MAMET STILL UP TO 'SPEED' ON HOLLYWOOD.

Byline: Evan Henerson

Theater Critic

You forget -- because it's easy to -- how much of an ace scribe David Mamet is when he's at the top of his game.

You do not forget -- because with every production he leads, he reconfirms it -- that Geffen Playhouse's Randall Arney is one of the city's top directors.

And by now, I suspect, you underestimate -- at your peril -- the live stage abilities of Alicia Silverstone. Not only is the lady an insightful and very interesting actress, but, following her turn in the playwright's "Boston Marriage" last season, she's proving to be a prize of the Mamet stable.

"Speed-the-Plow," Mamet's half-acidic take on Hollywood, loyalty and Hollywood loyalty (and isn't that an oxymoron?) has reached its "perfect storm" incarnation at the Geffen Playhouse revival with Arney, Silverstone, Greg Germann and Jon Tenney. And to think they were ballyhooing Madonna and the play's New York cast back in 1988.

Underestimated 'Plow'

Golly, that really was nearly 20 years ago, wasn't it? And despite the production's flashy casting (Joe Mantegna and Ron Silver rounded out the ensemble), "Plow" nearly ended up as the illegitimate younger brother of the playwright's "Glengarry Glen Ross," a flashier play about people even nastier than Charlie Fox and Bobby Gould, "Plow's" Tinseltown barracudas.

The late '80s might well have been a more ideal backdrop for Mamet's take on Hollywood wheeling and dealing. Still, watching Germann's Charlie Fox eel-ing his way to a producer's credit, plugging a formulaic prison action flick like his life depends on it -- it probably does -- you very quickly see that "Speed-the-Plow's" time has in no way come and gone. The play is of its age, still timely, and -- in Arney and company's hands -- very funny.

One of Fox's first maneuvers is to pluck the drop cloth off a chair in the new office of Bobby Gould (played by Tenney). It's a small act of self-validation, of belonging.

The two men are old friends. Fox has been down, and has spent a lot of years essentially carrying Gould's luggage. Now, with Gould freshly installed as studio head of production, Fox has a project ripe for a green light: a prison picture with an A-list director attached. Gould instantly gets a meeting with the studio head and promises Fox his producer credit. Rewarded loyalty and validation all around.

Tenney's Gould is as smooth and composed as Germann is twitchy and anxious. This is Gould's first day on the job, and positively everybody -- everybody! -- is looking to work him. Gould knows this, but the man has feelings. Even in Hollywood, he wants to do good.

Which makes him ripe for his temporary secretary Karen (Silverstone). Gould and Fox make an ungentlemanly gentleman's bet about the extent of her virtue; Gould asks for her opinion on the cinematic possibilities of a book about the end of the world; the two meet up that evening at Gould's house. When Fox returns the following day for that promised meeting, he encounters a suddenly much conflicted Gould. And loyalty is questioned anew.

Arney's cast negotiates "Speed-the-Plow's" series of quick-quick turning points. A story that seems to be going in one direction instantly changes course when someone is called to New York, someone demands a cup of coffee, or the phrase "we have a meeting" is uttered at the wrong time. No dramatic beat is skipped or bypassed, and the cast -- Germann in particular -- has great comic fun at the expense of the new age-y book "Bridge."

Each performer's character morphs between rabbit and snake, and it's Silverstone who handles the transitions most intriguingly. The character's naivete comes easily, but when the actress demonstrates a deeper understanding of herself and her surroundings, things really get interesting.

It's tough at the top

Tenney and Germann are every bit her match. So desperate is Germann's Fox for a leg up that the actor can barely keep a seat. A not-too-smug Tenney gets all of Gould's cocksureness ... until it's all called into question.

"I'm lost," Bobby Gould says at a critical juncture. "Do you hear me? I'm lost."

This production isn't. Not by a long shot.

SPEED-THE-PLOW - Four stars

Where: Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood.

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 4 and 8:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday; through March 25.

Tickets: $35 to $69. [phone].

In a nutshell: Vintage Mamet in all the right hands.

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Photo:

Jon Tenney, left, and Greg Germann face off in the revival of "Speed-the-Plow," at the Geffen Playhouse.