[1] As quoted in The Producer's Perspective, Jack Kroll of Newsweek described Speed-the-Plow as "another tone poem by our nation's foremost master of the language of moral epilepsy.

"[1] The play sets its context with an epigraph (not to be recited in performance) by William Makepeace Thackeray, from his novel Pendennis, contained in a frontispiece: It starts: "Which is the most reasonable, and does his duty best: he who stands aloof from the struggle of life, calmly contemplating it, or he who descends to the ground, and takes his part in the contest?

Gould tells Fox about a book he has been asked to give a "courtesy read" to, meaning that it is not seriously being considered to be made into a film.

He offers Karen a chance to take part in the process by reading the book and delivering to him her opinion of it to him that night at his home.

Karen says that she knows Gould invited her to his place in order to sleep with her and starts to seduce him into taking her to bed, and into pitching the book instead of the Doug Brown film.

The Secret Middle Ages (ISBN 0-7509-2685-6) by Malcolm Jones discusses the origin of the phrase "God Speed the Plow" in a celebration known as Plow Monday and a 14th-century poem: God spede the plow And send us all corne enow Our purpose for to mak At crow of cok Of the plwlete of Sygate Be mery and glade Wat Goodale this work mad There is an 18th-century English play by Thomas Morton called Speed the Plough, which introduced the character of the prudish Mrs. Grundy.

In George Meredith's novel The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, the young protagonist, running away from home, encounters two peasants discussing their experiences, the Tinker and Speed-the-Plow.

[3]Speed-the-Plow premiered on Broadway at the Royale Theatre in a production by the Lincoln Center Theater, opening on May 3, 1988, and closing on December 31, 1988, after 279 performances.

The cast featured Jeremy Piven as Bobby Gould, Raúl Esparza as Charlie Fox, and Elisabeth Moss as Karen.

The play was presented at the Remains Theater in 1987 starring William Peterson, the Geffen Playhouse, Los Angeles, in February and March 2007.

Directed by Geffen artistic director Randall Arney, the cast starred Alicia Silverstone as Karen, Greg Germann as Charlie Fox and Jon Tenney as Bobby Gould.

[17][18][19] Theater critic Michael Kuchwara praised Mamet's play saying "absolutely on target, demolishing the egomaniacs who decide what reaches the silver screen".

[23] Due to her "highly publicized" stage role,[24] every night after the show, a throng of Madonna fans would encircle the backstage exits of the theater.