2009 Broadway Revival of David Mamet's play, Oleanna.

 

This was the official site for the 2009 Broadway revival of David Mamet's play, Oleanna, staring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles.
Content is from the site's archived pages as well as from other outside sources.

 



Oleanna on Broadway - Starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles

 

OLEANNA is Pulitzer Prize winner DAVID MAMET's most controversial drama. This gripping new production, directed by Tony winner DOUG HUGHES, had Los Angeles audiences gasping and critics raving. Now this landmark play comes to Broadway - for the first time ever - with the crackle and force of wildfire.

OLEANNA has electrifying dialogue, blazing emotion and an ending that will leave you talking for weeks. In this riveting drama, a college professor and his female student become embroiled in a war of words that takes a dangerous turn. As their serene campus transforms into a battleground for justice, Mamet's explosive masterpiece dares you to take a side . . . if you can.

Why is it called OLEANNA?

Oleanna Allusions

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David Mamet uses several allusions in his play Oleanna, the biggest of which is the title. Oleanna makes reference to a utopian community founded in New Norway by a man named Ole Bull. However, the colony was located in a densely-forested part of Pennsylvania, void of arable land. All immigrants were forced to move away, after giving up everything to follow a worthless dream. A mocking Norwegian folk song was subsequently written about the colony. It was translated into English by Pete Seeger: Oleanna. Essentially, the song speaks of crops that grow themselves, and livestock that milk and slaughter themselves. Mamet has placed the first stanza of the song in the prologue.

The allusion, as applies to Mamet’s play, can have two parallels. More literally, John is trying to buy a house. His struggle throughout the play ends up failing, as the resources he had been promised to obtain and use the land were no longer there. The tenure, akin to a promise of arable land, was non-existent, and John lost all of the initial investments he had made to obtain a better standing.

More metaphorically, the allusion is symbolic in terms of education. John persists throughout the first act that education is nothing but hazing, never truly rewarding the students with the promises of accomplishment. Carol on the contrary has arrived at the university hoping for just these things. We do see the parallel to Oleanna however, in that Carol is unable to develop as an independent individual who would later be able to accomplish something in life. Education, in her case, has not had the promised effect.

As a further criticism of Carol’s education, Mamet uses a quote by Samuel Butler from The Way of All Flesh. According to Butler, “the absence of a genial mental atmosphere” is not “recognized by children who have never known it.” Directly referencing Carol’s poor socio-economic background, she has a tendency to take everything out of context and focus on one sole thing. She is unable of recognizing the education that is given to her, and thus focalizes on other, perhaps more trivial, issues such as her professors’ reactions to her. Education has failed to actually affect Carol.

While these quotes are quite important to someone reading the play, they would not be seen or heard by the audience watching a performance of Oleanna. On a reader, it has the impact of making the play’s themes more recognizable, a manner of understanding what is really going on. Because of Mamet’s minimalist stage directions, this can be quite hard to perceive. An audience however would not have the same necessity for help. Instead, they would see the physicality of the actors mapping out what is read in the prologue’s quotes.

 



2009 Opening Night: Oleanna

 

HOW TO BUY TICKETS

1. ONLINE:  visit Telecharge.com
2. BY PHONE: Call Telecharge at (212) 239-6200 or (800) 432-7250
3. IN PERSON: The box office at 252 West 45th Street between Broadway and 8th Avenue.

PRICING: $76.50 - $116.50

A limited number of student rush tickets may be available at the box office for $25 starting 1 hour before the performance. Cash only. Student ID required.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

Tuesday @7pm; Wednesday - Saturday @8pm; Wednesday and Saturday @2pm; Sunday @3pm*
*Schedule subject to change.

THEATER

John Golden Theatre
252 West 45th Street
New York, NY 10036
(between Broadway and 8th Avenue)

DIRECTIONS

SUBWAY: Take the N,Q,R,W or 1,2,3,7 to 42nd St., walk North on Broadway to 45th St. then West on 45th St.; Take the A,C,E to 42nd St., walk North on 8th Avenue to 45th St. then East on 45th St.

 

 


BILL PULLMAN started acting professionally in New York theatre in 1983, and shortly after began his film career which currently spans nearly 50 features. His films include Ruthless People, Spaceballs, Casper, The Serpent and the Rainbow, The Accidental Tourist, Igby Goes Down, Sleepless in Seattle, While You Were Sleeping, Independence Day, Malice, The Virginian, Wyatt Earp, The Last Seduction, Lost Highway, The Zero Effect, The Grudge. Recent films he has completed include Bottle Shock, Phoebe in Wonderland, Surveillance, You Kill Me, The Nobel Son and Your Name Here. Theatre credits include the world premiere of Edward Albee’s The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? (Drama Desk nomination) and Albee’s most recent production Peter and Jerry (Drama Desk nomination), as well as new plays by Beth Henley and Thomas Babe. Bill directed for the TV series "Night Visions", and directed and produced the TNT movie "The Virginian" (Wrangler Award/Best Picture, 2000). He also starred in a television mini-series for NBC Revelations. Bill has been an “Ambassador” for the MS Society since 1998 and serves on the board of Cornerstone Theater Company. Bill received a BA from the State University College at Oneonta, and an MFA in Theater Directing from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

 

JULIA STILES originally appeared in Oleanna opposite Aaron Eckhart at the Garrick Theatre in London’s West End in 2004. She began her career as a member of the Ridge Theater Company, performing at N.Y.’s La Mama and The Kitchen. Other stage credits include Viola in Twelfth Night for the Public Theater & opposite Mia Farrow in James Lapine’s Fran’s Bed at Playwrights Horizons. Stiles first worked with David Mamet in his film State and Main, as well as in the film adaptation of Mamet’s play Edmond. Stiles earned critical praise starring in Patrick Stettner’s independent feature, The Business of Strangers, opposite Stockard Channing. The film premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. She has starred in three Shakespearean film adaptations: O, Hamlet and Ten Things I Hate About You, for which she earned a 2000 MTV Movie Award for Best Female Breakthrough Performance and the Chicago Film Critics Award for Most Promising Actress. She reprised her role as Nicky in Paul Greengrass’ The Bourne Ultimatum, the last installment of The Bourne Trilogy. Other films include The Omen, A Guy Thing, Mona Lisa Smile, Little Trip To Heaven and Save The Last Dance. Stiles wrote and directed her first short film Raving, starring Zooey Deschanel and Bill Irwin. She graduated from Columbia University in 2005.

 

DAVID MAMET (Playwright) is the acclaimed and award-winning author of numerous plays including Glengarry Glen Ross (1984 Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics Circle Award, 2005 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play), American Buffalo, Boston Marriage, November, Speed-The-Plow and The Cryptogram.

Mamet has written the screenplays for such films as The Verdict, The Untouchables, Wag the Dog and his own adaptation of Oleanna, and has twice been nominated for an Academy Award. He has written and directed 10 films including Homicide, The Spanish Prisoner, State and Main, House of Games, Spartan and Redbelt, and he’s also directed for the Theater. He is co-creator and Executive Producer of the CBS hit series “The Unit,” and is a Founding Member of The Atlantic Theatre Company.

Following a world premiere in May 1992 as the first production of David Mamet’s Back Bay Theater Company in Cambridge, MA and starring William H. Macy and Rebecca Pidgeon, OLEANNA had its New York premiere Off-Broadway at The Orpheum Theatre on October 23, 1992. Directed by Mamet and again starring Mr. Macy and Ms. Pidgeon, the hit production ran 513 performances, eventually featuring Treat Williams as John.

Some of the many other notable major productions of OLEANNA include the London premiere at The Royal Court Theatre (1993, directed by Harold Pinter, starring David Suchet and Lia Williams), the Australian premiere with the Sydney Theatre Company (1993, directed by Michael Gow, starring Geoffrey Rush and Cate Blanchett) and a London revival at the Garrick Theatre (2004, directed by Lindsay Posner, starring Aaron Ecklhart and Ms. Stiles). A film version, adapted and directed by Mamet and starring Mr. Macy and Debra Eisenstadt, was released nation-wide in 1994.

