November

Photo/David Hume Kennerly

The one nice thing about blogging theater is that I don't have to wait until the press embargo lifts to warn you all about certain shows, such as this piece of "happy horseshit," the occasionally funny but completely pointless David Mamet comedy, November. Without anything to talk about beyond the basic bashing of the theatrical-stand-in-for-Bush ("Why do they all hate me?" "Because you have fucked up every single thing you've touched."), Mamet relies heavily on an exaggerated circumstance -- President Charles Smith sets out to extort $200M from the National Association of Turkey By-Products Manufacturers by threatening to pardon all the turkeys -- for a plot, and then piles on absurdities through a series of one-sided phone calls that turn away from actual human interaction and into The Nathan Lane Show. Funny, perhaps, but you don't need Joe Mantello or David Mamet for that.

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