David Mamet's 'Race' on Broadway: What did the critics think?

These days, not many living playwrights have the clout to launch a new play directly on Broadway. The laws of theater economics are too unforgiving for producers to risk millions on an untested product. Most playwrights don't have the brand-name recognition that would draw large audiences. But then, David Mamet isn't most playwrights.

"Race," which opened Sunday night at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, is Mamet's newest stage provocation and his second play (after the just-closed "Oleanna") to be staged on Broadway this season. "Race" stars James Spader, David Alan Grier and Kerry Washington as lawyers at a successful firm who are called on to represent a white client (Richard Thomas) who has been accused of raping a black woman.

Directed by Mamet, "Race" is one of the most anticipated productions on Broadway this year, thanks in no small part to the playwright's fame (or, perhaps, notoriety), as well as the celebrity cast. But as those who remember Mamet's  2008 Broadway outing, "November," will recall, New York critics aren't likely to give the Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist a free pass. 

So what did the critics have to say about "Race"? Judging by this morning's reviews, there was more than a whiff of disappointment in the air.

Charles McNulty of The Times wrote that the play "starts strong but loses steam as the playwright approaches his tinderbox topic more like a journalist anxious to appear balanced than a theatrical provocateur wanting to get beneath all the claptrap." He added: "Sure, the profanity rips like only Mamet can rip it, but his ideas lack their usual polemical bite and there’s something tentative about the overall vision."

The New York Times' Ben Brantley praised Spader's performance, writing that the actor "considers every inflection and gesture in creating the one role in 'Race' with more layers than the who’s-scamming-whom plot." He wrote that overall, the play "lacks real dramatic tension" and that the cast "never acquires that crackling, syncopated urgency that makes a Mamet play sing and sting."

Variety's David Rooney called the play "slick but hollow" and added that the plot "grows increasingly wobbly as it twists its way to an unsatisfying wrap-up." He noted that the real enjoyment in the production comes from "watching the taut verbal interplay between Spader and Grier. Spader is right at home in the smooth, almost likeably reptilian role, and he gets most of the best zinger distillations of ruthless pragmatism to come out of a Mamet play since 'Glengarry Glen Ross.'"

Elisabeth Vincentelli of The New York Post took one of the harshest stances, writing that "the most stunning thing about the David Mamet play that opened last night is how clunky it is." She noted that "the show's nominally about race, but the elephant in the room is gender... If Hillary Clinton had been elected, would we be watching 'Sex' instead?"

Offering a contrary opinion, John Simon of Bloomberg praised "Race" as "a high-voltage melodrama that is unafraid to raise painful questions while dispensing prickly ideas and provocative dialogue amid steady suspense." He added that "play is full of wry jokes, epigrammatic jolts, and acrid, even cheeky provocations, which, depending on the extent of your guilt feelings, can be taken as deserved flagellation or perfervid overstatement."

-- David Ng

Photo: James Spader, David Alan Grier and Richard Thomas in "Race" by David Mamet. Credit: Robert J. Saferstein / Associated Press

Comments

[Charles Macie]

Every review seems to focus on what the play isn't. It ISN'T Mamet's finest, or it ISN'T written like Glengarry, or it ISN'T what we've come to expect from the playwright. Taken on its own merit, I think the play is actually very good. I saw it mid-way through previews, and it was even good then. Spader and Grier are fantastic, although Kerry Washington is completely out of her league.

I think we all expect someone (Pres. Obama, David Mamet, somebody!!) to come fix our hang-ups and issues with race. Does this play do that? To some degree, and maybe for somebody out there. Maybe the play's title raises our expectations too high. If it wasn't called "Race," but instead was called...I don't know, "A Very Interesting Day In a Law Firm," (or something less dumb than that), it might be received differently.

It's a good play. It ISN'T "Hamlet," but it's a good play.

[PJ]

This is a play worth seeing. Don't listen to the critics go see for yourself and you will walk away amazed and will be talking about this play for weeks to come.

[dennis wong]

This play may not be the best of Mamet but just to see James Spader (who's a perfect fit for this role, since he played a similiar role in "Boston Legal") in a Mamet play is worth it despite the flaws.

[P. Graham]

I am tired of reading reviews about "RACE" that only want to compare the play against other Mamet works and do not judge the play on its own merits. I loved this play; it was entertaining and thought provoking. The performances of James Spader and David Alan Grier were fantastic. I was totally amazed to read that James Spader had not been on the live stage in over 25 years; he was so at home on the Barrymore stage that you would have thought this was the only type of acting he had done in the last 25 years. He really is a natural theatre actor with great stage presence. Don't listen to the critics, go and see for yourself that this play offers a very entertaining and thought provoking experience that should not be missed.

Mamet speak in the mouths of Spader and Grier...devine!

[Minie]

I came away with one thought after seeing the show on Saturday, March 20th and that was there was nothing new to learn about outright racism & unfairness between white and black people.

I agree with Charles McNulty that there is something tentative about the overall vision.