 

~~~

One wonders how Mamet's Oleanna would be received today in the #MeToo movement. It’s incredibly tempting in this era of #MeToo to see Mamet’s Oleanna, which first premiered in 1992, the heyday of political correctness and not incidentally the Anita Hill/Clarence Day hearings in which Hill accused Supreme Court nominee Day of sexual harassment, as a kind of indictment of both a smugly secure and obtuse male and the initially clueless and later vindictive female. Recently I saw the play again, this time starring as the student Carol (Joy Reiger) and her professor, John (Dan Shapira). My experience of seeing it in 2019 is different from my impressions in 2009. A reviewer from www.jpost.com opinionated about this 2019 version: In 2019, Oleanna is about monologues, which have replaced discourse. The characters in Oleanna, hear, but they do not listen. They talk at, not to each other.
Perhaps that is why the actors deliver their lines at breakneck speed and without a single pause, in the way Mamet writes into his work to indicate what could be said, what might be said, what’s being perhaps thought. But if nobody’s listening... This Oleanna is about a creeping deafness that is overtaking us all. How can that in any way be good?

One could say that about our political situation as well, as partisan politics overwhelm everything. My partner interrupts this aside to show me a website he has found that sells round dog beds that looks like the dream bed for a dog or I should say our dog who prefers soft sofa pillows or our bed pillows to any dog bed that we have purchased in the past. Sam's bed preferences have led to some heated discussions. I do not want Sam to be sleeping on our bed and particularly not on my pillow. We order the round dog bed. When it arrives not only does Sam love it as his dog bed, friends who come over thinks its' a most comfortable floor pillow. We are thinking of ordering more from this cool online source. Guests will have pillows to sit on as they hang out and Sam will have a choice of dog bed pillows to sleep on. A win win situation, unlike the lose lose situation for the two characters in Oleanna.

Next we plan on seeing Mamet's newest play that just opened. Will Bitter Wheat, which Mamet has based on the Harvey Weinstein case and the emergence of the #MeToo movement, prove to be another Oleanna? I love Malkovich, so I am looking forward to his performance. Reviews have been mixed. That's nothing new for Mamet. But all have said Malkovich is astounding.

~~~

REVIEWS

Et tu, Mamet? The Misogyny of 'Oleanna' 

October 22, 2009 By Sarah Seltzer | https://forward.com/sisterhood

As an admirer of David Mamet’s writing style and piercing commentary, I was disappointed when I went, as a guest of a critic, to see the recently-opened production of his he-said, she-said sexual harassment play, “Oleanna”. After suffering through more than an hour of Julia Stiles’ student character, Carol, and Bill Pullman’s professor character, John, foolishly and nastily duking it out, I fear I may have to put Mamet in the Philip Roth club of talented Jewish male writers who fall into the trap of revealing their own misogyny instead of exposing their characters’.

“Oleanna” was meant to provoke, enrage and trouble us, to make us doubt our understanding of power, gender and harassment, and to ponder the difficulty of communication across those lines. Through the first half of the play, we sympathize with the kindly, if idiotic, John as played by Pullman, and later are horrified when Carol turns on him with her accusation of his inappropriate behavior, bolstered, it seems, by a crash course in feminist theory. But as John leans on his class, age, power and male privilege to fight her back with shocking results, our sympathies are definitely meant to shift and, I suppose we are then led to wonder if Carol’s original accusations didn’t have a ring of truth to them. But invariably, we don’t.

And that’s because, as Ben Brantley wrote last week:

Think about it afterward, or read the script, and you’ll realize that the sympathies of Mr. Mamet, a man’s man among playwrights, are definitely with John, however flawed he may be. It also becomes clear that Carol, as a character, is full of holes, most conspicuously in the way she uses words.
So the duel in “Oleanna” is not really a he-said, she-said situation. Instead Carol feels like a feminist bogeyman — a sexless, vengeful, patriarchy-hating monster arising from Mamet’s primal fears, painted over with a veneer of minimal sympathy.

And those fears are legitimized by the intellectual establishment. Here, a male playwright tackles the extremely rare problem of false accusations of harassment, and it’s considered universally relevant and sent to major theaters with big stars. I have to imagine that if a female writer took on the common issue of actual harassment, her play would likely be playing at a small downtown theater and pigeonholed as a feminist play.

Still, I’m willing to cut Mamet some minimal slack. “Oleanna” is a decade-plus-old piece of work, and hearkens back to a time (the early 1990s) when everyone thought the academy would be soon run aground by overzealous, PC censoriousness. Instead, as anyone who’s been at a university recently will tell you, known sexual harassers still walk among the professorial elite, while professors who specialize in women’s issues don’t exactly reign over academic discourse. The nightmare that “Oleanna” predicted never happened. I hope that if Mamet took on the issue today, the results would be a bit different.

 

Mamet's "Oleanna' revived in New York

Hubris on the loose, again

October 13, 2009 By Toby Zinman | www.broadstreetreview.com

I can't forget the 1992 premiere of Oleanna,David Mamet's stunning two-person sexual harassment drama (with Mamet directing William Macey and Rebecca Pidgeon). The venue was Off-Broadway, on a Saturday night with an audience one could assume to be sophisticated, acute and civilized. But everyone in the house was in full battle gear in that post-Anita Hill era of gender politics; among other shockers, somebody yelled out to the stage, "Hit the bitch." All of us left spitting mad, knowing we'd seen a work of major theater.

Still aggravating, still shocking, still engrossing after all these years, Oleanna is receiving a fierce and fine revival on Broadway starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles. 

For me, this play about a male professor and his female student is a lose/lose proposition. As a career academic, I find John's "side" (and this is a play about taking sides) sometimes sympathetic, sometimes repulsive. As a woman, with vivid recollections of the bad old days, I find Carol's "side" sometimes sympathetic, sometimes repulsive. This is sociopolitical, psychosexual dialectic honed to a razor-sharp edge.

The preoccupied professor

In Mamet's scenario, John's course in theories of education has confused and discouraged Carol. She comes to him for help with the material and his response is both preoccupied (he's on the phone with his real estate agent about a problem with the house he hopes to buy) and willing to help (he offers to abandon the tyranny of a grade if she comes for tutorial sessions) and patronizing (his vocabulary is jargonized and pretentious).

The tenure committee has voted "yes" to his application but it's not yet official. Uh, oh. The professor is very tense: Pullman's John is so tightly wound you half expect his fingers to twang as he gestures in the air; it's a performance of thrilling subtlety and ambiguity.

Carol, in turn, is exasperatingly dense: She resorts to tears, creating a pitiable, self-demeaning defensive posture (Stiles is so thin, so vulnerable and sits folded up, arms folded across her body) as her seemingly willfully irrational arguments infuriate John (and us). But her questions are substantial: By teaching a course about the uselessness and fraudulence of college courses, isn't John just exploiting his contempt for his profession? (He had written a book called Empty Ritual.)

A struggle over talk

Somewhere between Act I and Act II, Carol has been taken up by a women's consciousness group, as a result of which she has filed a combative sexual harassment suit. Both Pullman and Stiles inhabit these characters so completely and intensely that their struggle between male and female, powerful and powerless, ideal and ideal amounts to witnessing a political revolution as well as a tragedy. Hubris is on the loose again, on both sides.

The issue isn't only who intended what, but who said what and who understood that what to mean what. Carol's literalism and incapacity to understand the nuances of language create some of the mayhem, but John's frustration at his inability to convince her— through language— of his good and noble intentions (what a pompous ass he is!) mean that this play, like all Mamet plays, is about talking.

The Venetian blinds descend

The set (designed by Neil Patel) begins this production; the stage is a ridiculously large academic office— wide, high and handsome, with huge windows revealing a charming college campus beyond. Then a weird electronic musical buzz begins and metallic Venetian blinds slowly descend in unison, covering the windows, sealing the office. This will occur— blind raised, then lowered with buzz—three times, dividing the three short acts (the play has no intermission).

Act I ends with this exchange about an forthcoming party:

John: There are those who would say it's a form of aggression.

Carol: What is?

John: A surprise.

If you want surprise and aggression, stick around for Act III. Under Doug Hughes's direction and Rick Sordelet's superb fight choreography, Oleanna still shoves us out of the theater into the street and into our lives, provoked if not enlightened. But it's a good bet you'll be mad, and another good bet you'll be convinced you've seen great theater.

