April 1, 2025

"In 1984, the play gave memorable shape to a growing understanding that the underworld of sleazy small business was merely a microcosm of the bigger, more polite variety"

"It suggested the way social Darwinism lay at the root of our economic system, with its zero-sum games and dominance pyramids. There’s a reason Mitch and Murray, the owners of the agency and creators of the contest, are never seen, like golden-parachuters or two-bit Godots.... [David Mamet's] ideas have become conventional in the process of being overtaken and one-upped by reality. The whole world, many feel, is now a consortium of thugocracies, some even sanctioned by popular acclaim. In that context, two-bit players are too puny to worry about, and greed at the scale of a Cadillac unremarkable."

Writes Jesse Green, in "'Glengarry Glen Ross' Review: Caveat Emptor, Suckers!/Kieran Culkin, Bill Burr and Bob Odenkirk star in a bumpy revival of David Mamet’s play about salesmen with nothing worth selling" (NYT).

45 comments:

RCOCEAN II said...

The problem with plays that come after a popular movie is that people cant help but compare the stage actors to the film actors. And get disappointed. How are you going to accept bill burr, Ordenkirk, or whoever, after you've seen Alec Baldwin, Pacino, and Jack Lemmon in the roles?

As for GGR being an attack on Capitalism, well good. The fewer dummies we have ranting about "Muh free market" the better.

Quayle said...

How would Mr. Green react to a revival of "A Man for All Seasons." Would he consider that to be overtaken by reality also?

Lazarus said...

He doesn't go far enough. The thugs big and small are just a part of a world of falsity and fraud often sanctioned by elite approval. But what to do about it?

rehajm said...

Today nothing surpasses the scum and villainy of Big NGO….

Peachy said...

Bob Odenkirk was stellar in Breaking Bad.

Amexpat said...

The problem with plays that come after a popular movie is that people cant help but compare the stage actors to the film actors.

Another problem was the film added a scene that wasn't in the play - all of Baldwin's visit with the famous "coffee is for closers" line. I read that Mamet was asked to put the extra movie scene in the play but refused.

rehajm said...

Mamet converted from Democrat to rational a long time ago. Long before it was cool. Not bothering to look but NYT must have got their dig in at Mamet or they’re too young and stupid to know who David Mamet is…

J L Oliver said...

Well it fails because they didn’t make him a chick and make him gay.

Temujin said...

About a year ago I first read about this play coming back to Broadway, with this cast, and told my wife this would be a good summer to plan a trip to NYC to see her family...and a play.
Thankfully, she forgot I mentioned it and after reading that review, I'll not make that trip.

Mamet should be given credit for seeing what so many in the circles of the NYT know nothing about. What Mamet shows in the play is something so many of us lived in various jobs. For me- yes it was in sales. But the thing about the 'free market' is that you are allowed to make changes. So many get stuck in place, and to me that's one of the things this story highlights. Broken men stuck in something they either cannot , or don't know how to leave. Or simply don't have the will to leave.

The only difference between the 80s and now is that now you have broken women also finding themselves in these situations. Sure...they may be at a law firm, but the bullying, the pressure, the inability to move on is still there.

Bob Boyd said...

"salesmen with nothing worth selling" is the perfect description of the Democratic Party today.

Always be messaging if you want the knife set...and make it authentic.

Ted said...

I think more people know Alec Baldwin's "Saturday Night Live" parody with the elves at Santa's workshop than the actual movie at this point -- especially since at one point he muffed his lines and said his movie dialogue instead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_vSirIJEsY

Quayle said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Quayle said...

There's an alternative to a Darwinian world view. If you claim that the story of life is Darwin's, you shouldn't be surprised if the world seems like a consortium of thugocracies. Beyond being sanctioned by popular acclaim, it is sanctioned by your own Darwinian world view. And doesn't it get exhausting to claim that the grand story of life is Darwin's but still demand that others have a duty beyond dominance?

tcrosse said...

Somewhere I read that a production was planned with an all-female cast. I think that would add an extra dimension to the work. Some friends and I made a parlor game out of figuring how to cast it.

Magilla Gorilla said...

The film version of GGR was the greatest film I ever couldn't bear to watch. Alec Baldwin remains a constant reminder that talent and wisdom vary independently. I'll bet RCOCEAN II has many talents.

JAORE said...

"... salesmen with nothing worth selling..."? So who plays Schummer, Pelosi, AOC...?

Caroline said...

Shorter Jesse greene: Mamet is outside our sphere of decent consideration.

dbp said...

I think Jesse Green, does not understand that Glengarry Glen Ross is a play. People who write plays often put their characters into stressful situations, so that there can be drama.

A play about tyranny in the workplace, is not an example of tyranny in the workplace.

Skeptical Voter said...

The critic's view of the way the world works is very New York in tone. Which is one reason it took me--someone raised on the Western slope, to get comfortable with folks from the Mid Atlantic regions.

Viva Maria said...


“all-female cast”

Chicago (2002), with much love to Roxie, Velma, Mama Morton, Kitty, and some new Roma lovingly advising the Darwinian ladies dressed to kill, red in tooth and claw, "never open your mouth till you know what the shot is.” Now starring Hillary, Nancy, Susan (Rice), AOC.

Good luck getting any of these ladies to keep their mouths shut. Or know what the shot is. In the Darwinian competition of thoughts in free speech, let this cast keep talking. Trump ought stay on his knees thanking God for enemies as such an “all female cast.”

