Glengarry Glen Ross - Playhouse Theatre / UK Tour

Saw it tonight. Glennister still indisposed, nice opportunity for an understudy to chew some scenery, thought Mark Carlisle did well - particularly the restaurant stuff with Don Warrington.

Kris Marshall is playing a pretty thankless role, there isn't much more he could do with it - he is literally the straight man.

Slater and Stanley Townsend are a decent double act, Shelley's tale in the second half is the definitely the highlight.

Glenister still out tonight. Don’t have much to say about the play as was rather distracted. The first time I’ve been physically threatened in a theatre during the play. Never liked Mamet, don’t plan on seeing anything of his again

Thanks but not sure if you have given it was an audience member who threatened me. I’ve posted in the Bad Behaviour thread. It’s not directly connected to the play so probably doesn’t belong here.

Got myself a £85 stall seat for next week, reduced to £25 - I've going to see this mainly because of the presence of Christian Slater in the cast: I wasn't overly impressed by the Pacino version I saw in Broadway but it will be to see what Slater brings to the role of Ricky Roma (played by Bobby Cannavale when I saw it). Who knows, if Slater gets to hear Don Warringtons Rising Damp anecdotes, we might get to see him doing Rupert Rigsby on the stage after Ricky Roma?

Of course there is another guest star from a famous Rising Damp episode currently treading the boards in London's glittering West End. Care to hazard a guess ? 

'Sir' Peter Bowles in The Exorcist?

This production of Glengarry is from hunger. Ineptly directed and designed, the play isn't bullet proof but rapid fire delivery can cover a multitude of sins but this production didn't even have that. It's enough to make you doubt the play's quality.

We also saw it last night.

The seats in the upper circle of the Playhouse are incredibly narrow, luckily the person next to my wife didn't show up so she moved over and I could tuck my legs to the side.

Like others I was very taken aback at how short the show is, particularly Act 1 which runs at a princely 35 minutes; the audience were pretty audibly shocked when the lights came up which was funny. The interval lasted nearly as long as Act 1, which is a first for me.

The production is extremely good; the cast, to a man, a phenomenal and it's hard to single anyone out. I'm a big fan of Christian Slater's performance in the tv series Mr Robot and he channeled his manic charisma very well into Roma, although he was clearly struggling with a sore throat and at one point had to rather hilariously clear his throat in the middle of a monologue. Kris Marshall probably gets the least to do but is nigh-unrecognisable as Williamson and deserves the plaudits that he's getting.

As a big fan of the film but newbie to the show, it surprised me how little Moss is in the show but Robert Glenister more than makes up for it with a terrific, powerful performance; his interplay in Act 1 with Don Warrington (also excellent) was the highlight of the show for me.

Ultimately I guess I'd settle for Stanley Townsend as the star of the show; his Levine is desperate, pathetic and utterly heartbreaking. Townsend did such a great job of capturing a once-great refusing to accept that his time is up and resorting to increasing humiliation and desperation. I can't find the name of the actor who played James Link but he was great as well.

A few minor nitpicks here and there, I agree with Marwood that Warrington's accent veered into the bizarre a few times and during one particularly passionate monologue he became almost completely unintelligible but I accept this is probably the point. The direction was good and the cast handled Mamet's rapid-fire dialogue very admirably, but I did feel at times that they needed to pick and choose when to slow the pace down; Roma's famous monologue was nowhere near as effective as it should be because Slater rushed through it, ditto Williamson's famous "f*** you" to Levine. The set was very good, particularly in Act 2.

A lot to recommend, I would say. A very good production of an excellent play with one of the best ensemble casts you'll see in a while.

I gather this isn't selling out. Are there any good offers going or should I rely on schmoozing the box office with my puppy eyes?

Seeing this one tonight, review to follow as always.

I saw this last night and was across the board impressed. The cast is a genuine ensemble with Slater in the star part fitting in rather than dominating. Highlight of the evening was Stanley Townsend's Shelly, pitch perfect and deeply sympathetic - his performance in act two was a master class. But everyone was good and the play definitely holds up after all these years. What a shame Mamet has gone off the deep end and his recent work is such rubbish. For a while there he had it all.