If you’ve rushed out to see JEREMY PIVEN in DAVID MAMET’s new Broadway revival of SPEED-THE-PLOW — which officially opens tonight at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre — then you noticed the multiple maverick bombs peppering the script.
Have no fear. These were not inserted into the pre-Election ’08 version of play to get an easy chuckle from audiences; we checked and they can be found on pages 30 and 52 of the Samuel French edition.
While we were digging, we also noticed the play’s epigram, a line from WILLIAM THACKERAY that feels very MCCAIN as well: “Which is the most reasonable, and does his duty best: he who stands aloof from the struggle of life, calmly contemplating it, or he who descends to the ground, and takes his part in the contest?” Can’t you imagine him busting that out in last week’s final debate?
In the future maybe he’ll stick to stealing from literary greats and avoid taking his material from Wikipedia.