Nathan Lane Set to Play the President in Mamet's November
Nathan Lane has been cast as the U.S. President in David Mamet's November, a new political comedy that will begin performances in December, according to Variety. As previously reported, Joe Mantello will direct the play at a Shubert theater still to be named. No other casting has been announced.
Described as a comedy set a few days before the election, the five-character play follows the misadventures of a day in the life of beleaguered commander-in-chief Charles Smith. Mantello directed the Tony Award-winning 2005 revival of Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross and won his own Tony for the presidential-themed musical Assassins. He previously directed Lane in The Odd Couple and Love! Valour! Compassion!
The last Mamet play to premiere on Broadway was Speed-the-Plow, co-starring Ron Silver and Madonna, produced by Lincoln Center Theater at the Royale in 1988. The Old Neighborhood, which began at the American Repertory Theater in Boston, was the last new Mamet play on Broadway, produced at the Booth in 1997 in a production production starring Patti LuPone, Peter Riegert and the playwright's wife, Rebecca Pidgeon. Off-Broadway's Atlantic Theater Company, co-founded by Mamet, produced the world premiere of Romance in 2005 and his adaptation of The Voysey Inheritance earlier this season.