Tina Trent said...

Better Darwinian than the twisted Mandarin Feudalism of our betters we suffer under today. Nice to see Bill Barr flop.

Dave Begley said...

Love David Mamet; his books and movies.

William said...

I haven't seen the movie in years. This might be a false memory, but I have the sense that the predicament of the various protagonists was consensual. They weren't Estragon and Vladimir stranded in a bleak landscape. They were in a game of their choosing and in a game that gave the illusion of being winnable. Ultimately the game of life is unwinnable but their contest is a more credible illusion than Godot. In capitalism, there really are some winners..

Viva Maria said...

Fond memories of "salesmen with nothing worth selling," again, Jack Lemmon, if this qualifies, in an “all female cast,” with Tony Curtis selling Marilyn his “Shell Oil” shell game, and Lemmon’s killer-great femme line - “sometimes, I just spank it!”

Bob Boyd said...

The products that sell themselves...are they whores?

JIM said...

Did he even watch the original movie? "Coffee is for closers" - Jesse Green isn't a closer.

Maynard said...

Shorter Jesse greene: Mamet is outside our sphere of decent consideration.

Dave is a middle class Chicago Jewish kid who went to school with rich kids like the Pritzkers.

He went off the elitist reservation by declaring himself a non-lefty. Of course, he is outside the sphere of decent consideration.

ron winkleheimer said...

@Quayle

Exactly. You would think that someone insisting that life is just a Darwinian struggle where the best outcome that can be hoped for is to evade death long enough to out breed your competitors that they wouldn't follow that up by insisting that there is a moral arc to the universe and that they are on the correct side of it.

Also, in the movie they were selling real estate. How exactly is that something not worth selling?

doctrev said...

When times change, so do the stories. Bob Odenkirk is a particularly good actor, so I would be interested in seeing the new GGR. Except that most entertainment is preposterously expensive. I'd rather enjoy the new Switch 2.

Anthony said...

I wish that term ('social Darwinism') would quit being used. Whatever it is, it's got diddly to do with Darwin or the standard Darwinian model of evolution.

Hassayamper said...

Mamet was considered a genius in 1984, but since he has come out as a conservative, the critics miss no opportunity to shit on him with the same zeal they once praised him.

lonejustice said...

Peachy said... "Bob Odenkirk was stellar in Breaking Bad."

Agreed. Also stellar in Better Call Saul.

Quaestor said...

If they replaced Kieran with Macaulay, then the Blake problem could be solved with a roast turkey jammed over his head.

narciso said...

and pretty good in nobody, as a nebbishy seeming former
operator,

effinayright said...

"It suggested the way social Darwinism lay at the root of our economic system, with its zero-sum games and dominance pyramids.
*****************
If our economic system is based on zero-sum games, why are all capitalist countries much wealthier than they were 50 years ago?

And....How does someone being a billionaire make me poorer? Did Bill Gates make us all poorer by developing DOS for the original PCs that ultimately changed lives all over the world?

typingtalker said...

"[David Mamet's] ideas have become conventional in the process of being overtaken and one-upped by reality. The whole world, many feel, is now a consortium of thugocracies ... "
But one of America's most successful retailers, selling on price and convenience, was started about the same time that Mamet's ideas became "conventional."

"Costco's earliest predecessor, Price Club, opened its first store on July 12, 1976, on Morena Boulevard in San Diego, California ... Price Club's sales model targeted small business owners, selling items in bulk for a discounted price at no-frills outlets that were accessible only with an annual membership fee." (Wikipedia)

And then there's Costco ...

typingtalker said...

The above should read, "And then there's Amazon."

robother said...

Well, of course they were fictional developments, but I wonder what comparable lots are worth now, for those who held on. Lots of empty fields and marshes in New Jersey, Florida, Arizona and California that might have seemed scam developments in the 70s and 80s turned into pretty good investments.

Hassayamper said...

Lots of empty fields and marshes in New Jersey, Florida, Arizona and California that might have seemed scam developments in the 70s and 80s turned into pretty good investments.

I have a good friend who bought 320 acres (half a section) of nearly worthless desert way outside Phoenix during the savings and loan debacle of the early 90's. Cost him three peppercorns and a gum wrapper. It's now just down the road from a multi-billion dollar microchip fab.

He has retired and now spends his days traveling the world for golf and yachting and wine tasting.

mikee said...

One should note in analyzing this review that the reviewer experienced the New York Times newsroom, which probaly makes the setting of this play look like a kindergarten.

wild chicken said...

It's sleaze all the way down too.

ColoComment said...

As noted above, Mamet switched political affiliations, and he explained his conversion in a March 2008 article in The Village Voice, "Why I Am No Longer A Brain-Dead Liberal."

https://www.villagevoice.com/david-mamet-why-i-am-no-longer-a-brain-dead-liberal/

Lazarus said...

I remember reading about overconstruction in the Dallas area in the years before the S&L crisis of the 1980s. Somebody should go back to those developments and see if people have moved in, or if they've been torn down, or if they stand empty and abandoned like so many failed housing developments in China.

BudBrown said...

Watched the movie not long ago. What a cast. And maybe it works as a play but way over the top as a movie. Or with that cast. Actors sell a movie and that movie had some pretty good salesmen - so good I end up wondering what the....

BudBrown said...

And they're selling real estate. By the 80s in Tampa many of the top realtors were women.

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