#TIME » Lindsay Lohan Doesn’t Make or Break the London Production of Speed-The-Plow Comments Feed Harry Styles Helped a Fan Propose at a One Direction Concert This Case Is the Real-World Version of Gone Girl alternate alternate TIME WordPress.com TIME Time.com MY ACCOUNT SIGN IN SIGN OUT SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE Home U.S. Politics World Business Tech Health Science Entertainment Newsfeed Living Sports History The TIME Vault Magazine Ideas Parents TIME Labs Money LIFE The Daily Cut Photography Videos TIME Shop The 100 Most Influential People The 25 Best Inventions of 2015 Future of Giving Know Right Now Next Generation Leaders Person of the Year 2015 Top 10 Everything of 2015 Top of the World A Year In Space Subscribe Newsletters Feedback Privacy Policy Your California Privacy Rights Terms of Use Ad Choices Ad Choices RSS TIME Apps TIME for Kids Advertising Reprints and Permissions Site Map Help Customer Service © 2016 Time Inc. All rights reserved. Entertainment MY ACCOUNT SIGN IN SIGN OUT SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE MORE (BUTTON) U.S. Edition * U.S. Edition * Europe, Middle East and Africa Edition * Asia Edition * South Pacific Edition Celine Dion’s Brother Dies Just Days After Her Husband David Bowie Honored With His Own Lightning Bolt-Shaped Constellation Wonder Woman Movie Will Be Set During World War I, Co-Star Says David Bowie Dressed for the Future All Content The Simpsons Inadvertently Paid Tribute to Alan Rickman and David Bowie Three Years Ago Tina Fey and Ronda Rousey to Co-Star in Do Nothing Bitches Movie Tracy Morgan Making New FX Comedy With Key & Peele Star News Anchor Apologizes for Joke About Alan Rickman’s Death Chirlane McCray: New York Values Are Foreign to Ted Cruz REVIEW: Ride Along 2 Offers More of the Same Silly Laughs TIME Entertainment Theater Lindsay Lohan Doesn’t Make or Break the London Production of Speed-The-Plow * Megan Gibson @MeganJGibson Oct. 3, 2014 SHARE Simon Annand Lindsay Lohan and Richard Schiff in the London Playhouse production of "Speed-The-Plow" The movie-turned-tabloid star takes a crack at the stage in a revival of David Mamet's showbiz satire More How to Explore Shakespeare’s First Folio OnlineRock Musicals Heat Up Broadway’s WinterThe Surprising Government Agency That Helped Launch Alvin Ailey “I know what it is to be bad.” The line, from David Mamet’s play Speed-The-Plow, belongs to the earnest secretary Karen, who is desperate to convince her Hollywood boss that she understands him. It’s not ordinarily a punchline. But when uttered by Lindsay Lohan, who has taken on the role in London’s West End in her stage debut, the line draws big laughs from the audience. While Karen initially seems as wholesome as can be, LiLo has long made headlines for being “bad.” The 28-year-old star — rumored to be uninsurable on most film sets these days due to her extracurricular exploits that have included not only rehab, but jail time — has taken numerous cracks at a comeback over the last few years. From a racy role in Paul Schrader’s The Canyons to her portrayal of Elizabeth Taylor in Lifetime’s Liz & Dick to her OWN reality series, it’s clear that Lohan wants to keep working despite her troubled personal life. Yet none of her recent efforts have managed to pull her career out of the tabloid circus its become. So it’s not surprising that the theater was packed on Thursday night with people eager to see whether Lohan would pull off a comeback — or instead make a train wreck of the production. Speed-The-Plow, which was first staged on Broadway in 1988 with Madonna in the role of Karen, satirizes the greediness and emptiness of Hollywood, a theme that seems even more timely today thanks to the mounting ubiquity of sequels and brainless blockbusters. The action revolves around Bobby Gould (played by Richard Schiff, of The West Wing fame), a newly promoted head of production at a big studio, and his longtime associate, Charlie Fox (played by British actor Nigel Lindsay), who brings Gould a potentially career-making deal: an iffy-sounding script with a major actor willing to star. Yet Karen, Gould’s temp assistant and the object of a sleazy bet between the two men, becomes invested in a highfalutin novel about radiation that she’s been asked to give a “courtesy read.” She passionately tries to convince Gould to pitch the radiation movie to the studio head, rather than the iffy-sounding blockbuster, playing on his sense of morality and his attraction to her in the process. Lohan was no train wreck, though there was one point where she flubbed her lines and needed an off-stage line prompt. Yet the snafu didn’t lead her to break character, which — in spite of her seasoned, raspy voice and unavoidable real-life reputation — she stepped into rather well. Though it might be hard to imagine Lohan playing innocent in 2014, her wide-eyed interactions with the bitter Hollywood execs brought to mind shades of Cady Heron, her naive Mean Girls character. It wasn’t a polished performance, by any means, and she rushed a good number of her lines. Still, she didn’t hold the production back. Though Schiff is also a star in his own right, his performance was too tired and down-trodden. Of the three, Lindsay — Nigel Lindsay, that is — brought the most to the play, managing to maintain the intensity and speed that the snappy dialogue needs to land right. His rage over the news that Gould is passing on his big-break deal and the two men’s subsequent fight provides the most powerful energy in the play. On the whole, the production was underwhelming, with just a few stand-out moments. Everyone involved — cast, crew and audience — seemed to know the real attraction was Lohan herself, but no one will be calling it a comeback. In the end, Lohan’s fans and detractors are likely both relieved and disappointed: she didn’t make the production, but she didn’t break it, either. Tap to read full story 0 0 Read Next Your browser is out of date. 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