Celebrity stunt casting - Lindsay Lohan's failed mission of taking away attention from being a celebrity name and draw attention to the fact that she's an actress

Casting Lindsay Lohan in Mamet's 'Speed the Plow' at London's West End I thought was a bold move... acting abilities aside if I were a producer the not-so-reliable reputation alone would make me nervous.

Lindsay Lohan as Karen and Nigel Lindsay as Charlie Fox in Speed-the-Plow.
Photograph: Tristram Kenton

That same reputation made many people expect a train wreck... even before rehearsals started rumors made it to Playbill.com saying Lohan was already "final warning" for her behavior during rehearsals for the upcoming London revival of Speed-the-Plow.

I've not seen the play, I will not see it because I'll not get to London during its run,  if I were I'd probably go see it, if not to see how this stunt casting worked out but because I was a huge fan of The West Wing - casting the accomplished Richard Schiff would have been enough reason for me to bag myself a ticket.

Because stunt casting this is...

‘I’m at a point when I want a diligent routine and I really want to get back into work. And I wanted to do something different: people have certain perceptions of me and I wanted to change them by doing something like a Mamet play,"she told Time Out London.

She went on to say: "I’m hoping it’ll take away attention from me as a celebrity name and draw attention to the fact that I’m an actress."

Really? A Mamet Play in London's West End is your idea of a good opportunity to get your toe in the water? and even more interesting, it's your attempt to draw away from being a celebrity name and going back to being an actress first?

I think the producer had a different idea and cast you because of the celebrity rep... but hey, who cares why you were cast, go for it!

First opinions were...  terrible:

Lindsay Lohan defends Speed-the-Plow West End debut after messing up lines
The Independent 

but honestly, this was after the first preview... and it's called previews for a reason. Yes I'd expect the cast to be off book even in the first preview, but they might still be tweaking, the show has not openend yet, you have no real expectation to the finished product...

Lohan going on the defense though... maybe not a great idea if the thought really was to shed celebrity and return to the basic of being an actress. Defense draws attention.

All in all what that first wave of critisism did was make me curious on the professional reviews... the critics that head to protocol and wait for opening night to watch the finished product and judge that.

To be honest I was surprised... the reviews are a bit of a mixed bag... my go-to critic is The Guardian's Michael Billington:  Speed-the-Plow review - Lindsay Lohan brings unusual naivety to tame revival... sure, he only gives it 2 stars (aka it's a bomb imo) but Lohan gets off pretty good, it's Schiff that amazingly apparently fell flat.

Lindsay Lohan (Karen) and Richard Schiff (Bobby Gould) in Speed-The-Plow. Photograph: Tristram Kenton

the Independent's headline:  Speed-the-Plow, theatre review: What a turn up! Lindsay Lohan silences the doubters with a deft performance

Paul Taylor gave it three stars, but ended his review with

A good but by no means a great night out whose value does not depend on the swirl of publicity occasioned by the female lead.

his headline is really all the positive he has to say about Lohan, both Schiff and Nigel Lindsay did work out well for him:

Richard Schiff and Nigel Lindsay are in fine, darkly frisky form as the pair of producers whose longstanding friendship she threatens to sunder.

Lindsay Lohan with Richard Schiff in rehearsal for 'Speed-the-Plow'

I would have liked to have seen this, to form my own opinion, but going by the peoples reactions to the previews and after reading the mixed bag of professional reviews, I think it's not a huge miss... I'll survive I think.

Kudos for the producers to take a chance, I hope it works well for them and their celebrity name doesn't fall back but sticks to her intention to leave her more troubled past behind at least for the entire planned run. Kudos to Lindsay Lohan for trying something new, stage work takes more bravery than movies or tv I think. The decision to do a play may have been easier than actually going out there and do it.  Great, good or bad, I'll never know for myself, but according to the critics... not too bad to say the least.