 

PLAYBILL ON OPENING NIGHT: Oleanna — Teacher's Petting?

12 Oct 2009 By Harry Haun | Playbill.com

Meet the first-nighters at the opening of Broadway's Oleanna.

You know the deck is slightly stacked when the first celebs to show up at the Oct. 11 opening of the Broadway revival of David Mamet's Oleanna are Lucy T. Slut, who practices sexual harassment as an Olympic sport, and the timid, milquetoast-y Rod. These two Avenue Q puppets, operated by Anika Larsen and Seth Rettberg, were there to welcome Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles to the Golden, where the puppets had just spent 6½ years, prior to downsizing and taking up residence Off-Broadway, as of Oct. 9, at New World Stages.

With a gender reversal and minor adjustments, Lucy and Rod echo the battle-of-the-sexes that Mamet masterminded back in 1992 in response to the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill furor and the PC fallout that followed it. He drew the battle-lines for this two-hander/bitch-slap between John, a vulnerable college prof whose new home is hanging by the frayed thread of tenure, and Carol, pleading tearfully and angrily for a passing grade. When he reaches out to console her, she turns the situation into an argument about appropriate behavior, and their miscommunication spins dizzily out of control, floor-boarding them to the abyss.

After this 80-minute assault, haggard first-nighters retired to the Blue Fin at the W Hotel on Broadway for stiff drinks — and, at most tables, the debate continued.

Press interviews were done in Blue Fin's glass-walled bar at the corner of Broadway and West 47th , and the television cameras attending the event attracted a horde of tourists who had been lolling around in patio furniture that now clutters The Great White Way. All seemed to pack cameras of their own and drove the two stars crazy, banging on the glass to get their shots while the interviews were still going on.

"This is my favorite place for a big party," declared lead producer Jeffrey Finn, who previously used it in 2005 for On Golden Pond (albeit, James Earl Jones and Leslie Uggams were not interviewed in the goldfish-bowl bar area and Broadway had not become a suburban thoroughfare).

"I just adore this play," he admitted. "It makes people talk, and that's what good theatre is about." Which is why he has set up a series of post-show discussions to follow the main event. "People are just staying in their seats, riveted. They want to talk about the play because there are so many issues to explore. They've had this incredible experience, and they want to keep it going. We have special panelists who are experts in their field — of education or media or politics or celebrity — and a great moderator for every one of them. I like to refer to it sometimes as a second act."

Finn did not employ a casting director to line up such a dead-on cast. "I did it myself," he confessed proudly. Pullman, the stumbling, sputtering Everyman sinking into a mire of miscommunication, and the gorgeous Stiles with a jaw-line of granite determination and a raw intelligence that betrays the possibility of calculation — these solidify the war zone and bring Mamet's diatribe of a play into sharper focus.

"It's a very different take than the original — primarily because we're seeing it in 2009. The original production took place in a certain moment in time, which made that production unique and made it the talked-about event in New York City for two years. We hope to do that again now because we have a whole new view of it. Where a lot of people think it's just about sexual harassment, it's really about power. That's such a large, large, overriding issue. It's a power game. It's a power play."

Next on Finn's agenda, pegged for Broadway in 2010, is the stage premiere of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, the old Spencer Tracy-Sidney Poitier-Katharine Hepburn clambake. "We're working on it now," he said. "We just did a reading of it with Jesse L. Martin, who was terrific." William Rose, who won 1967's Best Original Screenplay Oscar for it, has died; the new adaptation will be by Todd Kriedler, who, Finn pointed out, "was the dramaturg for August Wilson and was heavily involved in the writing of Radio Golf." Huddling in a corner in the second-floor dining area was Michael Ritchie, talking on a cellphone — to wife Kate Burton, who had just landed from L.A and was winging it toward the party. Ritchie is artistic director of the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles (specifically, the Mark Taper Forum where Oleanna tried out).

"We'd started doing the show before I realized I had no idea what Oleannameant, and I had to look it up," he admitted. "It's the idea for a Utopian community — I believe, in upstate New York — the idea that all people could live in harmony."

In the published play, Mamet clears all this up in his hazy fashion by quoting from a folk song: "Oh, to be in Oleanna, / That's where I would rather be. / Than be bound in Norway / And drag the chains of slavery." There. Now, you know.

Oleanna is the first Broadway revival Doug Hughes has directed since The Royal Family opened three days ago (!), and there were stress marks on his usually smiling face. But he is not going to go to Disney World.

"I'm going into rehearsal Tuesday morning for The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. That's down at New York Theatre Workshop. It's a superb adaptation by Rebecca Gilman of Carson McCullers' great novel. I'm doing it with Henry Stram and James McDaniel."

The "double-dipping" he has been doing of late, he tended to downplay. "I had the advantage of having done the show in L.A. I think one of the advantages of doing a play successfully in one incarnation and knowing you're going to get a chance to do it again is to really reexamine it, which we did. We went back to work on the production very, very seriously. We didn't just remount the play. I'd meet the actors at nine every morning, and I'd work for five hours, and then I'd join the Royal Family company, which was in previews at that time, so that worked out very well. I walked through the parking lot between 45th and 46th, cut through the Edison Hotel, go over to the Friedman, and I'd see my company. It was a great privilege for me to be able to walk back and forth between two incredible companies of actors."

Otherwise, he conceded, they were worlds apart: "To direct The Royal Family is a fabulous assignment as a battlefield commander, and to direct Oleanna is a little taste of what it must be like to be a psychoanalyst."

Precise casting made his task easier. "I think these two play it hell-for-leather. Oleanna is an extraordinary play, and I think it's a genuine tragedy of democracy."

Political correctness, when cut too fine, creates casualties, and the question of Carol's commitment to bringing John's world down around his ears is still subject to debate, like the ones that spill over after the show. There's a certain lady-or-tigress question mark hovering over the play, and Hughes leaves the door open (as he did with his big Tony winner, Doubt) to opposite interpretations.

"She's somebody who has a viewpoint that she desperately wants to be heard, and so does he, and thereby hangs a tale," Hughes summarized simply. "The greatest plays arise out of impossible situations. Oleanna is a marvelous shift of power, an exertion of power, the use of power, the desire to acquire power — that's what we're all about at Oleanna, and that's what we're all about in our society."

 

He Said, She Said, but What Exactly Happened?

OCT. 11, 2009 By BEN BRANTLEY | NYTimes

Here’s a little physics puzzle for John, the university professor from David Mamet’s “Oleanna” and a man who practically breaks his neck by bending it to consider questions from different angles: How is it possible that two productions of the same play — occupying roughly the same amount of stage time and using almost exactly the same words — can move at such vastly different speeds?

Such reflections are prompted by Doug Hughes’s revival of “Oleanna,” Mr. Mamet’s confrontational drama from 1992, which opened Sunday night at the Golden Theater in its Broadway debut. When I first saw this two-character battle of the sexes (and the classes) off Broadway at the Orpheum Theater, it seemed to move at warp speed, and I left it with shortened breath and heightened blood pressure. Yet the latest version, which pits the excellent Bill Pullman against the luminous Julia Stiles, often seemed slow to the point of stasis, and its ending found me almost drowsy.

You could attribute my reactions to various sociological and psychological factors. Many years have passed since I first saw this show. I am not the same person, and America is no longer living in the immediate shadow of the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas, when the testimony of Anita F. Hill inspired a furious national debate on sexual harassment in the workplace.

But I think the real difference in my response is less a matter of politics than of good old art and craft. The original “Oleanna,” which starred William H. Macy as John and Rebecca Pidgeon as Carol, the combative college student, was directed by its author. Mr. Mamet’s approach to staging his own plays has always been text-driven, governed by his avowed (and somewhat disingenuous) theory that if the actors just say the lines and don’t dawdle, the play will take care of itself. Under his direction “Oleanna” was, above all, a war of words colliding.

As staged by Mr. Hughes, the current “Oleanna” flies bravely in the face of Mr. Mamet’s prescriptions about acting. “There is no character,” Mr. Mamet has written. “There are only lines upon the page.” This “Oleanna” squints to read between those lines, and Mr. Pullman and Ms. Stiles have obviously been encouraged to create characters who are more than what they say.

