Ok, so to address the chalkboard in the room, I still think that the 1992 movie is the definitive version. Besides THAT scene with THAT character, there are other scenes here and there in the movie that really flesh out this world*, and I’m finding this one of those instances that something makes the leap from stage to movie screen and actually grows.
*(There’s this incredible scene from the movie where we go on a “sit” with Levene, and we see just how… sorry, “not great” he is at his job, and how this whole game has maybe just left him behind. “I know people like you and I know what you’re up to…” Jack Lemmon, man… wow.)
The missing ABC scene – and with it, Alec Baldwin’s character (also incredible in this) – left me with this odd feeling. Like maybe there’s “glue” in the movie that’s simply missing from the play? Dunno…
Another thing that left me with this odd feeling were the racial epithets strewn about in several places in the script. Some revivals actually dropped some of them. I’m not willing to get into some goofy-ass discussion about “cancel culture” and “PERFORM THE WORK AS IT WAS WRITTEN”, but in a modern setting it does feel a bit… forced? I guess is the word?
Did that hit differently in 1983 when this premiered? Obviously, but also maybe it was a device to drive home how casually awful all these characters are. Without anything to frame it for a time and place, though, it’s… again, it feels a little forced.
I slightly wonder if there’s any way to really fix that, or anything. Probably not.