'Glengarry Glen Ross' review: Bill Burr, Kieran Culkin ignite a red-hot revival

USA Today

01-05-2025

'Glengarry Glen Ross' review: Bill Burr, Kieran Culkin ignite a red-hot revival
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Kieran Culkin, Jesse Eisenberg walk Oscars 2025 red carpet
"A Real Pain" stars Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg walk the Oscars red carpet. The movie has two nominations.
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NEW YORK — If coffee's for closers only, then Bill Burr deserves a double espresso.
The irreverent standup comic sets off fireworks in 'Glengarry Glen Ross,' an exceedingly straightforward yet savagely entertaining revival of David Mamet's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, which opened March 31 at the recently restored Palace Theatre. Like many of this spring's top-dollar productions, Burr is joined by a megawatt cast that includes newly minted Oscar winner Kieran Culkin ('A Real Pain'), Bob Odenkirk ('Better Call Saul') and Michael McKean ('Laverne & Shirley').
Mamet's play premiered on Broadway in 1984 and was later adapted into a 1992 movie starring Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino and Alec Baldwin, whose oft-quoted character was added solely for the film. (So if you're waiting to hear 'third prize is you're fired,' you'll just have to settle for steak knives projected on the house curtain.)
Like its big-screen counterpart, the show follows a group of weaselly real-estate agents in cutthroat pursuit of the 'premium leads' (in other words, names and phone numbers for the most lucrative potential clients).
Odenkirk brings palpable despair to Shelley Levene, a washed-up salesman pleading for better leads in hopes of reversing his chronic losing streak. It's a role not dissimilar to his 'Better Call Saul' protagonist Jimmy McGill, another bungling sad sack trying to keep his moral compass from spinning amok. In interviews, the affable actor has repeatedly expressed his desire for a lighter, broader spin on 'Glengarry,' but it's Odenkirk who really grounds the comedy in its heartbreak.
Making his Broadway debut, Burr is a cyclone as the fast-talking, double-dealing Dave Moss, who springs a plan to steal the leads on his unwilling accomplice, George Aaronow (McKean, drolly exasperated). The boisterous comedian lights up the stage with sly wit and brazen confidence, conveying Moss' righteous fury over being bottom of the office food chain.
Culkin, meanwhile, takes on the agency's top dog Richard 'Ricky' Roma, portrayed with barking machismo onscreen by Pacino. It's a cliché, at this point, to say Culkin is up to his same old 'shtick,' after some critics griped that his 'Real Pain' performance was a mere photocopy of his petulant Roman Roy in HBO's 'Succession.' 'Glengarry' certainly won't silence the naysayers: As Roma, the live-wire actor gets to slam desks, detonate F-bombs and slather on his signature snark, all while hurling racial abuse at cool-headed office manager John Williamson (Donald Webber Jr.).
He never fully taps into Roma's seductive undercurrent, as the salesman traps an unsuspecting client (John Pirruccello) while soliloquizing about the futility of life. But Culkin fares much better in the propulsive second act, as all the characters uncoil in the pressure cooker of the office, and Roma goes toe-to-toe with Burr's equally hotheaded Moss.
Despite its small cast and intimate setting, the production rarely gets swallowed up by the cavernous Palace, which has typically housed splashy musicals and diva residencies. That's thanks in large part to Scott Pask's richly ornate production design, which captures the glow of a Chinese restaurant and the austerity of a musty office, down to the rusted pipes and water-stained walls.
The direction by Patrick Marber ("Leopoldstadt") is entirely safe and unfussy, almost to a fault. In playing up the material for laughs, you lose some of the agony and desperation that's lurking just underneath Mamet's spiky crowd-pleaser. And with its brisk running time ‒ the first act clocks in at roughly 35 minutes ‒ you may feel somewhat cheated forking over hundreds of dollars for something that feels relatively slight.
Still, you can't deny the sheer delight of watching the stars that Marber has aligned. With a dynamite cast firing on all cylinders, these 'Glengarry' leads are ultimately worth the investment.
'Glengarry Glen Ross' is now playing at the Palace Theatre (160 W. 47th Street) through June 28, 2025.