With four- and five-star reviews across the board and a sell-out run in the West End, the Sam Yates-directed darkly funny production of David Mamet play Glengarry Glen Ross is spending a week in Manchester as part of its UK tour. Famous for a potty-mouthed script and its “always be closing” mantra, the ground-breaking Olivier and Pulitzer Prize-winning modern classic was optioned for a big-screen adaptation in 1992, going on to become the must-see movie starring Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Alec Baldwin and Kevin Spacey. A razor-sharp satire about the American Dream and what it really boils down to, Glengarry Glen Ross is set in a sales office where four contract-chasing and increasingly desperate colleagues are pitched each against the others to shift the most real estate and avoid getting the heave-ho; the competition is so fierce that bribery and burglary seem like a legitimate ways to win leads and take the money. This touring version (Yates’s London Playhouse production, which ran for three months until around this time last year, starred Christian Slater and Don Warrington) has a winning line-up of stage and screen stars, complete with Chicago accents. Nigel Harman (fondly remembered as Dirty Den’s ill-fated hard-nosed son Dennis in EastEnders) reprises Pacino’s role as Ricky Roma while Mark Benton (Eddie out of Early Doors) crops up as Shelly “The Machine” Levene, both ready to steal – not just seal – the deal. When the going gets greedy, the greedy get going. “Lies. Greed. Corruption. It’s business as usual.”
Tickets from £13*
£10 tickets for 16 – 25 yr olds (Band A and B, Mon – Thu)
£12 off Midweek matinee for seniors and students
Mon 25 – Sat 30 Mar, Opera House, 3 Quay Street, Manchester, M3 3HP, Tel: 0844 871 3018*, Mon–Sat 7.30pm, Thu & Sat 2.30pm, £13–38*, www.atgtickets.com/Manchester*
*Fees apply. Calls cost up to 7p per minute plus your phone company’s access charge.
A Manchester Wire partnership post.
- Words:
- Sarah-Clare Conlon
- Published on:
- Thu 21 Mar 2019
