From the NYTimes re Mamet play Jan08 -possible new vehicle for Nathan Lane?

[SamIAm]

Posted: 5/9/07 at 6:39pm

Mamet to Return to Theater of Politics


By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
Published: May 10, 2007
The last time David Mamet dipped his sharp pen into presidential politics was in 1997, when he was a co-author of the screenplay for “Wag the Dog,” about a — ahem — fictional president who tries to stage a fake war to distract from a damaging sex scandal.

Anyone wondering what he would have to say about today’s fraught political environment doesn’t have to wonder much longer. Politics are the subject of Mr. Mamet’s next play, “November,” scheduled to open in January 2008 at a Broadway theater to be announced.

The play, to be directed by Joe Mantello, is a contemporary comedy about a president named Charles Smith and is set a few days before the election, in which he is running as an incumbent. The action unfolds over one day and involves, according to a synopsis provided by the producers, “civil marriage, gambling casinos, lesbians, American Indians, presidential libraries, questionable pardons and campaign contributions.”

As a chronicler of moral frailty and heartlessness in the darker corners of American culture, Mr. Mamet has written about thieves, real estate salesmen, academics and Hollywood producers, but outside of “Wag the Dog” he has generally steered clear of American politics.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Mr. Mamet said he had written some political essays when he was much younger and had lately been drawing crude political cartoons for huffingtonpost.com.

This play, which he described as “three men in a room trying to work things out,” was inspired by the absurdity of the presidentially pardoned turkeys every Thanksgiving.

“November” would be Mr. Mamet’s sixth play to open on Broadway (plus two revivals) but the first to have its world premiere there. “It just always seemed to be a Broadway play,” Mr. Mamet said.

Much of the team behind the play has worked together before. Mr. Mantello directed the Tony Award-winning revival of Mr. Mamet’s play “Glengarry Glen Ross” in 2005. The producers of that revival, Jeffrey Richards and Jerry Frankel, will be producing “November.” Scott Pask, who a co-designer of “The Coast of Utopia” this season, will design the set.

No casting has been announced, but the chatter percolating around Broadway is that Nathan Lane is under consideration for the role of President Smith.

“I can neither confirm nor deny that he is doing the role,” Mr. Richards said. “It calls for a great actor with superlative comic timing, and certainly someone like Nathan Lane fits that requirement.”

Updated On: 5/9/07 at 06:39 PM