B'way/Off-B'way Reviews: Glengarry Glen Ross; Deep Blue Sound

John Pirruccello and Kieran Culkin in
Glengarry Glen Ross.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

Glengarry Glen Ross, David Mamet’s savagely funny takedown of cutthroat Chicago real-estate salesmen, has been a magnet for male actors to prove their theatrical chops since it premiered on Broadway in 1984. The flashiest role, chief barracuda Ricky Roma, has attracted Joseph Mantegna, Liev Schreiber, Al Pacino, and Bobby Cannavale, resulting in Tonys for the first two and an Oscar nomination for the third for the 1993 movie version. Ironically, the main box office draw for the current, third Broadway revival of Glengarry is Kieran Culkin, Emmy winner for Succession and Oscar champ for A Real Pain, and he is the weak link in an otherwise strong ensemble. 

Culkin is no novice to the stage, having appeared to great advantage in numerous Broadway and Off-Broadway shows including This Is Our Youth and Suburbia, yet he seems out of his depth here. Roma is a shark of the first order, but Culkin plays him as a loud-mouthed guppy. We first meet Roma landing a malleable prospect (appropriately browbeaten John Pirruccello) in a Chinese restaurant (Scott Pask designed the realistic sets.) Rather than displaying Roma’s take-no-prisoners, charismatic sales spiel of Mamet double-talk, Culkin opts for quiet subtlety. In previous productions, Roma aggressively lands his mark and the final line of “Listen to what I’m telling you now” felt like the trap was sprung. Here, Culkin seems to be just chatting amiably with a random stranger. That could be a deliberate choice on the part of the actor and director (Patrick Marber in a low-key mode) to show a contrast between Roma’s cosy sales technique and his later profane, predatory behavior in the office after the intermission. But Culkin never achieves the alpha male status of previous Romas, despite some energetic limning in the second act.

Bob Odenkirk and Donald Webber, Jr.
in Glengarry Glen Ross.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

Thus the balance of the play is thrown off and the focus shifts from Roma to the conflict between veteran slumping drummer Shelley Levine (deliciously desperate and blustering Bob Odenkirk) and the corporate functionary/office manager John Williamson (an unexpectedly forceful Donald Webber, Jr.). In previous productions, Williamson has been played as an emotionless drone, representing the soulless owners of the real-estate business, the unseen Mitch and Murray who symbolize the heartless corporate bureaucracy the nasty but individualist Roma stands against. Here, Webber plays Williamson as just as intensely invested in keeping his job as his supervisees. When the weaker Culkin as Roma challenges a now stronger Williamson, the threat is not especially effective. Culkin comes across as a tantrum-throwing student yelling at a teacher which is ironic since he berates Williamson as being a “child” unfit to work with “men.”

Bill Burr and Michael McKean in
Glengarry Glen Ross.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

Fortunately, the vital dynamic between Odenkirk and Webber takes up the slack, but not enough to make the play the barn-burner it should be. Odenkirk is believably delusional as the crumpled, washed-up Levine and Webber imparts an entire backstory of keeping the office together or it’s his hide. Bill Burr as the obnoxious Moss and Michael McKean as the depressive, Ee-yore-like Aaronow bring comic energy to their polar-opposite scene. Howard W. Overshown makes a vibrant contribution as the police detective Baylen who will not put up with any nonsense from Culkin’s childish Roma. 

Perhaps director Marber intended for this to be a kinder, gentler Glengarry, but it’s definitely not Mamet’s searing portrait of testosterone gone amok.  

Kieran Culkin and Bob Odenkirk in
Glengarry Glen Ross.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

Carmen Zilles, Maryann Plunkett, Mia Katigbak,
and Miriam Silverman in
Deep Blue Sound.
Credit: Maria Baranova

While the ensemble of the big-name Glengarry is unbalanced, the company of Abe Koogler’s Deep Blue Sound, at the Public Theater after a highly-praised run last season at Clubbed Thumb, is so perfectly integrated it’s difficult to single out any one player. The nine actors, superbly directed and balanced by Arin Arbus, bring to life the troubled community of a small island off the Pacific Northwest coast. The citizens are in an uproar because the pod of whales which annually visits their shores are missing this year. The whales’ absence echoes the residents’ feelings of disconnection and disruption. 

Ella (Maryann Plunkett) has terminal cancer and is pulling away from her best friends and her visiting daughter (Carmen Zilles) in fear and confusion. She seeks solace with reporter Joy (Mia Katigbak) as they work on her obituary. Gay bachelor John (Arnie Burton) reaches out to the town eccentric Gary (Ryan King), who may or may be homeless. Neurotic Annie (Crystal Finn) searches for meaning in her purely ceremonial role as mayor while worrying over her teenage son’s obsession with becoming a dancer. Mary (Miriam Silverman) and Chris (Armondo Riesco) are going through a difficult breakup. He wants to reconcile, but she has had it with his anger issues. Lonely Les (Jan Leslie Harding), whose only friends seem to be her horses, searches for companionship on the Internet. 

Jan Leslie Harding, Crystal Finn, and
Carmen Zilles in Deep Blue Sound.
Credit: Maria Baranova

Koogler’s keen eye for character-revealing detail creates a small interconnected web of broken relations. Each of the well-tuned cast infuses their roles with reams of subtext. Even the missing whales get their say in this compassionate, tender Sound.

Glengarry Glen Ross: March 31—June 28. Palace Theater, 160 W. 47th St., NYC. Running time: one hour and 45 mins. including intermission. broadwaydirect.com.

Deep Blue Sound: March 6—April 5. Clubbed Thumb at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., NYC. Running time: 90 mins. with no intermission. publictheater.org.