Review: Glengarry Glen Ross Broadway Review with Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk, Michael McKean and Bill Burr
David Mamet's iconic Glengarry Glen Ross returns to the stage with an ensemble cast and two Hollywood legends making Broadway debuts. How does this stacked playbill fare on the stage?
Review: Glengarry Glen Ross Broadway Musical Review with Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk, Michael McKean and Bill Burr
Glengarry Glen Ross on Broadway. Image: NYtix.com
Setting the Stage
Glengarry Glen Ross isn’t obvious Broadway material. Despite having been written specifically for the stage and almost immediately earning a Pulitzer and Tony award upon debut, the show is unique for being somewhat plotless, practically set-less, and performed with a skeleton cast. In this way, it’s an easy play get wrong. Each revival is magnified and amplified in relation to past examples. The acting needs to be ever tighter. The set design ever more detailed. And for the story to get told, you need to be paying ever closer attention.
Like its name (taken from a combination of properties the agents in it are selling), Glengarry Glen Ross disorienting and intense from the start— an off-kilter character examination of four unscrupulous salespeople navigating a progressively unhinged work environment in Chicago, Illinois. Glengarry Glen Ross is about watching a bunch of people go to work, but the stakes are high: the person who sells the most property will win a car, while the one who sells the least will lose their job.
A Genuine Ensemble Cast
Joining my parents for this performance, my mother’s excitement for this decorated cast wasn’t contained, and rightly so. This particular revival of Glengarry Glen Ross has drawn attention for its impressive cast, featuring the likes of Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk, Michael McKean and Bill Burr in lead roles.
Culkin is fresh off a major awards season win streak, including an Oscar for his work in A Real Pain (2024). Michael McKean is no stranger to the stage, and has found continued TV and film success with works like Better Call Saul, Spinal Tap (1984). His career started even earlier, with appearances on shows such as Laverne & Shirley. Bill Burr’s abilities as a stand-up comic should translate naturally to the Broadway stage (in his debut), leveraging is own experiences to infuse an authenticity into his character. Finally, it’s a practical miracle Bob Odenkirk (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) was on stage at all— the talent suffered a massive heart attack in 2021.
Individual Talents Shine
A crowded, all-headliner playbill like this can lead to a breakdown and pointless competition on where to orient one’s attention— such star-studded performances can descend into a type of show-and-tell turned juvenile talent competition. From the outset, the temptation is to say the characters blend together. But Glengarry Glen Ross doesn’t reach this level— individual talents work together like a well-oiled machine while using bespoke flourishes to stay differentiated.
We’re first introduced to Odenkirk, who plays aging salesman Shelley Levene. Odenkirk offers an impressive display of physical comedy and drama, especially taking advantage of his fingers— pointing, twirling, jabbing— and hands— waving, halting, and clenching— to serve as visual aids to his stream-of-consciousness communication style.
Donald Webber, Jr.’s Subtle Effectiveness
John Williamson, played by Donald Webber, Jr., establishes a contrast to the entire office within the first few scenes. But this contrast is in personality only. Like his co-workers, his desire to scam and deceive is relatively subtle but nonetheless intact. Webber Jr’s restrained performance can seem slim or weak compared to the huge personalities around him, but the most critical scene in the play takes place under his stewardship. His peaceful energy is unsettling and, by the end, very effective.
Bill Burr Offers an Impressive Debut
Bill Burr appears as foul-mouthed salesman Dave Moss. Burr’s slick talk and scheming approach drives the plot (where available) and plenty of laughs, but his performance is especially impressive because his character’s boomerang sales pitch is powerless against Michael McKean’s stoic reception.
The “discussion” they have is little more than a series of semi-rhetorical questions that always return to Burr’s character. Burr captures the character’s whole personality almost instantly— a weak man who needs validation in all scenarios, but isn’t shy to validates things for himself when external validation never comes. Unfortunately, Burr’s frenzied style makes the first scenes seems oddly tidy. His scenes close abruptly and a especially matter-of-fact delivery in the first act sets up the second act too elegantly, where the atmosphere feels like an episode of Selling Sunset. The “plot” of Glengarry Glen Ross is probably its biggest weakness.
Michael McKean Brings Comfort and Concern
Michael McKean, playing George Aaronow, has an understated approach to his character, leveraging years of honed comedic timing and amusingly sympathetic behavior— Arranow is a totem of experience, having heard it all before until he hasn’t. His thought process happens in real time as he— in theory— breaks the fourth wall with increasingly exaggerated facial expressions.