Normally this would be a good thing. But Mr. Hughes’s “Oleanna” unwittingly makes a solid case for adhering to the Mamet method. If the “Oleanna” of 1992 left you breathless, Mr. Hughes’s measured interpretation leaves you plenty of time to breathe — and weigh and calibrate the arguments of its irrevocably opposed characters. With a set by Neil Patel that lends oddly palatial dimensions to a college professor’s office (with scenes punctuated by the ominously slow closing of tall, automated Venetian blinds), the play has been pumped full of an air of thoughtfulness that paradoxically comes close to smothering it.

That’s partly because “Oleanna” is a play about people for whom language is a conditioned reflex. They don’t think before they speak, even when they believe they do. A series of encounters between John, a professor on the verge of landing tenure, and Carol, a student on the verge of failing his class, the play is essentially an extended conversation. But it is shaped by the understanding that all conversation is potentially dangerous.

Carol comes to John’s office, distraught, to ask for a passing grade; though preoccupied with his approaching tenure confirmation and plans to buy a new house, he decides to help her. What happens after is a matter of individual interpretation, even though we see exactly what happens.

Or do we? What’s so infernally ingenious about “Oleanna” is that as its characters vivisect what we have just witnessed, we become less and less sure of what we saw. Anyway, that’s what occurs in performance — or should.

Think about it afterward, or read the script, and you’ll realize that the sympathies of Mr. Mamet, a man’s man among playwrights, are definitely with John, however flawed he may be. It also becomes clear that Carol, as a character, is full of holes, most conspicuously in the way she uses words.

All this is uncomfortably visible in Mr. Hughes’s production. Part of the problem is that Ms. Stiles is such a naturally assured, even patrician presence that it’s hard to credit her as the confused, intellectually bankrupt student of the first scene. From the beginning Carol appears to have the upper hand. (When she cries, her tears seem made of ice.)

By comparison, Mr. Pullman’s John registers as an addled, vulnerable figure. As Mr. Macy played him, John was pompous, patronizing, self-deluding and, for all his Socratic questioning, as much the prisoner of his intellectual clichés as Carol is in the later scenes, when she becomes an avatar of political correctness. Mr. Pullman puts John’s lack of confidence on the surface. He’s a chronic self-doubter, full of fear and given to mumbling, as if he doesn’t entirely trust what he says.

As he has demonstrated in first-rate portraits in Edward Albee plays (“The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?,” “Peter and Jerry”), Mr. Pullman is an expert in men who wear guilt like an undershirt. He conceives John in the same vein, and it’s a carefully thought-through, often affecting performance, climaxing in a stirring vision of a man flayed of defenses.

Yet even when things get physical between John and Carol, Mr. Pullman and Ms. Stiles never seem to connect, or even to inhabit the same universe. Each has found a personal and unorthodox way of dealing with Mr. Mamet’s fierce, fragmented language. Ms. Stiles speaks with a stiff, ladylike crispness, while Mr. Pullman gives what may be the most naturalistic line readings I’ve ever heard in a Mamet play. Neither approach is entirely appropriate to Mamet-speak, though it would help if both performances were on the same stylistic page.

Topical resonance helped make “Oleanna” famous, and it’s that aspect that the play’s producers are no doubt hoping to capitalize on with the production’s post performance talk-back series with assorted guest celebrities (former Mayor David N. Dinkins, Kathryn Erbe of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” etc.). But “Oleanna” exists on its own timeless terms, and they’re defined by the power and limits of language.

With Mr. Mamet, the words really do come first. As this production demonstrates, interpreters who try to sidestep this cardinal rule do so at their peril.

 

 

CREATIVE TEAM

DOUG HUGHES (Director) Recent Broadway productions include A Man for All Seasons, Mauritius, Inherit the Wind, A Touch of the Poet, Frozen and Doubt (also seen at the Ahmanson Theatre at the start of its national tour). He has worked extensively off-Broadway and at most of the nation’s leading resident theatres. He has been awarded the Tony, the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel, Obie and Callaway Awards for his productions.

NEIL PATEL (Set Designer) CTG: This Beautiful City, Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine, iWitness. Broadway: [title of show], Sideman (West End and Kennedy Center), ‘night, Mother, Ring of Fire. West End: Underneath the Lintel. Off-Broadway: Dinner With Friends (Variety Arts Theater and national tour), Roundabout, Public, MTC, Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage, Vineyard Theatre, NYTW, Primary Stages, MCC, BAM. Opera: New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Minnesota Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Opera Theatre St. Louis, Tokyo Nikikai Opera Theatre. TV: "In Treatment" (HBO). Helen Hayes Award, numerous Drama Desk nominations, 1996 and 2001 Obie Awards for sustained excellence. www.neilpateldesign.com.

CATHERINE ZUBER (Costume Designer) The 125 Gala for the Metropolitan Opera, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Lincoln Center), The Cherry Orchard (Mark Taper Forum), The Winter’s Tale (BAM’s Bridge Project). The Lincoln Center Theater: South Pacific (Tony Award), The Coast of Utopia (Tony Award, Outer Critics Circle Award), Awake and Sing! (Tony Award), Edward Albee’s Seascape (Tony Award nomination), The Light in the Piazza (Tony Award, Outer Critics Circle Award nomination), Dinner at Eight, Twelfth Night (Tony Award nominations). Other Broadway credits include Roundabout’s A Man for All Seasons, Cry-Baby, Doubt, Frozen, Dracula, The Sound of Music, Triumph of Love, among others. Recipient: 2003, 2004 and 2007 Henry Hewes Award for Design; 2004 and 2005 Lucille Lortel Award; 2004 Ovation Award; 1997 and 2005 Obie Award for Sustained Achievement. Other projects include the 1999 Fete des Vignerons, Vevey, Switzerland. Opera: Romeo et Juliette (Salzburg Festival); Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Dr. Atomic and The Tales of Hoffmann (The Metropolitan Opera).

DONALD HOLDER (Lighting Designer) Broadway: 30 productions, including South Pacific (2008 Tony Award, Drama Desk nomination), Les Liaisons Dangereuses, A Streetcar Named Desire, Gem of the Ocean, Movin’ Out, Juan Darien (all Tony-nominated), The Lion King (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Awards), Cyrano de Bergerac, Radio Golf, Thoroughly Modern Millie and The Boy From Oz. Recent Off-Broadway: The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Romantic Poetry, Saved, Almost an Evening, The Pain and the Itch, Romeo and Juliet (Delacorte). Regional Theatre: Center Stage, Steppenwolf, Goodman, Arena Stage, South Coast Repertory, Huntington, Seattle Rep, Intiman, Williamstown, Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, many others. Mark Taper Forum/Kirk Douglas Theatre: Pippin, The Little Dog Laughed, The House of Blue Leaves, Jitney, Hughie, Spunk, Yellow Face, Without Walls, Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine, many others. LA Opera: Grendel.

PRODUCING TEAM

JEFFREY FINN (Producer). Broadway: Blithe Spirit, On Golden Pond (Tony nomination, Best Revival). Off-Broadway: Game Show. Regional: Oleanna at the Mark Taper Forum. National Tours : The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, The Subject Was Roses, On Golden Pond, The Who’s Tommy, Leader of the Pack, Tell Me On A Sunday, Promises, Promises, Company, Chess, and numerous Broadway Songbooks concert tours. In 1992, Jeffrey Finn Productions launched a corporate events company, Hot On Broadway, to produce customized corporate entertainment exclusively featuring current Broadway performers. Upcoming Broadway projects include the stage premiere of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner adapted from the Academy Award-winning film. www.jeffreyfinnproductions.com

ARLENE SCANLAN (Producer) produced Charles Dickens’ Two Cities, The Musical at The Stamford Center for the Arts in 2004. On Golden Pond, starring James Earl Jones (Tony Award nomination for Best Play Revival in 2005). 2009, Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit starring Angela Lansbury. Off-Broadway: Cindy Adams, Only in New York . Arlene’s greatest productions remain her three children Leah, Matthew and Daniel.

JED BERNSTEIN (Producer), after eleven years as President of the Broadway League, launched Above the Title Entertainment, a Theatre/Television production company and marketing consultancy. First projects have included the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway revue, Don't Quit Your Night Job, Passing Strange, the smash revival of Equus starring Daniel Radcliffe, and the Tony-winning revival of Hair. Jed also serves as Executive Director of the Commercial Theater Institute.

