By PATRICK HEALY / ArtsBeat/The New York Times
Al Pacino as Shelly Levene in the 2012 revival of “Glengarry Glen Ross.” Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Al Pacino will return to Broadway next October in a new play by David Mamet, “China Doll,” their latest collaboration after having a commercial hit with the 2012 revival of Mr. Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Glengarry Glen Ross.” The producers announced the show on Thursday and named its director, Pam MacKinnon, a Tony Award winner in 2013 for the revival of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
Mr. Mamet, in a statement, said he wrote the play for Mr. Pacino, who also starred in a 1992 film version of “Glengarry” and a 1983 Broadway production of Mr. Mamet’s “American Buffalo.” “China Doll” is a two-character play about a billionaire, Mickey Ross, who has just bought a new airplane for his young fiancée as he prepares to go into semiretirement; the other character is Carson, Ross’s assistant.
Mr. Mamet described the plot briefly in the statement, saying of Ross: “He’s in the process of leaving his office, and is giving last minute instructions to his young assistant. He takes one last phone call…” Mr. Mamet’s only other detail about the play? “It is better than oral sex,” he said.
Mr. Pacino, in his own statement, called Ross “one of the most daunting and challenging roles I’ve been given to explore onstage.
“It’s a special gift to originate a role in the theater, especially written by such a formidable writer and I haven’t done that in a long, long time,” he added.
Mr. Mamet’s last new play on Broadway was “The Anarchist,” starring Patti LuPone and Debra Winger; the drama received mostly negative reviews and quickly closed. It ran in late 2012 at the same time as the Pacino-led “Glengarry” revival, which was a box office smash during an unusually long preview period before opening to mixed reviews.
“China Doll” is the eighth production of a Mamet work by the three lead producers, Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel and Steve Traxler. The producers said the play would run at a Shubert-owned theater to be announced later.
Reference: ArtsBeat/The New York Times , PATRICK HEALY
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