OLEANNA Reviews

Post 'em here!

Today is Sunday, October 11th, marking the official opening night of David Mamet's OLEANNA, starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles. Having previously played Off-Broadway, and at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles last summer, this mounting is the Broadway premiere, playing The Golden Theater. Preview performances began September 29th. Directed by Doug Hughes.

"The play focuses on the relationship between an intimidating university professor on the verge of obtaining tenure, and a timid female student who is having difficulty with the concepts in his classroom," begin press notes. "Neither one is who or what he/she seems, and in the end, an act of sexual harassment may or may not occur. Oleanna is often described as Mamet's attack on political correctness."

Tickets are currently on sale through March 7, 2010.

The absolute to cast and crew!

Updated On: 10/11/09 at 01:51 AM

Murray hated it

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/Oleanna2009.html

Who’s the victim? Who’s the aggressor? Who cares?

You're my soulmate Matthew! *sigh*

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NY1 [with video] is Negative:

"David Mamet's "Oleanna" is a provocative play that makes for great discussion but poor drama. It's billed as a power struggle between a university professor and one of his female students. A true power struggle requires a fair fight or at least both sides to be fairly equal. But Mamet stacks the deck so far on one side, instead of pondering the issues raised, we leave the theater simply feeling sorry for the poor professor."

http://ny1.com/1-all-boroughs-news-content/ny1_living/theater_reviews/

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The Associated Press is Very Positive:

"Get ready to be infuriated again. Or, at the very least, intrigued.

The linguistic pyrotechnics of playwright David Mamet are on full display in the bruising Broadway revival of "Oleanna," which opened Sunday at the Golden Theatre. It's Mamet's incendiary take on the consequences of political correctness — specifically involving sexual harassment — and how language helps to facilitate the battle.

The play caused quite a stir when it was staged off-Broadway in 1992. And there's no reason to expect that this fine new production won't generate a similar response, even among people who saw it some 17 years ago..."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gjDI7jOedMOGFdT5GfxinEvcAkgwD9B975A80

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Ben Brantley is Negative:

"...The original 'Oleanna,' which starred William H. Macy as John and Rebecca Pidgeon as Carol, the combative college student, was directed by its author. Mr. Mamet's approach to staging his own plays has always been text-driven, governed by his avowed (and somewhat disingenuous) theory that if the actors just say the lines and don't dawdle, the play will take care of itself. Under his direction 'Oleanna' was, above all, a war of words colliding.

As staged by Mr. Hughes, the current 'Oleanna' flies bravely in the face of Mr. Mamet's prescriptions about acting. "There is no character," Mr. Mamet has written. "There are only lines upon the page." This 'Oleanna' squints to read between those lines, and Mr. Pullman and Ms. Stiles have obviously been encouraged to create characters who are more than what they say.

Normally this would be a good thing. But Mr. Hughes's 'Oleanna' unwittingly makes a solid case for adhering to the Mamet method. If the 'Oleanna' of 1992 left you breathless, Mr. Hughes's measured interpretation leaves you plenty of time to breathe - and weigh and calibrate the arguments of its irrevocably opposed characters. With a set by Neil Patel that lends oddly palatial dimensions to a college professor's office (with scenes punctuated by the ominously slow closing of tall, automated Venetian blinds), the play has been pumped full of an air of thoughtfulness that paradoxically comes close to smothering it."

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/theater/reviews/12brantley.html

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Updated On: 10/11/09 at 10:21 PM

Brantley's full review is up.

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Brantley really disliked Mary Poppins, and it continues to make a profit.

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Brantley's line about how OLEANNA should be "breathless" theater but how this production allows "plenty of time to breathe...and ponder" is exactly how I felt about the show, ultimately.

Hughes' direction is really not right for this material. Its not nearly tense or intense enough.

"Brantley's line about how OLEANNA should be "breathless" theater but how this production allows "plenty of time to breathe...and ponder" is exactly how I felt about the show, ultimately."

I was at opening night tonight, and this is exactly my feeling about the show. I went in expecting to be engaged the whole time, but there were just some moments where I couldn't help but let my eyes wander around the theater.

Brantley/NY Times can DEFINITELY kill a show.

The New York Post is positive with *** out of **** and she clearly saw a different play than me. A slasher movie? Really...?:

"IN 1992, when David Mamet wrote "Ole anna," America was embroiled in a di visive culture war. Nowhere was the battle around political correctness more deeply fought than on campuses -- which is where Mamet set his two-hander.

But watching the play 17 years later is like watching something made during the Red Scare of the '50s. "Oleanna" speaks volumes not only about an era dominated by the shared paranoia of conservatives and lefty activists, but also about its creator's id. And what surged from Mamet's brain is the closest Broadway now has to a slasher movie.

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The play certainly has its problems -- the incessant calls are increasingly contrived, for instance. But at its best, "Oleanna" shows what happens when parallel lines are on a collision course."
Full Review

I agree with what other people have said about the power of the NY Times critics over the years. It doesn't just go back to the erudite Brooks Atkinson. Following Atkinson, NY Times critics have included the powerful Walter Kerr, Frank Rich, and the current Ben Brantley. As an example of Frank Rich's power, Rich saw the 1987 London production of FOLLIES and gave it a negative review. The late Dennis Healy, who was one of the stars of the London FOLLIES, told me that the producers had wanted to transfer the show to Broadway but that they were afraid to do so because of the power of Frank Rich. The NY Times is the newspaper of record, like it or not.

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