If you live in London, you’ve seen the posters everywhere for Speed-The-Plow at The Playhouse Theatre**. Written by David Mamet, (that’s father of Zosia to you, and author of Glengarry Glen Ross), this latest depiction features Richard Schiff (Toby Ziegler from The West Wing) and Nigel Lindsay (from terrorist comedy Four Lions) and erm, Lindsay Lohan. From everywhere.
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The play tells the story of Bobby and Charlie, two jumped-up Hollywood producers who get the opportunity to green light a film with a hot director attached – which they need to take to the studio boss the next morning. They don’t care what the film’s about (‘just gimme the broad outline’), they just want to make money, and lots of it. Over the course of the evening, their foolproof plans get warped thanks to Karen, the temp that’s filling in as Bobby’s receptionist.
It’s a satire on the corrupt, money-grabbing industry that is blockbuster Hollywood. The play was written 26 years ago and quite happily still finds relevence in today’s world. (Thanks, Transformers franchise!)
Anyways, back to the issue at hand. Never, ever underestimate the power of Mean Girls. Lindsay’s ever-loyal fans were out in droves to support her. The audience was filled with a smattering of middle-aged theatregoers looking bemusedly at the 20-something girls and boys madly tweeting: ‘IT’S HAPPENING #LINDSAY #SPEEDTHEPLOW’.
The script is excellent – obviously, it’s a famous classic written by David Mamet – and Richard and Nigel do a great job as the over-ego’ed double act of corporate bozos – think the middle-aged media executives you’ve met in a swanky bar at 1am drunkenly trying to buy you a drink while boring you with tales of their lives ‘in the business’.
And Lindsay is not half bad. Her role is a smaller but significant part and she handles it, not perfectly, but a hell of a lot better than everyone imagined. She plays the naïve and fresh-faced nobody when she needs to with quick-blink-and-you’ll-miss-it facial expressions when Bobby and Charlie paw at her with their sexist diatribe, telling the audience exactly what you’re meant to think of them. She looks well on stage too – confident in her acting, and happy and healthy in her physical appearance.
Shout out to the dude behind me who told his wife he preferred his legs with ‘a bit more meat on’ (thanks, for your opinion guy!).
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Anyone who has seen the play will know the third act hinges on just one line, which is meant to revise where the audience’s sympathies lie and while it wasn’t delivered with the same poignancy as in other productions, it still produced the desired gasp that the script demands.
The middle act which features just Bobby and Karen lost some of the conviction of the first – perhaps the audience was distracted by Karen’s constant drinking or the lines that mirror the troubled times of Lindsay’s real life with uncomfortable relatability: ‘I’ve been bad, I know what it is to be lost’.
All in all though, the performance is entirely competent and easily snappy enough to keep you entertained for an hour and forty-five. Will it go down in history as one of the greats? Meh, probably not. Will it spell the beginning of a triumphant return to form for Lindsay Lohan? Here’s hoping.
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Lindsay Lohan Will ‘Harass’ Tina Fey Into Writing Mean Girls 2
Ten Years On, Here Are Eight Things We’ve Learned From The Original Mean Girls Premieres
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Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.