The Broadway Ferret

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Rating: 3 out of 5 masks

And now a review for a show with an expected limited run.

Speed-the-Plow is a play written by David Mamet about the Hollywood machine and the people who are a part of it.  It stars Jeremy Piven from the TV show Entourage as Bobby Gould, a studio producer who is given a “guaranteed blockbuster” script by his friend from their mailroom days, Charlie Fox, played by Raul Esparza.  Charlie wants Bobby to present the script to his studio boss, while Karen (Elisabeth Moss), Bobby’s secretary, wants him to present a riskier, artsy piece.

While I was able to follow the story and guess its ending (I have never heard of the piece before), I barely followed the dialogue.  I understand that when you’re familiar with someone, like Bobby and Charlie, you don’t need as many words as with someone you’ve just met.  I did understand the dialogue in the second scene, which takes place at Bobby’s house between Karen and Bobby.  I got that Karen liked the book that Bobby had asked her to read and how she tried to describe it.

The sets were ok.  There were only two sets, Bobby’s office and his house.  I thought they were both realistic, especially the office which showed how he had just moved into it with its disarray.  But what bothered me about his house was that it was too put-together, almost like he got the house before the job.

I liked the characters and how they were all straightforward, for the most part anyway.  I could feel Charlie’s desperation to have a picture made with his name on it as producer, Bobby’s struggle to figure out which project to present but Karen was a surprise.  While one can guess her motives, you kind of have to wonder if that was her goal the whole show.

Overall, I thought this show was good.  I didn’t hate it or love it.  I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone who may still have an optimistic view of Hollywood.  I would advise parents to think twice before they bring their teens.  While the show is not shocking or gratuitous, it may send the wrong message to impressionable youth about how the world works.  Then again, maybe they should bring them anyway.  It may prepare them for the future.

Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes (no intermission)