November
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Cititour.com Review
David Mamet, one of our most renowned American playwrights, has a style all his own. It’s a fluid combination of rapid-fire delivery and voluminous profanity which in his past plays like "Glengarry Glen Ross" have taken on the dynamics of a classical concert. Yet his latest contribution to Broadway, "November" veers into new territory.
It’s an uproarious political satire with strains of the Marx Brothers which plays with plenty of verve as Nathan Lane, as the President, takes the helm snapping out one-liners with the grace of Milton Berlin. Dylan Baker, as his attorney, is his straight man and Laurie Metcalf, as his Jewish, lesbian, speech-writer, careens in and out of the picture like a classic vaudeville routine. Add Ethan Phillips to the mix as a turkey lobbyist vying for a presidential pardon for the Thanksgiving star, and director Joe Montello giving all this shtick a polished gleam, and you have an evening filled with laughs and thinly masked intelligent quips about our sitting president and his activities.
Lane’s character, President Charles (Chucky) Smith has been an ineffectual leader. As he says, "The great problems that I found I leave behind me." He’s a prejudice blowhard who says out loud what like-minded individuals only secretly think. Take this, his opinion on what happens in America to adopted Asian children, "first they learned to play the cello and then bested our children at math." His delivery is pure Lane - sputtering, flinging wildly about and wringing every drop of humor possible out of every wisecrack. Baker matches him, line for smartly delivered line, like the best of comedy teams. Metcalf, whose character has been given a bad cold by the playwright, seems somewhat hindered by this restriction.
At less than two hours including an intermission, the play for all of its humor, seems better suited to a one-act version. And although it will certainly play well in the blue states, the little jabs at our current administration, sometimes go down like a left-over sandwich.
Still, there’s nothing more comfortable than the familiar and Mamet has penned a lively comedy in "November" with routines (like an argument over the word 'legal') worthy of their Abbot and Costello inspiration. "November" is a poison-pen letter that probably won't kill anyone but it's certainly sharp enough to be delivered with confidence.
By Lesley Alexander
Cast
Nathan Lane, Laurie Metcalf, Dylan Baker, Michael Nichols, Ethan Phillips
Open/Close Dates
Opening 12/20/2007
Closing 7/13/2008
Box Office
(212) 239-6200
Theatre Info
Ethel Barrymore Theatre
234 West 47th Street
New York, NY 10036
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