KEN DAVENPORT (Producer) Broadway: 13, Speed The Plow, Blithe Spirit, Will Ferrell’s You’re Welcome America. Off-Broadway: Altar Boyz, Awesome 80s Prom, My First Time. Featured in an iPhone commercial and named a Crain’s Magazine’s “40 Under 40”. Founded Broadway’s #1 social networking website, BroadwaySpace.com. Future projects include a musical of the film Somewhere In Time and a documentary on the top unsigned rock band in the country, Red Wanting Blue. For more, including Ken’s blog, which has been featured in Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, The Gothamist and more, visit DavenportTheatrical.com.

CARLA EMIL (Producer) has been a David Mamet fan since 1975 when she saw the original production of American Buffalo at the St. Nicholas Theater in Chicago . So she is thrilled to be a part of Oleanna. Carla's other Broadway involvements include The Seagull and The Norman Conquests. She is a proud member of the board of Second Stage Theatre.

ERGO ENTERTAINMENT (Producer) is a theatrical and film producing partnership formed by Donny Epstein, Yeeshai Gross and Elie Landau. Broadway: Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow and November. Also, You’re Welcome America (2009 Tony nomination), Impressionism, The Homecoming (2008 Tony nomination), Barefoot in the Park, Steel Magnolias, Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2003 Tony Award). Off-Broadway: Private Jokes, Public Places (also London ); Something Old, Something New. Film: Paper Clips (2006 Emmy nomination; 2005 Christopher Award), The Fallen (2005 Milan Int'l FF Audience Award), Let It Snow (Sundance 2000).

ELIE HIRSCHFELD (Producer) Elie Hirschfeld is President of Hirschfeld Properties NYC (www.hirschfeldnyc.com). Trustee Emeritus of Brown University and Long Island University. Trustee of Beth Israel, Long Island College, NY Eye & Ear, Roosevelt and St. Luke's Hospitals, NYC and of Weizmann Institute, Israel. President of Hirschfeld Productions - Equus, Passing Strange (Tony nomination, Best Musical), The Fantasticks, Love Thy Neighbor, Doubt, Year with Frog & Toad. Completed Hawaii Ironman Triathlon. Father of Daniella, David, Benjamin, Jonathan & Matthew

RACHEL HIRSCHFELD (Producer) has loved Broadway since she was ten, when her father, Abe, bought the Hudson Theatre. President of Soupbone Productions: The Prince of Central Park, On Golden Pond (Tony nomination, James Earl Jones) and Blithe Spirit (Tony Award, Angela Lansbury). Rachel is a world renowned legal advocate for animals, pioneering Pet Trusts and Pet Protection Agreements. Inspired by her rescue pets, Soupbone, Swizzle, Topper and Tamma (a homed feral cat), she founded www.Petriarch.com. Rachel has three children: Simona, Mark and Amber and five grandchildren: Ella, Max, Hugo, Sula and Otto.

HOP THEATRICALS (Producer) HOP Theatricals and Larry Kaye are pleased to be involved with Oleanna. Recent HOP projects include Rooms at New World Stages and Blithe Spirit at The Shubert. In addition to his producing work, Larry is co-author of The Tapioca Miracle, which had its first New York reading in April 2009. www.HOPTh.com

BRIAN M. FENTY (Producer) is proud to be making his Broadway producing debut with such an exceptional and powerful Oleanna. Brian, an investor and entrepreneur in New York , serves as President of The Last Vineyard. Thanks to: family, friends, 5B, 4F, HIP, cc, Doug. And to Mom for nearly two decades parked outside the stage door – The dream lives on!

MARTY JONES (Producer) is an independent investor in Broadway and off-Broadway productions, having recently been involved with the Donmar Warehouse production of Mary Stuart. Ms. Jones is President of the Celebrity Series of Boston, Inc., serves on the Board of New York’s Women’s Theatre Project, and in 1982 served on the founding management team for the Huntington Theatre Company (a L.O.R.T. theatre) in Boston, MA .

CENTER THEATRE GROUP (Producer) (Michael Ritchie, Artistic Director; Charles Dillingham, Managing Director; Gordon Davidson, Founding Artistic Director) is Los Angeles’ leading theater company and one of the nation’s preeminent arts organizations, programming theater year-round at the Mark Taper Forum and the Ahmanson Theatre at the L.A. Music Center, and the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, and developing an impressive number of Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning plays.

 

 

More Background On OleannaOnBroadway.com

 

OleannaOnBroadway.com is a website dedicated to the 2009 Broadway production of Oleanna, the provocative two-character drama written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet. Starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles and directed by Tony Award winner Doug Hughes, the production brought one of the most controversial American plays of the late twentieth century to Broadway for the first time. The website originally served as the production’s official online destination, providing information about the cast, creative team, performance schedule, ticket availability, theater location, and critical reception.

Today, OleannaOnBroadway.com functions primarily as a historical resource preserving information about this particular interpretation of Mamet’s influential work. Its content includes production details, biographical material, reviews, and commentary about a play that continues to stimulate discussion about gender politics, academic authority, sexual harassment, intellectual freedom, and the limits of communication. Rather than promoting an active theatrical engagement, the site offers visitors an opportunity to revisit a specific moment in Broadway history and examine how a drama written in 1992 was received by audiences and critics seventeen years later.

The production opened at the John Golden Theatre on October 11, 2009, following previews that began September 29, and concluded its Broadway engagement on December 6, 2009. Although the run was relatively brief, it attracted substantial theatrical press coverage and renewed discussion of Mamet’s treatment of power and conflict. The website remains particularly relevant to theater enthusiasts, students, researchers, and readers interested in how controversial theatrical works are reinterpreted across generations.

The Origins and Purpose of the Website

OleannaOnBroadway.com was established as a promotional and informational website associated with the Broadway premiere of Oleanna. Its original purpose was to introduce the production to prospective ticket buyers, communicate practical attendance information, highlight its established creative talent, and build anticipation for a theatrical experience centered on unresolved moral questions. The production's marketing emphasized the emotional intensity of the play, its famously confrontational dialogue, and its ability to provoke disagreement among audience members.

The website reflected the conventional structure of a Broadway production's online presence during the late 2000s. Visitors could learn about the show's background, examine cast and creative biographies, find the theater's address, review ticket prices, and obtain information about purchasing seats through Telecharge or the box office. The promotional approach relied heavily on the reputations of David Mamet, Bill Pullman, Julia Stiles, and Doug Hughes, as well as the production's successful Los Angeles engagement before its transfer to New York.

Following the show's closure, the website's role evolved from commercial promotion to historical documentation. Its surviving material preserves the language and promotional priorities of the original production while incorporating discussion of its reception and continuing significance. The website is therefore best understood as a production-specific archive rather than an official current source for Mamet's theatrical activities or future performances of Oleanna.

The original promotional connection is independently supported by contemporary Broadway announcements that directed readers to OleannaOnBroadway.com. However, the site's historical association with the production does not establish who currently owns the domain or operates its content. Those details should not be confused with the documented Broadway producing team.

The History of David Mamet's Oleanna

David Mamet's Oleanna premiered in May 1992 at the Back Bay Theater Company in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The original production featured William H. Macy as John, a university professor, and Rebecca Pidgeon as Carol, a student whose interactions with him develop into a destructive confrontation. Mamet directed the original staging, establishing the play's distinctive reliance on terse dialogue, interruptions, shifting meanings, and psychological tension.

Later that year, Oleanna transferred to the Orpheum Theatre in New York, where it opened Off-Broadway on October 23, 1992. The production became a notable theatrical event and ran for more than fifteen months, eventually including Treat Williams in the role of John. Its popularity demonstrated that a small-cast drama dealing with academic politics and conflicting interpretations of personal conduct could generate extraordinary public attention without elaborate scenery or spectacle.

The play emerged during an especially contentious period in American political and cultural life. The 1991 Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, which featured allegations of sexual harassment by Anita Hill, had prompted nationwide debate about professional authority, gender, workplace conduct, and credibility. Oleanna appeared against this background, inviting audiences to consider how interpersonal behavior can be interpreted differently depending on experience, perspective, and institutional power.

