David Mamet's new play "The Anarchist," starring Patti LuPone and Debra Winger in her Broadway debut, will close Dec. 16 after 23 previews and 17 performances, the producers announced Tuesday.
The play about a long-imprisoned leftist radical and the warden who will determine her fate opened Dec. 2 at the John Golden Theater to mostly negative reviews.
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"This 70-minute drama, which opened Sunday night in a production directed by Mr. Mamet, is not lurid, spark filled or even expletive laden," Ben Brantley of the New York Times wrote. "'Anarchist' exists on the peaks of a philosophical Olympus where ideas on eschatology, etymology, phenomenology and, yes, criminology are exchanged by intellectual (if not moral) equals."
Mark Kennedy of the Associated Press wrote: "'The Anarchist' starts in second gear and never really speeds up or slows down, just becomes wave after wave of staccato dialogue that is more pleasant on the page than spoken."
The play had been slated to run 14 weeks, through Feb. 17, 2013.
A revival of Mamet's 1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Glengarry Glen Ross," starring Al Pacino and Bobby Cannevale, is currently in previews at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. That play, directed by Tony Award winner Daniel Sullivan, had been scheduled to open in November, but pushed back its debut until Dec. 8.
Producers for the hot-ticket "Glengarry," which has $6 million in advance sales, said the premiere was rescheduled because Hurricane Sandy had disrupted rehearsals.