Bill Burr Owes His Broadway Debut in Glengarry Glen Ross to Nathan Lane

The actor, podcaster and stand-up comedian Bill Burr owes his Broadway debut in Glengarry Glen Ross to the actor Nathan Lane.

Lane was originally approached by the playwright David Mamet and the producer Jeffrey Richards to star as the past-his-prime salesman Shelley Levene in the play. "Long story short, I said, ‘Great, but it has to be an all-star cast, and the first person you have to cast is Bill Burr,'" Lane told Variety.

Lane subsequently departed the production for a part on a TV series; he was replaced by Burr’s Breaking Bad costar Bob Odenkirk.

In an feature on Burr in The New York Times, Lane said he felt that Burr was just like a Mamet character. “The anger. The simmering rage,” Lane said. “There’s a danger to him. That fits into the world of Mamet. I could hear him being a little funny and a little scary.”

In making his case, Lane sent Mamet, Richards and the director Patrick Marber clips of Burr’s performances, including his stand-up. "I'm thrilled I helped launch his new career on Broadway," he said.

Elsewhere in the Times piece, Burr credits seeing Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly in the Broadway production of True West with alerting him to the power of live theater. “I saw the power of it,” he said. “It was like stand-up, feeding off the energy of the crowd.” (That said, Burr has also remarked,"If they asked me to do Annie, I would do it.")