Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Pacino crashes and burns in Mamet’s disappointing CHINA DOLL

• By drediman
• December 27, 2015
• No Comments

I recently had a chance to catch David Mamet’s hollow new two-hander China Doll starring the legendary Al Pacino – who plays a successful, scrappy businessman who finds himself in increasingly dire straits – at the Gerald Schoefeld Theatre. I wish I had something positive to report back, but to say that I was disappointed is an understatement. If China Doll isn’t quite the train wreck that Mamet’s offensively abysmal The Anarchist (another two-hander starring Patti LuPone and Debra Winger a couple of seasons back) was, his latest play is nonetheless a half-baked, uninvolving mess. More importantly, the play lacks any semblance of the unmistakable verbal and primal bite that characterizes Mamet’s writing, and which even The Anarchist sporadically exhibited.

Certainly, I don’t think the production team can be faulted. Pam MacKinnon, a talented director who knows her way around tough-minded plays (in recent years, she’s skillfully crafted visceral stagings of Bruce Norris’s Clybourne Park and Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf on Broadway to great acclaim), does a commendable job with the subpar material she’s been handed. Indeed, she valiantly attempts to create moments of tension on Derek McLane’s handsome but sterile set when Mamet’s script offers none. As for Pacino, well, let’s just say that, like Ms. MacKinnon, he totally commits himself to the play, I’d even say with Shakespearean fervor (when can we see his Lear?), with minimal results. Christopher Denham, who plays Mr. Pacino’s young assistant and foil, does a fine job in what must be the most under-written and thankless role currently on Broadway. This is strike two for Mamet; let’s see if he can climb out of the hole he’s dug for himself in recent years.

NOT RECOMMENDED

CHINA DOLL
Broadway, Play
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre
2 hours, 10 minutes (with one intermission)
Through January 31