Mamet's "A Life in the Theatre' on Broadway

David Mamet's A Life in the Theatre is obviously written by a young playwright in love with the theater. And for people in love with the theater, as most of the audience seemed to be, the show brings the pleasures of in-jokes that celebrate life on the stage.

Two characters, Robert (Patrick Stewart), a weary older actor, and John (T.R. Knight from TV's "Grey's Anatomy"), a nervous novice, appear in 26 scenes— snippets from plays they're performing for an imaginary audience upstage, while we sit backstage, in on all the advice-giving, all the costume changes, the falling wigs, the forgotten lines, the broken zippers and missed cues. We can only imagine the frenetic and hilarious mayhem that must be happening in the real backstage with all those quick costume changes.

Each scene suggests some recognizable cornball kind of play from back in the day: a Civil War drama, a marooned sailor drama, an outraged husband confronting his wife's lover drama, a hospital operating room drama, and so on. They're all clunky productions, and the ensuing mishaps become the main source of the humor.

And that's part of the problem: At some point we should see something that makes us wish we could see the whole play, with acting we admire, sparked by a moment that genuinely moves us.

The real backstage drama

Interspersed between the snippets are scenes between the two actors in their dressing room: putting on makeup, waiting for a call about a film audition, complimenting or criticizing the way the show went that night. Here is where the real drama lies.

The frame play begins when Robert squints nearsightedly at a page while John bounds down the staircase and leaps off the bottom step. That competitive dynamic— age vs. youth, would-be teacher vs. reluctant pupil— should go somewhere, especially with these two high-profile stars in the roles.

Patrick Stewart (glimpses of his real-life agility belie the creakiness and desperation of his character) lends his stentorian voice and formidable presence to the pompous role; Robert grows perceptibly more beaten down, more pitiable and more annoying as the years and shows go on.

But T.R. Knight never changes: His boyish looks remain almost unnaturally boyish, while his only reactions to Robert's neediness are always the same: either barely polite or head-bangingly bored. A shallow actor playing a shallow actor: Where's the drama in that?

Short shrift for "'Mametspeak'

Near the end, when young John rehearses a scene from Shakespeare's Henry V ("Now all the youth of England are on fire…"), we should feel he's a good actor— good enough to impress and threaten Robert— and that after all these plays, he's grown as an actor. But judging by this performance, Knight couldn't play Shakespeare in a community theater production, so too little is at stake here.

Both Stewart and Knight open the play with what sounds like "Mametspeak," that famous stilted, staccato delivery. But they soon drop it for a more natural style; and although familiar Mamet themes find echoes here, and although the show is hugely entertaining, this production never feels like a Mamet play, if only because it lacks his signature ferocity and danger.