Written by Sandra Ross. LA Weekly, May 29 - June 4, 1998
(over 12 months on this paper's 'Recommended' list)
Boiler Room
In Dan Fante's absorbing play, Eddy Kammegian (Douglas Coler), CEO of First National Copier Products, knows how to sell. He's a former junkie who speaks in motivational babble. Eddy hires ex-druggies because he knows they can sell anything - including his overpriced copier products. His sleazy sales manager, Dallas (Jimmie F. Skaggs), encourages competition among the employees with a high-stakes - albeit rigged -contest that pits the top two salesmen - Freebase Frank (Frank Uzzolino) and Doc (Marty Levy) - against each other.
Although the men admire Eddy, his top sales-woman/mistress, Judy (Adelaide Vaughn), has his number: Eddy can't stop selling.When an attractive graduate student (Susan Ziegler) asks Eddy if she can interview him for her dissertation, he's flattered rather than alarmed at having his business practices exposed. Although some of Fante's play recalls David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, the plot never lets go, partly thanks to Jolene Adams' taut staging, which keeps pace with the hardcore macho dialogue.