Culkin Overplays
Kieran Culkin in rehearsal for Glengarry Glen Ross. Image: Michaelah Reynolds. Via: Broadway.com
If Moss and Levene (Burr and Odenkirk, respectively) set the tone as predictable salespeople using typical salespeople tactics, Richard Roma (played by Kieran Culkin) has a wholly unique approach. He’s far more philosophical, and by this we mean he is even more compromised and deceptive in his sales tactics than the others, often mixing people’s emotions with pseudo-intellectual idealizations. Culkin is effective in making Roma’s mind seem huge and improvised. He has a coolness in the first act that is a total reaction to the rest of the team. You’re curious about him.
Unfortunately, by the second act, Culkin’s charming weirdness grows into a frantic, obsessive intensity that comes off as too unrefined to be realistic; tipping into a certain chicken-with-his-head-cut-off type of ridiculousness. Hair flipping everywhere, a suit disheveled, this is a guy running to every corner of the stage. It is too much acting. And if you have bad eyesight, you might have thought it was Zach Galifianakis up there. Culkin goes too far into the extremity of his character, a discredit to his well-established ability to find nuance. There could have been a smoother transition toward his chaos.
Conclusion
There’s a lot of dark humor throughout Glengarry Glen Ross. Moss’s references to Indian Americans might perk up some sensitive ears.
In the final scenes, the mild-mannered Williamson (Donald Webber, Jr.) plainly states to Levene (Bob Odenkirk): "I don’t like you”, It was a line that got a lot of laughs, but shouldn’t have been funny at all. In fact, it made me feel concerned that people don’t actually understand the story of Glengarry Glen Ross. In context, this simple comment was cited as the reason for Williamson to blow up Levene’s plans. But in the scope of the entire performance, it was the first time someone was telling the whole truth.
I don’t know if this is a spoiler, but the philosophical intention of Glengarry Glen Ross is to show that no matter how a salesperson sells (cool and slick like Roma, subliminal like Williamson, desperate like Levene, or illegal like Moss and Aaronow) they’re always the same rotten people underneath it all.
Glengarry Glen Ross opens March 31, 2025 at the Palace Theater. The play was reviewed by The Interior Review on March 23rd, 2025. Running time: approx. 1 hours, 30 mins with one intermission. Tickets and information here.
Credits
Cast: Bill Burr, Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk, Michael McKean, Howard W. Overshown, John Pirruccello, Donald Webber, Jr.. Understudies: Peter Bradbury (Dave Moss, Baylen), Jordan Lage (Shelly Levene, George Aaronow), Howard W. Overshown (John Williamson, James Lingk) and Alex Purcell (Richard Roma, Baylen).
Production: Theatre by Stewart F. Lane and James L. Nederlander, Jeffrey Richards, Rebecca Gold, Caiola Productions, Roy Furman, Patrick Myles, Jonathan Reinis, Stephanie P. McClelland, Stewart F. Lane / Bonnie Comley / Leah Lane, Oliver King, 42nd.club, Richard Batchelder, Marlene & Gary Cohen, Cue to Cue Productions, Roger & Carin Ehrenberg, GFour Productions, Jay & Cindy Gutterman, John Gore Organization, Willette & Manny Klausner, James L. Nederlander, No Guarantees Productions, Secret Hideout, Randy Jones Toll & Steven Toll, Craig Balsam / Ken Levitan, Bunny Rabbit Productions / Cyrena Esposito, Lynne & Marvin Garelick / Howard Hoffen, Ken & Rande Greiner / Ruth & Steve Hendel, Levine Padgett Productions / Alan Shorr, Ted & Richard Liebowitz / Alexander "Sandy" Marshall, Irene Gandy, Lloyd Tichio Productions / Michael T. Cohen & Robin Reinach, Eric Passmore / Brad Blume & Adam Zell, Susan Rose / Frederick Zollo, Patrick W. Jones, Maia Kayla Glasman, Brandon J. Schwartz and The Shubert Organization. Written by David Mamet. Directed by Patrick Marber. Associate Director Rory McGregor. Production Design by Scott Pask; Lighting Design by Jen Schriever; Associate Scenic Design: Frank McCullough; Associate Costume Design: Rachel Attridge; Associate Lighting Design: Aaron Tacy; Assistant Scenic Design: Orit Jacoby Carroll, Mary Hamrick and Seungkyu Shin; Lighting Programmer: Ben Fichthorn. General Manager: RCI Theatricals and Kevin Greene; Company Manager: Bruce Klinger; Associate Gen. Mgr: Kyle Bonder; Assistant Gen. Mgr: Christian Palomares; Assistant Co. Mgr: Nolan Boggess. Technical Supervisor: Hudson Theatrical Associates; Production Stage Manager: Barclay Stiff; Stage Manager: Kelly Levy. Casting: The Telsey Office, Will Cantler, CSA and Destiny Lilly, CSA; Vocal Coach: Kate Wilson; Press Representative: Polk & Co.; Advertising: AKA; Content and Community: Super Awesome Friends; Digital Marketing: Situation Interactive; Photographer: Emilio Madrid.
