For actors sojourning on Broadway, TV stints are a hard act to follow

Boston Globe

28-05-2025

Consider the current revival of 'Glengarry Glen Ross,' David Mamet's 1984 drama about skeevy real-estate salesmen trying to stay afloat in a shark-infested environment. Slated to run at the Palace Theatre through June 28, the play stars Bob Odenkirk, Kieran Culkin, Michael McKean, and Bill Burr.
'Glengarry Glen Ross' is a juicy slice of early Mamet, and it's an excellent production, no question, as directed by Patrick Marber.
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But does the play rank ahead of the best episodes of 'Breaking Bad' (where Odenkirk played sleazy lawyer Saul Goodman), or the spinoff '
No, no, and no.
Jean Smart is starring in a solo show on Broadway titled 'Call Me Izzy,' described as 'a darkly comedic story about one woman in rural Louisiana who has a secret that is both her greatest gift and her only way out.' The play, written by Jamie Wax and directed by Sarna Lapine, with music by T Bone Burnett, just began preview performances and is not yet open to the press.
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As with anything involving Smart, 'Call Me Izzy' is a must-see, but it's very hard to envision it being the role of Smart's career. That superlative currently describes her '
In a remarkably gutsy move, Sarah Snook, who played Shiv Roy on 'Succession,' is making her Broadway debut in 'The Picture of Dorian Gray," a one-woman show in which she plays 26 characters.
I haven't seen it yet, but hope to do so. But I doubt that any of those 26 characters can do or say anything that will leave me as shaken as Snook did in that ferocious balcony scene between Shiv and her husband, Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen).
The seething contempt Snook brought across in just a glance at her loathed husband amounted to the kind of master class in acting that most performers can only dream about — and she didn't need a stage to do it.
Don Aucoin is the Globe's theater critic and an arts-critic-at-large.
Don Aucoin can be reached at