Its success quickly extended beyond the United States. A 1993 London production at the Royal Court Theatre was directed by Harold Pinter and starred David Suchet and Lia Williams. The same year, the Sydney Theatre Company staged an Australian production featuring Geoffrey Rush and Cate Blanchett. These international interpretations helped establish Oleanna as a significant modern drama with relevance beyond its original American political context.

Mamet adapted and directed a film version released in 1994, starring William H. Macy and Debra Eisenstadt. The film preserved the central relationship and confrontational dialogue while bringing the story to a different medium. Julia Stiles subsequently appeared in a 2004 London West End revival opposite Aaron Eckhart, giving her valuable experience with the character of Carol before returning to the role on Broadway in 2009.

The Story and Central Conflict

At the center of Oleanna is a seemingly ordinary meeting between a university professor and one of his students. John is approaching a major professional milestone, with tenure potentially securing his academic future and supporting plans to purchase a new house. Carol, meanwhile, is struggling with his course and feels unable to understand the concepts and language he uses in class. She visits his office seeking assistance, hoping that a personal conversation will clarify her difficulties and help her succeed.

Their discussion quickly exposes differences in education, status, confidence, and communication. John attempts to explain his unconventional ideas about teaching, institutional authority, and academic evaluation, but frequently interrupts himself and becomes distracted by telephone calls involving his pending real estate transaction. Carol interprets aspects of his behavior differently from the way he appears to intend them. An apparently helpful gesture, ambiguous expression, or personal observation can carry entirely different meanings for the two characters.

As the drama progresses, Carol accuses John of inappropriate conduct and challenges his professional authority. The power relationship that initially favored the professor becomes increasingly complicated as institutional procedures, formal complaints, and potential professional consequences enter the conflict. The audience must consider the distinction between intention and impact, the credibility of competing accounts, and the possibility that both characters misunderstand one another while remaining convinced of their own interpretations.

One of the play's distinctive achievements is its refusal to provide a completely comfortable position for the audience. John can appear condescending, self-absorbed, and careless with the authority he holds, while Carol's increasingly forceful response raises its own ethical questions. The struggle develops beyond the original academic disagreement into a larger examination of control, resentment, personal insecurity, and institutional power.

Mamet constructs the play so that language itself becomes a weapon. Conversations that initially appear productive deteriorate into accusations, interruptions, and disputes about what particular statements mean. Because the drama exposes both the words spoken and the characters' conflicting interpretations, it challenges the audience to reconsider the reliability of its own judgments. The resulting experience is not simply a story about a professor and student, but an examination of how disagreement can become destructive when communication loses its capacity to establish shared understanding.

The 2009 Broadway Production

The 2009 production represented the first Broadway staging of Oleanna, despite the play's extensive earlier history in New York and international theater. Directed by Doug Hughes, the production originated at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, where it opened in June 2009. The Los Angeles engagement generated considerable critical attention and provided the foundation for the subsequent Broadway transfer.

Previews began at the John Golden Theatre on September 29, 2009, with the official opening taking place on October 11. Bill Pullman portrayed John, while Julia Stiles played Carol. The performance lasted approximately 75 to 80 minutes without an intermission, maintaining the pressure of the central confrontation from beginning to end.

The decision to bring Oleanna to Broadway in 2009 was significant because its original cultural context had changed considerably. By that time, public discussions of sexual harassment, feminism, academic authority, and political correctness had evolved since the early 1990s. Audiences encountering the play for the first time could interpret the conflict differently from theatergoers who had experienced its initial Off-Broadway success.

Rather than reproducing Mamet's original direction, Hughes developed a staging that emphasized psychological nuance and the individual experiences of the two characters. His approach encouraged audiences to examine the emotional motivations underlying their behavior, even while critics disagreed about whether this interpretation strengthened or weakened the play's verbal intensity.

The Broadway engagement ultimately consisted of 15 previews and 65 regular performances. Its closing on December 6, 2009, made it a relatively short-lived production, but one whose prominent cast, established playwright, and controversial subject guaranteed substantial attention within New York's theatrical community.

Bill Pullman as John

Bill Pullman brought an extensive background in film, television, and theater to the role of John. Widely recognized for films including Independence Day, Spaceballs, While You Were Sleeping, and The Accidental Tourist, Pullman had also developed a distinguished stage career, particularly through his work in productions by Edward Albee. His experience with psychologically demanding characters made him an appropriate choice for a professor whose professional confidence gradually disintegrates.

In the 2009 production, Pullman presented John as a man struggling with his own insecurities rather than simply portraying an arrogant academic authority figure. The professor's distraction, hesitation, intellectual pretension, and desire to be understood became essential elements of the performance. Pullman's interpretation emphasized the contradiction between John's official institutional power and his increasing inability to control the conversation or the consequences of his behavior.

Critics frequently recognized the complexity of Pullman's work, even when they questioned the production's overall dramatic effectiveness. His performance offered a more visibly vulnerable interpretation of John than some earlier portrayals, complicating the audience's response to the professor's conduct. The role required Pullman to communicate not only intellectual frustration but also the anxiety of a man watching his established social and professional position collapse.

Julia Stiles as Carol

Julia Stiles was already a recognizable film actress when she appeared in the 2009 Broadway production, having starred in 10 Things I Hate About You, Save the Last Dance, O, Mona Lisa Smile, and the Bourne film series. She also possessed an established theatrical background, including early performances with New York's Ridge Theater Company and appearances in Shakespearean productions.

Her relationship with Oleanna preceded the Broadway engagement. In 2004, Stiles portrayed Carol in a London West End production at the Garrick Theatre opposite Aaron Eckhart. That experience gave her an established understanding of the character's intellectual vulnerability, emotional intensity, and transformation during the play.

The 2009 engagement marked Stiles' Broadway debut. Her portrayal of Carol attracted particular attention because of the character's difficult progression from an apparently overwhelmed student to a determined challenger of institutional authority. Stiles emphasized a combination of vulnerability, resolve, and emotional distance, creating a character whose actions audiences could interpret in sharply different ways.

Critical responses to her performance were divided. Some reviewers admired her composure and forceful presence, while others believed that her natural confidence made Carol's initial confusion less convincing. Nevertheless, her casting brought considerable visibility to the production and helped introduce Mamet's drama to audiences who might have been more familiar with her screen performances than with contemporary American theater.

Doug Hughes and the Creative Team

Director Doug Hughes played a central role in shaping the 2009 production's distinctive interpretation of Mamet's drama. A highly respected theater director, Hughes had won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for Doubt, John Patrick Shanley's examination of suspicion, authority, and uncertainty. His experience directing psychologically complex works made him especially suited to a drama in which audiences must evaluate conflicting accounts without receiving definitive answers.

The production's visual environment was developed by scenic designer Neil Patel, whose academic office setting created an imposing physical space for the confrontation. Large windows initially suggested an open university environment, while automated Venetian blinds progressively enclosed the room. Their movement reinforced the atmosphere of confinement and the increasingly adversarial relationship between John and Carol. Costume designer Catherine Zuber and lighting designer Donald Holder contributed to the production's visual character, while Rick Sordelet provided fight direction for its physically intense moments.

Hughes' treatment of the material differed from Mamet's earlier staging by giving greater attention to pauses, expressions, and individual character psychology. Some critics believed this approach helped make the characters more fully human, while others argued that it reduced the relentless momentum of Mamet's dialogue. Nevertheless, the production demonstrated how a familiar theatrical text could generate new interpretations through direction, performance, and design.

Producers, Management, and Organizational Background

The Broadway production was assembled through the efforts of an extensive producing partnership led by Jeffrey Finn. Other credited producers included Arlene Scanlan, Jed Bernstein, Ken Davenport, Carla Emil, Ergo Entertainment, Harbor Entertainment, Elie Hirschfeld, Rachel Hirschfeld, HOP Theatricals, Brian Fenty and Martha H. Jones, and Center Theatre Group. These participants represented a combination of Broadway commercial producers, entertainment companies, theatrical investors, and nonprofit theatrical organizations.

Jeffrey Finn was especially important to the development and transfer of the production. His previous Broadway credits included On Golden Pond and Blithe Spirit, and his involvement helped connect the Los Angeles staging with the New York commercial theater market. Center Theatre Group, one of Southern California's major theatrical organizations, provided the institutional setting for the production's initial engagement at the Mark Taper Forum.

