20 Years Ago – Speed The Plow

20 years ago, in the summer of 1988, Madonna made her big Broadway stage debut as Karen in Speed The Plow, a play by David Mamet which was a satirical look upon movie business with two Hollywood producers discussing the eternal issue of real art WS money making.

Speed-the-Plow premiered in May 1988 at the Royale Theater, Broadway, New York, with Joe Mantegna as Gould, Ron Silver as Fox and Madonna as Karen the double faced assistant . The play was nominated for a Tony Award for Play of the Year. Silver won a Tony Award for Best Actor (Play). Reviews for Madonna‘s performance ranged from five stars to one star, showing once again how hard was to part the actress from the preconceived ideas of her as a pop star.