With David Mamet‘s Glengarry Glen Ross currently in previews at the Gerald Schoenfeld on West 45th Street, Bloomberg is reporting that Al Pacino (playing Shelley Levene) is receiving $125 G’s per week plus 5% of the profits. Pacino played Ricky Roma in the Glengarry film version, but he wasn’t as good as Joe Mantegna, who played Roma during the initial 1984 Broadway run, and every so often I feel compelled to remind people of this.
Mantegna so owned that role that his shadow still looms. Mantegna’s Roma haunts. As good as Pacino sounds in this clip, Mantegna was three or four or maybe even five times better. Really. I was there on opening night. Trust me.
