David Mamet hasn’t written a hit play in years, but the one he’s just finished has the potential to be a blockbuster. It’s about Harvey…
David Mamet hasn’t written a hit play in years, but the one he’s just finished has the potential to be a blockbuster.
It’s about Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie mogul who’s expected to turn himself into New York authorities on Friday on sexual assault charges.
Mamet wrote the play, “Bitter Wheat,” earlier this year at the urging of his longtime producer Jeffrey Richards. Mamet turned in a first draft a couple of weeks ago, and Richards, sources say, has approached John Malkovich about playing the Weinstein character.
Mamet tipped his hat about the new play in February to the Chicago Tribune: “I was talking with my Broadway producer, and he said, ‘Why don’t you write a play about Harvey Weinstein?’ And so I did.”
Mamet wrote about sexual misconduct — and the murkiness that often surrounds it — in his terrific 1992 play “Oleanna.” It’s about a college student who turns on her professor after they’ve had an affair. She accuses him of exploitation and ruins his career. The play was vibrant and controversial — I remember couples yelling at each other on the street after seeing it — but only a brave soul would stage it in these #MeToo times, since Mamet clearly sides with the professor.
The plan is to open Mamet’s new play in London. His last Broadway play, “China Doll,” starring Al Pacino, was a fiasco. Pacino had trouble learning his lines, teleprompters were installed all over the stage, audiences walked out angrily at intermission, and critics savaged the production.
Sources say Mamet is wary of another run at Broadway unless his Weinstein play gets a good reception in England. He’s got a shot with Daniel Evans, the young director who’s in talks to do it.
Evans staged a well-received revival of Mamet’s “American Buffalo” in London a few years ago and is now running the Chichester Festival.
But here’s Evans’ challenge: Mamet has been known to turn in a first draft and not do the work to make it a good play.
“China Doll,” about a crazy multimillionaire and a private jet, was pathetic. As The Post reported, Mamet attended a couple of disastrous previews and then disappeared, leaving Pacino to fend for himself with teleprompters and bad reviews.
“Al was left hanging, and took the brunt of it,” a production source told me at the time. “David was gone.”
Another source says: “David hands in the play, and then he’s done. He doesn’t hang around.”
Malkovich, a terrific actor we haven’t seen enough of lately, should be wary. If I were his agent, I’d demand that Mamet be at every rehearsal and preview and be prepared to rewrite what’s not working.
This new play could be a great comeback for Malkovich, who hasn’t set foot on a Broadway stage since he electrified New York in Lanford Wilson’s “Burn This” in 1987. I’ve seen a lot of great performances over the years, but few have come close to Malkovich’s turn as Pale, a brilliant, troubled coke addict. I can still see him practically climbing the walls of the Plymouth Theater.
Malkovich as Weinstein is a great idea. But I hope Richards has the power to get another good play out of Mamet. After producing first-rate revivals of Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross” and “Speed-the-Plow,” Richards let “China Doll” ride to infamy.
Don’t screw it up this time, Jeffrey.
You can hear Michael Riedel every weekday morning on “ Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning ” on 710 WOR radio.
