Jeremy Piven Jumps On Speed-the-Plow Revival

The New York Times announced on April 23 that television and movie star Jeremy Piven (Entourage) will play one of the leads in a Broadway revival of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow.

The show, tentatively scheduled to open on October 23, 2008, jumps right in the middle of a wave of current and upcoming Mamet shows. The playwright's newest, the political farce November, opened on January 17 of this year. In addition to Speed-the-Plow, Mamet's 1976 drama American Buffalo is scheduled to open this fall. Robert Falls and John Leguizamo are already attached to direct and star, respectively.

Speed-the-Plow concerns, in Mamet's own words, "...a play about work and about the end of the world", and revolves around two Hollywood producers, Bobby Gould and Charlie Fox, as they debate over whether Gould should next go for the easy action blockbuster or produce the film adaptation of a spiritual and apocalyptic novel that personally speaks to him. The opinions and presence of Gould's secretary (as yet uncast) further muddle the question.

The Broadway staging of Speed-the-Plow will be produced separately from the current Kevin Spacey/Jeff Goldblum-fronted London run of the play.

Neil Pepe, artistic director at the Atlantic Theatre Company which Mamet had a hand in starting, will helm the production. Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, and Steve Traxler are producing. No other cast or announcements have been made.

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