Opening Night Reviews for American Buffalo, or: DidHeLikeIt? Not so much.

***My day was jam-packed yesterday and I didn't get a chance to post an opening night capsule for American Buffalo.

Last night marked the revival opening of David Mamet's American Buffalo at the Belasco Theatre.

Robert Falls directs Tony-nominated John Leguizamo as Walter Cole, Cedric the Entertainer as Donny Dubrow, and Haley Joel Osment as Bobby. The opening of the revival is also Cedric's and Osment's Broadway debut.

And while the reviews for that other Mamet revival currently treading the boards were mainly positive, American Buffalo seems to not be opening up to the same critical success. Here is a compilation of review capsules from DidHeLikeIt.com:


NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW: "Ssssssssst. That whooshing noise coming from the Belasco Theater is the sound of the air being let out of David Mamet's dialogue. Robert Falls's deflated revival of Mr. Mamet's American Buffalo - which opened on Monday night with the mixed-nut ensemble of John Leguizamo, Cedric the Entertainer and Haley Joel Osment - evokes the woeful image of a souped-up sports car's flat tire, built for speed but going nowhere.."


USA TODAY REVIEW: "Tenderness is not the first quality one generally associates with David Mamet. But really study his characters, and you'll find that many are drawn with sympathy and even affection."






ASSOCIATED PRESS REVIEW: "The four-letter words are intact but just about everything else is amiss in the slack, unsatisfying Broadway revival of David Mamet's American Buffalo."




VARIETY REVIEW: "When American Buffalo is done right, the profane poetry of David Mamet's dialogue can be bracing and the sad desperation of its three minor-league crooks -- playing at being players -- has a poignant sting. But in the three decades since the play was first seen, the influence of its speech patterns has become increasingly pervasive in films, cable TV and imitative theater, while humanized hoodlums have turned up everywhere. Maybe that's why this starry revival sits so flatly on its impressive set. Or maybe it's the lack of a connective thread among its performers. Either way, something isn't working."




AMNY REVIEW: "Now comes American Buffalo, Mamet’s first full-length comic drama, which focuses on three petty criminals who plot to steal a rare Buffalo Nickel. Ironically, the characters view themselves as hard-working businessmen instead of hustlers."