The distinction between theatrical producers and website ownership is important. Although the production's producing organizations are documented in Broadway records, the legal ownership and current administration of OleannaOnBroadway.com are not established by those credits alone. The domain was promoted as the production's website during its Broadway engagement, but there is insufficient independently verified information to identify its present registrant or determine whether the original producing partnership retains control.

The John Golden Theatre and Its Manhattan Location

The 2009 Broadway production was staged at the John Golden Theatre, located at 252 West 45th Street in Manhattan's Theater District. The theater sits between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, placing it within walking distance of Times Square, Restaurant Row, and numerous other Broadway venues. Its central location made the production accessible to New York residents, visitors, theater professionals, and tourists attending performances in the surrounding area.

The John Golden Theatre has a history dating to 1927, when it opened as the Theatre Masque. Designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp, the venue was originally part of a theatrical development associated with the Chanin Brothers. It was renamed in honor of theatrical producer John Golden in 1937 and eventually became part of the Shubert Organization's Broadway theater holdings.

The theater has traditionally been associated with intimate dramatic productions, making it a suitable venue for a concentrated two-character play such as Oleanna. Its seating capacity is approximately 800, considerably smaller than that of Broadway's largest musical theaters. This relatively intimate environment allows audiences to focus closely on dialogue, facial expressions, and subtle shifts in the relationships between performers.

Visitors attending the original production could reach the theater from major subway stations around Times Square and 42nd Street. The surrounding neighborhood offered numerous restaurants, hotels, bars, and entertainment venues, enabling theatergoers to combine the performance with dinner or other activities. The theater itself did not operate as a dining establishment, and the show's website did not feature a restaurant menu; its practical information concerned tickets, performances, transportation, and theater access.

Ticket Prices, Schedule, and Audience Accessibility

During its Broadway engagement, Oleanna offered tickets through Telecharge, telephone reservations, and the John Golden Theatre box office. Regular advertised ticket prices ranged from $76.50 to $116.50, with premium seating also available. These prices reflected the commercial Broadway market of 2009 and the production's positioning as a major theatrical event featuring recognized film actors.

The advertised performance schedule included Tuesday evenings at 7 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday evenings at 8 p.m., Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 2 p.m., and Sunday afternoon performances at 3 p.m. A limited student rush program offered $25 tickets, subject to availability and student identification requirements. The inclusion of student tickets was particularly appropriate given the play's university setting and its examination of educational institutions, authority, and academic expectations.

The relatively short running time, without an intermission, also distinguished Oleanna from many Broadway productions. Its uninterrupted format created a sustained atmosphere of psychological pressure and encouraged audiences to engage directly with the escalating conflict. These ticket prices and performance times are historical details only; the 2009 production is no longer running, and the website should not be interpreted as offering current reservations or seats.

Reviews and Critical Reception

Critical reception to the 2009 Broadway production was mixed, reflecting both the provocative nature of Mamet's writing and differing opinions about Doug Hughes' direction. Some reviewers praised the performances, dramatic intensity, and continued relevance of the play, while others questioned whether the production captured the urgency and verbal precision of the original staging.

Ben Brantley of The New York Times offered a relatively critical assessment, arguing that the production's slower and more contemplative approach weakened the momentum of Mamet's dialogue. He acknowledged the individual strengths of Pullman and Stiles but questioned whether their acting styles created a sufficiently unified theatrical experience. His review emphasized the importance of rhythm and language in Mamet's writing and suggested that the production's attention to psychological interpretation sometimes worked against the structure of the play.

Other critics responded more favorably. Elysa Gardner of USA Today praised the production's gripping qualities and its continued ability to provoke discussion. Associated Press critic Michael Kuchwara admired the way Pullman, Stiles, and Hughes handled the difficult material, emphasizing the play's depiction of authority gradually slipping away from its apparent holder. John Simon, writing for Bloomberg, also recognized the production's ability to provoke and found considerable value in the performances.

The Los Angeles Times documented the range of Broadway critical reactions, illustrating how the production divided reviewers over both artistic execution and thematic interpretation. Its earlier Los Angeles engagement had received substantial attention as well. Charles McNulty's review of the Mark Taper Forum production emphasized the play's capacity to provoke argument even among audiences encountering it many years after its premiere.

The disagreement among reviewers was itself consistent with the theatrical experience Mamet had constructed. Oleanna was designed to make audiences uncomfortable, challenge assumptions, and provoke competing interpretations. Consequently, favorable and unfavorable reactions frequently centered on the same features: the characters' ambiguity, the manipulation of language, and the play's refusal to present a reassuring moral resolution.

Press Coverage and Media Attention

The Broadway production benefited from coverage across major newspapers, theater publications, entertainment websites, and news organizations. The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, USA Today, Bloomberg, Playbill, Broadway.com, and BroadwayWorld were among the outlets discussing its development, opening, critical response, or commercial performance.

An important component of the publicity campaign was the show's connection to well-known actors. Pullman and Stiles attracted attention beyond the traditional theater audience, giving entertainment journalists an opportunity to discuss the transition between film and stage performance. Stiles' Broadway debut was particularly newsworthy, while Pullman's established theatrical credentials reinforced the production's artistic credibility.

The production also received extensive coverage because it represented the first Broadway appearance of a play that had already acquired international recognition. Its 1992 premiere, subsequent Off-Broadway success, London and Australian productions, and film adaptation provided journalists with a substantial history to examine. The transfer from Los Angeles to New York generated additional press interest, particularly after the strong responses to the Mark Taper Forum engagement.

Opening night on October 11, 2009, became a significant publicity occasion. Playbill covered the event and the associated celebrations, including an opening-night gathering at Blue Fin in the W New York hotel in Times Square. Interviews with the producers and creative participants highlighted the intention to make the production an occasion for discussion rather than simply an evening of entertainment.

The website helped consolidate this attention by presenting reviews, production biographies, and promotional material in a single online destination. For contemporary researchers, that collection offers a useful record of the way Broadway productions in the late 2000s used digital promotion alongside conventional theatrical publicity.

The Take a Side Audience Discussion Series

One of the production's most distinctive initiatives was its organized program of post-performance discussions, known as "Take a Side: The Oleanna Talk-Back Series." Announced before the start of Broadway previews, the program was designed to extend the theatrical experience by giving audiences an opportunity to discuss the questions raised by the play.

The series was scheduled after preview performances between September 29 and October 10, 2009. Discussions involved moderators and invited participants with perspectives on education, politics, media, and other subjects connected to the drama. Instead of leaving audiences to debate the story only after departing the theater, the producers created a structured environment in which competing interpretations could be explored immediately following the performance.

This initiative reflected Jeffrey Finn's understanding that the play's value extended beyond the events onstage. The production's marketing emphasized that audiences would leave with questions about the characters' motivations, the legitimacy of their actions, and the nature of authority. The discussion series transformed those unresolved issues into an additional component of the theatrical experience.

From a broader cultural perspective, the talk-back program anticipated the increasing use of facilitated conversations in theaters, universities, and arts organizations addressing contentious social subjects. Such programs can help audiences examine different interpretations without requiring agreement. For Oleanna, whose central theme concerns the failure of meaningful communication, providing a space for discussion was especially fitting.

Popularity, Attendance, and Broadway Box Office Performance

Although the 2009 Broadway production received extensive publicity, its commercial performance was more modest than its cultural visibility might suggest. Broadway box office records show that Oleanna earned approximately $2.18 million during its engagement, with total attendance of 39,824 across previews and regular performances. The production played 15 previews and 65 regular performances, and its average attendance represented approximately 62% of available seating capacity.

Its highest reported weekly gross was $283,245 for the week ending October 4, 2009. The production initially attracted attention because of its recognizable cast, established playwright, and favorable Los Angeles publicity. However, maintaining sufficient ticket demand proved difficult during the fall Broadway season.

On November 17, 2009, the producers announced an intended closing date of January 3, 2010. That plan was subsequently revised, and the production closed on December 6, 2009. Producer Jeffrey Finn explained that the earlier closing was a financially responsible decision intended to avoid potential losses during the approaching holiday period.

