A LIFE IN THE THEATRE A REVIEW

When David Mamet's play "A LIFE IN THE THEATRE" was first done off-Broadway back in 1977 it was was given a good [if not overwhelming] critical reception, had decent run of almost 300 performances and has had a substantial afterlife in regional and stock productions. Never having seen that production I can't say what it was like, but I am sure that it played alot better in a 299 seat off-Broadway house then it does in this ernest but ill- advised first Broadway showing.
The problem is basically that Mr. Mamet's valentine to the theatre is not really a play but a long dramatic sketch about two actors one young and full of ambition and the other much older and ready to retire after a long only moderatly successful career. They talk backstage of an empty theatre about various plays they have done acting out fragments of some of them.There really is no plot to speak of, just short scenes and fragments of scenes and lots of talk.
I am sure this worked beautifully in a small Greenwich Village theatre but it seems lost in a 1000 seat medium-sized Broadway house, and while a fair amount of this is reasonably entertaining it still comes off as more of an exercise then a fully thought out play.
The two actors involved could not be improved upon. Patrick Stewart is wonderful as the older actor and T.R. Knight is just as fine as the young actor just starting out and Neil Pepe's stage direction is ok but he has not been able to make such a small play fill a big Broadway stage.
As one who has had a lifelong love affair with the theatre and even with serious reservations I have I still had a fairly good time, but I did not pay to get in. The fact is that A LIFE IN THE THEATRE is not substantial enough for Broadway in these expensive theatregoing days.
At THE GERALD SHOENFELD THEATRE 236 WEST 45th STREET N.Y.C.