nothing, finds himself in the midst of a gayer-than-gay lovers’ quarrel with his buff-and-pretty boyfriend. Meanwhile, the judge is popping pills like they’re M&Ms, and outside the courthouse a Mideast peace rally toils in pointlessness. Though the script bears the trademarks of Mamet’s writerly melodies and in-your-faceness, the piece as a whole never gains any traction beyond its oblique point about eggshell-walking that passes for discourse today. The strongest and funniest scene comes early on, when the defendant (David Pasquesi, whose angular precision and hostility manages to be enormously entertaining despite the odds) trades outrageous, vitriolic race-and-religion epithets with his attorney. It’s a doozy, but as directed by Pam MacKinnon, the production has a hiccupping rhythm overall—lurching back and forth from warp speed to something akin to a dying battery. This just might be the slowest ninety-minutes in town. (Nina Metz)
A Jewel of a Show: A Review of Gem of the Ocean at the Goodman Theatre As with the epic tales of the ancient world, the characters’ stories blend together into one complex, interrelated narrative that gives insight into the past and offers moral and practical guidance for the present.
Observations of Genius: A Review of "The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci" at Goodman Theatre RECOMMENDED The first thing you should realize is that Mary Zimmerman's "The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci" is not a play. We call it a play because it has a script, actors and is produced in a theater. But it has nothing resembling a narrative arc, though it does reveal many details about Leonardo's life and mind. If it was…
When Mad Men Ruled the Airwaves: A Review of "Good Night, Oscar" at the Goodman Theatre Doug Wright's brilliant new play, "Good Night, Oscar," in its hilarious and heartbreaking world-premiere production at the Goodman Theatre, is set in 1958. It's more than twenty years since Gershwin's tragic death at the age of thirty-seven, but his ghost still haunts Levant.
