In this staging of David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, the estimable Daniel Sullivan directs an assemblage of gifted stage and screen veterans — among them Al Pacino, whom Sullivan last guided on stage in a stunning The Merchant of Venice.

Pacino also has a longstanding connection to Glengarry: In the 1992 screen version, he memorably played Richard “Ricky” Roma, the slick alpha dog in a Chicago real estate office filled with salesmen struggling to preserve their jobs and sense of manhood. Now, at 72, he’s cast as Shelly Levene, a former hotshot reduced to pleading for better leads. Bobby Cannavale, 30 years younger and one of the most consistently exciting actors of his generation, plays Roma.

It would be hard to name two performers who seem better suited to the gritty, jazzy music of Mamet’s dialogue, and they are joined here by such vital players as Richard Schiff, David Harbour and John C. McGinley, who blazes through the part of office bully Dave Moss.

But Glengarry demands something more than raw dynamism. It’s essential that we feel the desperation that propels Levene and his colleagues, even nipping at Roma’s polished heels. While Sullivan and his cast convey the brutality of the men’s work environment, they don’t always nail the crackling wit — or  the sense of personal futility that haunts these guys.

Some exchanges seem either too studied or overeager, so that the humor registers as more boisterous than caustic. The comedy and pathos in Glengarry are interwoven; we should be able to laugh at these characters even as they humiliate and endanger themselves and each other. But there are times when the jousting fails to sting or threatens to veer into slapstick — and when Pacino’s delivery, in particular, borders on mugging.

Yet the star’s performance can be nuanced, too, and intricately human. In the first scene, where Levene appeals to his reluctant office manager — played by a simmering Harbour — he’s both a hustler and a beggar, obnoxious and pitiable, relentless and broken. Pacino continues to juggle those qualities in the second act, which occurs after an office robbery and finds Levene by turns triumphant and utterly defeated.

Schiff and Jeremy Shamos also have affecting moments as, respectively, a salesman whose lack of gumption or self-respect gets him into trouble, and a mousy civilian whom Roma seduces into a transaction he later regrets. Predictably, Cannavale captures Roma’s feral charisma; he also manages a funny, at times almost tender rapport with Pacino’s Levene.

It’s not every day that you get to see such top-notch performers play hardball onstage, and their flashes of electricity sustain this imperfect Glengarry.

Myla Lerner, one of the show’s producers, is married to USA TODAY  publisher Larry Kramer.

Members of the original Broadway cast of The Motherf**ker With the Hat will reunite for six performances of Stephen Adly Guirgis’ dark comedy at L.A. Theatre Works. Chris Rock, Bobby Cannavale, Elizabeth Rodriguez and Annabella Sciorra will all reprise their roles at the the James Bridges Theatre from January 31, 2013 to February 3.

The Motherf**ker With the Hat follows a former drug dealer (Cannavale) who is trying to adjust to life after prison. When he finds a mysterious hat in his girlfriend’s (Rodriguez) apartment, he questions her faithfulness and seeks advice from his sponsor (Rock). No casting has been announced at this time for the role of Cousin Julio, originally played by Tony nominee Yul Vazquez. The Motherf**ker With the Hat originally opened on Broadway on April 11, 2011. The production was nominated for six Tony Awards including Best Play. Cannavale, Rodriguez and Vazquez earned acting nods as well.

The play marked Rock’s Broadway debut. His many film credits include Head of State, The Longest Yard, Grown Ups and the Madagascar series. Cannavale is currently appearing on Broadway in Glengarry Glen Ross and previously earned a Tony nomination for Mauritius. This spring he will also lead a Broadway revival of The Big Knife. Rodgriguez’s stage credits include Unconditional, A View from 151st Street and Robbers. Sciorra has appeared off-Broadway in The Vagina Monologues, Roar and Spain.