Emmy and Tony Award winner Laurence Fishburne and Academy Award and Golden Globe winner Sam Rockwell will star in the Broadway revival of David Mamet's American Buffalo.
Mamet will reunite with director Neil Pepe (Speed-the-Plow, A Life in the Theatre) for the production. Performances are set to begin in March 2020 with an official opening on Tuesday, April 14th, 2020 in a Broadway theatre to be announced.
American Buffalo feels thin, too. And sour. Like a cup of diner coffee left to cool. It's a showcase for actors. But what really is it showcasing? It's a play about men who feel that life has done them wrong. The way they speak of others - women, queer people, 'Mexicans' - suggests that they believe they are owed more, that they are possessors dispossessed, that the American dream is their birthright, even if they never do much to make that dream come through. They fight over scraps - imagined scraps at that - and then they fight one another. Back in the day, there used to be a lot of indignation over Mamet's language and whether it heralded a coarsening of American letters. The language, it turns out, wasn't the coarse part.
Rockwell and Fishburne nail the buddy-cop dynamic of these prickly parts. Donny is the cool-headed mediator (who also says 'f - - k' a lot) and Teach is a furious, distrusting bully whose temper is surely exacerbated by his skintight plaid pants. Fishburne's commanding portrayal reminds me of the best kind of bartender - a sweetheart when he takes your drink order and a hardass when he drags a drunk to the curb by his collar. And although Criss has the least rewarding role of the three, his empty-headed kid is a fun 180 from his diabolical characters in 'The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story' or on Broadway in 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.' Bobby certainly doesn't have Hedwig's wit, and the actor shows just how versatile he is.
1976 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
1977 | Broadway |
Broadway |
1981 | Off-Broadway |
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1983 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
2000 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
2008 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
2015 | West End |
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2022 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2022 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | American Buffalo |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Sam Rockwell |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Scenic Design (Play or Musical) | Scott Pask |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Play | Neil Pepe |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | Sam Rockwell |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Play | American Buffalo |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Play | Scott Pask |
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