NOVEMBER Reviews

That's pretty much how I felt about the show. I really enjoyed the humor and performances, but thought the play itself to be slight and overreaching. The denouement was silly and not quite successful in my opinion.

I still think, however, that it was a fun night at the theatre.

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Positive from Talkin' Broadway:

"Only Lane and Mamet are needed to get at the heart of the Smith and, thus, politics itself. Whether giving voice to the underlying philosophies of rank American capitalism ("The power to trade this for that is what separates us from the lower life forms"), explaining how he bandages the bloodiest issues that face him ("There are no solutions, Bernstein, there are only arrangements of problems"), or juggling the prospects of selling pardons to finance his presidential library or merely apply them guiltlessly toward turkeys, Lane expertly communicates the nothing-centric worldview Mamet has scripted for Smith with the confidence of a State of the Union address.

So engaging is he, in fact, that you might be tempted to view him as an attractive alternative to the candidates in our own presidential race this year, who speak of carefully chosen concepts while saying every bit as little. But don't be fooled, Mamet warns - talking about change and actually changing things are concepts just as different as liberals and conservatives. Whatever category he falls into, and regardless of what he might say, Smith isn't the real deal. November, on the other hand, definitely is."

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/November.html

The Associated Press is a Rave:

You might be forgiven for thinking that Nathan Lane was shot out of a cannon when the curtain rises on "November," David Mamet's maniacally funny new comedy now producing waves of laughter at Broadway's Ethel Barrymore Theatre...

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/01/17/arts/Theater-November.php

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what ive been telling people is that i enjoyed it VERY MUCH, but that i really need more depth from a theatrical experience.

Its like a smart, extremely HIGH QUALITY sitcom for adults; if i had seen it on tv instead of the theater, i would be raving about it!

but in theater, i want to feel like ive grown, changed or learned something.

Norn, you are absolutely right! This would have made one of the best sitcoms in years. A little trite for a Broadway ticket.

Yet, still very enjoyable.

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Here's Word of Mouth's review:

http://www.broadway.com/gen/General.aspx?ci=559322

Two lawyers and a beauty salon owner. Sitcom?

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Brantley is pretty MIXED in the Times...

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/theater/reviews/18nove.html?ref=theater

"You may have been wondering just how all those gagmeisters who make their livings contributing jokes to television talk show monologues and sketch reviews have been occupying their time during the long-lived writers’ strike. Well, one possibility would be that they have been funneling their one-liners — and not always their best ones — directly to David Mamet.

This is probably not really the case, since Mr. Mamet is a writer famous for doing things his way, or sneering in quotable contempt when forced to do otherwise. But in “November,” his glib and jaunty new play about a sitting president, which opened on Thursday night at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, darned if his way doesn’t sound an awful lot like Jay Leno’s way.
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I suspect that people who tittered uneasily during the recent Broadway revival of the Mamet masterwork “Glengarry Glen Ross” are guffawing with side-slapping gusto during this production, which also stars Dylan Baker (as the president’s lawyer) and is directed by Joe Mantello. Maybe it’s because there’s a dearth of new scripted television comedy.
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Despite the thick swarm of obscenities that are de rigueur in a Mamet play, there’s nothing remotely shocking about “November.” If the play had been acted in the old Mamet tradition of louts stewing broodingly in homicidal rage and exasperation, it would probably be more unsettling when the president disgorges racist, sexist and xenophobic diatribes.

But, hey, it’s Nathan Lane playing the president. Everybody loves Nathan, with his leprechaun smile, semaphore eyebrows and “how-sweet-it-is” inflections. People wind up rooting for Charles Smith even at his nastiest, the same way they once rooted for Carroll O’Connor as Archie Bunker or W. C. Fields as W. C. Fields.

Mr. Mantello, who directed the superb revival of “Glengarry Glenn Ross” three years ago, also directed Mr. Lane in the most recent revival of Neil Simon’s “Odd Couple.” And it’s the Neil Simon mode that prevails here. The production has the air of a “Saturday Night Live” sketch retro-styled to resemble a Sid Caesar comedy revue of the 1950s.

In other words, “November” is a David Mamet play for people who don’t like David Mamet. Being a long-time Mamet devotee, I cannot say I see this as a cause for rejoicing. Finding the singular Mamet voice (I mean, other than in its “#@$+*!” verbal punctuation) requires hard listening.

If you keep your ears peeled, you’ll be rewarded by passages that confirm Mr. Mamet’s enduring fascination with language as a shield and weapon. The speeches that Clarice Bernstein, Ms. Metcalf’s character, comes up with impromptu for her boss are smooth, canny embodiments of the seductive spiels that Americans can’t help falling for during campaign season. The president respects Bernstein (as he calls her), despite her “loathsome and abominable” sexual practices, because she’s a pro. You sense that Mr. Mamet feels the same way about her verbal facility."

I do like Brantley's review, it makes me somewhat interested in the play. I also just enjoyed reading it.

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Well, probably the mixed previews that people were hearing about contributed to it as well as the subject matter. With all the political coverage we endure every day, a lot of people would rather go see a musical.
I thought it was a welcomed change of pace on Broadway because I feel the musicals are somewhat stale and need to get away from the trend of making a show from something that's already familiar. I like to see original material which is why I saw this play in previews and will go again.

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The budget on advertising for this play must be very small. I haven't seen anything on tv and just some print ads in the Sunday paper. Probably relying on word of mouth, but I don't think that will happen.

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