NOVEMBER Reviews

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 1/17/08 at 6:40pm

Mixed from AMNY:

"There's a pretty big divide between Acts One and Two. Whereas Act One hums along nicely with an over-the-top comedic performance from Lane and tons of one-liners and cursing from Mamet, Act Two sours the joviality by trying to make sense and get serious. That was probably not the greatest idea. After all, how often do we look for a moral in sketch comedy?

But do not get us wrong, the play is nicely staged by Mantello and delightfully absurd for the most part. And best of all, Nathan Lane is delivering the kind of flamboyant, overreaching performance that he excels in. And even if it's indulging in silliness, it touches on a national conversation about gay marriage we're itching to debate. And shouldn't we reward a production brave enough to open cold on Broadway?"

http://www.amny.com/entertainment/am-mamet0118,0,7558518.story

[TomMonster]

Posted: 1/17/08 at 6:43pm

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.

[SamIAm]

Posted: 1/17/08 at 6:51pm

Call me old fashioned but I still hate that people publish reviews before the curtain goes up on opening night. It is the same rabid journalism that makes networks go live with a story and report details before they even know what is going on.

In this case, all the critics have the same opportunity to see the show and to write their review in plenty of time for opening night. But, in the old days, the curtain at least went up and came down before the reviews were published. It doesn't change anything other than the opening night buzz and exictement. At least give the creative team and the cast the chance to open before you begin to pick the bones.

This one wasn't too bad, but it still irks me that everyone has to rush to deadline to be first. I suppose I just need to accept that this is the norm these days, but it is still a pet peeve.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 1/17/08 at 7:11pm

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

[dramamama611]

Posted: 1/17/08 at 7:11pm

I'm actually NOT a huge fan of Nathan Lane. I was hoping that he wasn't going to be his usual over-the-top-I-know-I'm-funny kind of way.


Oh, well.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 1/17/08 at 7:23pm

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

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 1/17/08 at 7:50pm

Mixed from Variety:

"Mamet knows his terrain, and "November" touches on plenty of pertinent issues regarding the current administration -- a knowingly manipulated panic level and a public that no longer cares, a cavalier attitude to starting wars, unscrupulous solicitation of campaign funds, the diligent dissemination of immigration anxiety and knee-jerk opposition to same-sex civil unions. But while it's frequently funny, the comedy doesn't leave much aftertaste, too often relying on amped-up profanity or snide ethnic epithets for bite.

Director Joe Mantello's last collaboration with Mamet was the incisive 2005 revival of "Glengarry Glen Ross," and while he bumps this production along at the same brisk clip, the writing here just doesn't compare. Modifying his trademark interruptus-speak for complete sentences, Mamet seems to be working hard to amuse without creating three-dimensional characters that inhabit a believable world.

Weakest of the key figures -- which is problematic given that she's the source of the central conflict -- is Clarice. It's unsurprising that a machismo-fixated writer like Mamet might go for easy visual shortcuts in depicting a contemporary, liberal-leaning lesbian -- a Whole Foods bag, yoga, clunky glasses and a bad perm -- but this is a waste of a terrific actress, giving Metcalf little to do but react with tested patience while remaining obtusely loyal to her self-serving boss."

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117935811.html?categoryid=33&cs=1

[Unknown User]

Posted: 1/17/08 at 9:18pm

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.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 1/17/08 at 9:20pm

Positive from Theatermania:

"Lane, who is never offstage for the show's nearly two-hour running time, chews with supreme, unbridled gusto into the plum role of Charles H.P. "Chuck" Smith, the soon-to-be-unelected President of the United States. Smith is a man with exceedingly low morals, intelligence, tact, or ethics -- and a decidedly Mametian propensity for the "F word." Ensconced in the Oval Office (well designed by Scott Pask), Smith desperately bounces from scheme to scheme in an effort to raise money for his Presidential library -- or perhaps even one last, slim chance of re-election. Extorting money from the National Association of Turkey Manufacturers? Why not? They won't hand over enough moolah? Then why not convince a Native American chief to say the Pilgrims ate codfish instead of turkey on Thanksgiving -- and called it tuna by accident.

Aided by his old pal, director Joe Mantello, Lane pulls every single one of his copious acting tricks out of the bag in impersonating Smith (whom Mamet has been quoted as saying is not meant to be George W. Bush). He blusters, bellows, cowers, scoops, and double-takes, whether or not the occasion demands it. It's a masterful display of both physical and verbal dexterity -- and one that goes a long way into sending some of Mamet's many one-liners, hurled at the audience with the kind of speed that would make Neil Simon blush, into the virtual stratosphere. True, one must bring a willingness to laugh at oneself -- and virtually every ethnic, religious, and racial group on the planet -- into the theater, as Mamet tosses off one politically incorrect (and certainly insincere) remark after another. Heck, even Scandinavians are not safe from Mamet's barbed tongue."

http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/12504

[TomMonster]

Posted: 1/17/08 at 9:22pm

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.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 1/17/08 at 9:23pm

I forgot this show existed.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 1/17/08 at 9:26pm

Here's Word of Mouth's review:

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

Two lawyers and a beauty salon owner. Sitcom?

[A Director]

Posted: 1/17/08 at 9:52pm

First there was August:Osage County The Soap Opera, now there is November The Sitcom. Yep, Broadway is becoming more like TV everyday.

[LaCageAuxFollesFan2]

Posted: 1/17/08 at 10:34pm

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.
________________________________________________________________
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.
________________________________________________________________
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."

[harvester7]

Posted: 1/17/08 at 10:35pm

Brantley's review is up:
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/theater/reviews/18nove.html

" 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.

But even more, I think, “November” allows mainstream theatergoers to feel comfortable with Mr. Mamet in a way they haven’t before. After all, with George W. Bush’s own poll status bidding fair to rival “Gandhi’s cholesterol numbers” (as the play puts it), and headlines regularly promising new accounts of bad behavior in high places, much of America is on the same cynical page when it comes to national politics. The first glimpse of the Oval Office (rendered for the stage by Scott Pask) is enough to set off giggles.

“November,” which portrays Mr. Lane’s character, Charles Smith, as an unpopular president up for re-election, might have been an act of daring four years ago, when Mr. Bush was running for a second term. But in the twilight of his executive tenure, the American presidency has become a fish in a barrel for everybody’s target practice.

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."

[Not Barker, Todd.]

Posted: 1/17/08 at 10:42pm

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

[defyingravity11]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 2:04am

I saw this on TKTS tonight an hour before curtain, but I ended up seeing Mermaid instead. Anyone know why opening night wasn't sold out?

[mc1227]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 2:22am

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.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 5:48am

Just a guess on it not being sold out: Ummm, not enough people bought the tickets?

Few straight plays do...sad but true. The 'average' theatre goer wants only to be entertained, they feel they get the most bang for their buck by seeing a musical. (I bring my HS drama club to NY for a weekend every year, THEY get to pick the shows--since they are the one's PAYING-- I can't begin to tell you the last time they chose to see a straight play. Truly. They sadden me that way.)

For those of you that are IN NY: how much press has there BEEN about November? I don't think it would have been a blip on my radar if I don't scour sites like this and other NY/B'way sites.

[mc1227]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 9:16am

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.