These figures demonstrate the difference between critical prominence and commercial longevity. A Broadway production can receive significant media attention, feature respected performers, and stimulate important cultural discussion without becoming a long-running financial success. Oleanna achieved visibility within the theatrical community, but its box office results did not support an extended Broadway engagement.

The production's attendance figures provide a measurable indication of its theatrical popularity, while the substantial press coverage and continuing scholarly interest demonstrate a different form of influence. Reliable public evidence does not establish comparable historical website traffic totals, so claims about OleannaOnBroadway.com's visitor counts or search popularity would be speculative.

Awards and Theatrical Recognition

The 2009 Broadway production was closely associated with award-winning artists, although recognition earned by individual creative participants should not be confused with awards won by this specific staging. David Mamet had received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Glengarry Glen Ross, while Doug Hughes had earned a Tony Award for directing Doubt. Their involvement gave the production considerable artistic credibility before its Broadway opening.

The creative team included other distinguished theatrical professionals. Catherine Zuber was already a multiple Tony Award-winning costume designer, and Donald Holder had received major recognition for his lighting work, including contributions to The Lion King and South Pacific. These accomplished artists brought extensive experience to a production that depended on precise atmosphere and psychological detail rather than large-scale theatrical effects.

The Broadway production's most enduring recognition comes from its place in the performance history of Mamet's work, its prominent casting, and its extensive critical discussion. The available major Broadway production records do not establish a Tony Award win for this staging. Its artistic importance is therefore better understood through its documented performances, creative contributors, and reception than through unsupported claims of production-specific awards.

The Meaning Behind the Title Oleanna

The title Oleanna has a historical background that adds another dimension to Mamet's treatment of ambition, disappointment, and institutional promises. It refers to the nineteenth-century Norwegian violinist Ole Bull and a utopian settlement associated with his efforts to establish a Norwegian immigrant community in Pennsylvania.

The settlement was promoted as an opportunity for immigrants to pursue a more prosperous and independent life in America. However, the project encountered serious difficulties, including unsuitable terrain and the practical challenges of developing an isolated community. The failure of its promises eventually inspired a satirical Norwegian folk song about Oleana, describing an idealized place where material comforts and abundance appear effortlessly available.

The title's connection to disappointed expectations provides a useful interpretive framework for Mamet's play. John believes that academic tenure and the purchase of a house will secure his future, while Carol approaches education with expectations that the university will provide understanding, advancement, and personal opportunity. Both discover that the institutions in which they have placed confidence may not deliver the security or fulfillment they anticipate.

The title therefore links the personal confrontation to a larger theme of failed idealism. Just as the historic settlement failed to satisfy the expectations of its participants, the university in Oleanna becomes a place where competing visions of fairness, achievement, and authority collide.

Cultural Significance and Changing Interpretations

Oleanna remains culturally significant because its central issues have continued to evolve long after the play's first performances. During the early 1990s, audiences frequently understood the drama through debates about sexual harassment, political correctness, and the consequences of the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. By 2009, the same text could be interpreted through changing attitudes toward workplace conduct, academic accountability, personal autonomy, and institutional decision-making.

The play acquired further relevance during the emergence of the #MeToo movement, which encouraged renewed examination of sexual misconduct, professional authority, and the experiences of people making allegations against powerful individuals. These developments did not necessarily resolve the questions raised by Mamet's drama. Instead, they encouraged audiences and critics to reconsider whether the playwright's portrayal of the professor and student adequately represented the complexities of harassment and power.

Some interpretations emphasize John's careless exercise of authority and his inability to recognize how his actions affect Carol. Others focus on Carol's increasingly coercive behavior and the possibility that institutional processes can be used to achieve personal objectives. A third perspective views both characters as participants in a destructive communication failure that reveals broader weaknesses in education, language, and the social structures governing human relationships.

The play has also attracted criticism for its portrayal of women and feminism. Some commentators argue that Carol risks becoming an exaggerated representation of political activism rather than a fully developed individual. Others regard this discomfort as integral to Mamet's intention to challenge audiences and expose the dangers of assuming that one account must be entirely correct.

These conflicting interpretations explain why Oleanna has remained a subject of academic study, theatrical revival, and public discussion. Its continuing significance does not depend on audiences agreeing with Mamet's assumptions. Instead, it lies partly in the way the play encourages examination of difficult subjects that resist simple conclusions.

Educational Value and Intended Audience

OleannaOnBroadway.com offers useful information for several overlapping audiences. Theater historians can use the site to examine the 2009 production's cast, creative organization, promotional approach, and critical reception. Students studying David Mamet can compare the Broadway interpretation with earlier productions, the published play, and the 1994 film adaptation.

Drama educators may find the production particularly relevant when examining the relationship between written dialogue and theatrical performance. Mamet's distinctive writing style creates substantial challenges for directors and actors, and the differences between the original 1992 staging and Doug Hughes' 2009 approach provide a valuable example of how directorial decisions influence meaning.

Researchers interested in gender studies, communication, and higher education may also find the site's historical material useful. The play examines the power imbalance between teachers and students, the role of formal complaints, the influence of language, and the difficulties of resolving interpersonal conflict. These subjects provide opportunities for interdisciplinary discussion, although the play should be understood as dramatic fiction rather than a reliable representation of any particular legal or institutional procedure.

General audiences familiar with Bill Pullman, Julia Stiles, or David Mamet can use the website to explore an important project in their respective careers. The combination of celebrity performers, an internationally recognized play, and substantial media coverage makes the production accessible to readers beyond the specialist theatrical community.

Website Content, Navigation, and Historical Value

The material preserved on OleannaOnBroadway.com reflects the practical and promotional needs of a Broadway production website. Its major content areas include the show's background, cast biographies, creative team information, production details, ticketing instructions, theater location, and press reviews. Additional discussion of the play's meaning and cultural background broadens the site's value beyond its original commercial function.

Unlike an entertainment website offering current productions, merchandise, or streaming services, OleannaOnBroadway.com is centered on one historical engagement. Its navigation and informational content are therefore relatively specialized. The absence of an active performance schedule is not a deficiency in its archival role; the production completed its run in 2009, and the surviving material documents that particular theatrical event.

The website also illustrates how theatrical marketing functioned during an important period in the development of online arts promotion. Broadway productions increasingly maintained dedicated websites that combined traditional advertising, press quotations, cast information, and ticket-purchasing options. Such sites served as digital extensions of posters, newspaper advertisements, theater programs, and promotional press materials.

For historical research, these websites can preserve details that are less prominent in general theater databases, including contemporary ticket prices, audience engagement initiatives, and the language used to position a production for prospective customers. However, their promotional claims should be distinguished from independent assessments. Theater databases, contemporary press reporting, and published reviews remain important sources for verifying dates, attendance, financial performance, and critical reception.

The Continuing Legacy of Oleanna on Broadway

The 2009 Broadway production occupies an interesting position in the history of Oleanna. It was not the play's first New York appearance, nor was it its longest or most commercially successful staging. Nevertheless, it brought a widely discussed American drama to Broadway for the first time, introduced Julia Stiles to the Broadway stage, and offered a new interpretation under the direction of Doug Hughes.

The production also demonstrated how theatrical works can change in public perception without undergoing major alterations to their written text. A drama that had originally been associated with the heated political debates of the early 1990s was reconsidered in 2009 through a different cultural perspective. Subsequent social developments have provided further opportunities for reinterpretation, reinforcing the play's continuing relevance.

OleannaOnBroadway.com preserves the circumstances surrounding this particular chapter in the work's history. Its value lies not in offering current tickets or functioning as a comprehensive resource for every production of Oleanna, but in documenting the people, ideas, promotional activities, and public responses associated with its Broadway debut.

For readers interested in modern American drama, the website provides a useful introduction to a production that combined recognized theatrical talent with one of David Mamet's most challenging plays. Its historical materials also offer insight into the intersection of Broadway commerce, artistic interpretation, celebrity casting, and cultural controversy.

Ultimately, the enduring significance of Oleanna rests in its ability to provoke questions about how people exercise authority, interpret language, and respond to conflicting claims. The 2009 Broadway production extended that debate to a new audience, and OleannaOnBroadway.com remains a record of the theatrical event that brought those questions to the Broadway stage.

 

 

OleannaOnBroadway.com