Should there be a minimum running time for Broadway shows?

     To confirm his ever prolific stature, the hardworking David Mamet has two plays opening on Broadway over the span of one week. The Anarchist, a new work directed by the playwright, opened December 2nd, while the Pulitizer Prize-winning Glengarry Glen Ross, a revival (its third Broadway mounting in thirty years), opens December 8th. Mamet tends to write quick, fast-paced plays, but The Anarchist, encountering its world premiere on the Broadway stage, may set a rather unwanted record, one for brevity.

     Although I have yet to see the play, The Anarchist had developed quite the reputation over the past few weeks amongst online theater circles. Many theatergoers were mixed on the two-hander performed by Patti Lupone and Debra Winger, and much animosity stemmed from the fact that the play ran an intermission-less scant seventy minutes. Seventy minutes for a night of Broadway theater? Ben Brantley's New York Times review confirmed the short running time. Is this a record? The top ticket price for the play is, according to Telecharge, $134.50. That's a little less than $2 a minute. Evening performance audiences will leave the theater at around 9:15PM (Broadway theater rarely starts on time), at which Nice Work If You Can Get It, the musical playing across the street at the Imperial Theater, will be about ready to hit intermission.

     It's been noted that if the play is good, the length of it shouldn't matter. "No good movie is ever long enough and no bad one is ever too short," to paraphrase Siskel and Ebert. When it comes to Broadway however, audiences are accustomed to the idea of more is more. Due to the astronomical ticket prices, going to a Broadway show is considered "an event" for many. To be in and out in less time than their fancy dinner outing was hours earlier might rub some the wrong way; you can hate a play and still feel you've got your money's worth due to the gargantuan running time many employ.

     Variety writer Josh L. Dickey recently wrote a piece on the movies called, "Crop of lengthy pix test audiences' patience," directing a scornful eye towards, you guessed it, movies that are way too long. I wonder if people leave three-hour long movies and feel ripped off. Sure, they could've hated the damn thing, but at least it occupied their time for an evening's worth of valued camaraderie. They paid for a seat and were allowed to sit in it for three hours. Maybe that's how we should decide ticket prices in the future. For cinemas, $5 an hour for your seat. For Broadway houses, $25 an hour. The Anarchist would then be one of the cheapest tickets in town, and the animosity towards the production could perhaps be directed elsewhere.

Update: Just two days after opening, The Anarchist's producers have announced they are closing the show Sunday, December 16th after just 23 previews and 17 regular performances.