David Mamet Double Impact: Oleanna May Join Race on Broadway

Theatergoers could have their choice of two David Mamet plays this fall: The just-opened L.A. revival of Oleanna—starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles—is rumored to be Broadway-bound. And his new drama, Race, with Richard Thomas and James Spader, is set to preview November 17 and open December 6 at the Barrymore Theatre.

A production spokesperson would confirm only that there have been discussions of a New York transfer. There is at least one Broadway producer already involved: Jeffrey Finn (Blithe Spirit, On Golden Pond) put together the project and brought it to the Center Theatre Group, where it opened on June 7 to rave reviews. It would mark the Broadway debut for Stiles, whose previous New York stage appearances include James Lapine’s Fran’s Bed and Shakespeare in the Park’s Twelfth Night opposite Jimmy Smits and Zach Braff. Pullman, last seen in Edward Albee’s Peter and Jerry in 2007, originated the role of the animal-loving adulterer in The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?

Displaying an explosive emotional power struggle between a female college student and her fortysomething professor, Oleanna premiered in 1992 at the Back Bay Theater Company in Cambridge, Mass., directed by Mamet and starring Rebecca Pidgeon (the playwright’s wife) and quintessential Mamet man William H. Macy (who recently stepped in for Jeremy Piven in Broadway’s Speed-the-Plow). A few months later Oleanna moved to off-Broadway’s Orpheum Theatre, where it ran for more than 15 months. A Mamet-helmed 1994 film, with Macy and Debra Eisenstadt, was much less successful.

The Center Theater Group’s Oleanna, which is directed by Doug Hughes, plays at the Mark Taper Forum in L.A. through July 12. No dates or theater have been mentioned regarding a Broadway engagement.