Los Angeles Times
- Not Recommended
"...Sadly, the production is crisper to look at than to experience. The Oval Office setting by scenic designer Takeshi Kata offers just the right stately environment for the madcap high jinks to explode in. But the political commentary has all the crunch of wilted celery, and the farce drags to the finish line."
Variety
- Recommended
"...This is satire with a scorpion's sting."
LA Weekly
- Recommended
"...Scott Zigler's staging (on Takeshi Kata's scrumptious Oval Office set) has a weird psychological credence, thanks largely to Begley's silky, very funny performance, flush with emotion yet bereft of histrionics. His Smith is a walking moral vacuum, struggling to find something noble within or beyond him."
Backstage
- Somewhat Recommended
"..."November," though adept and amusing, is hardly hilarious and essentially harmless. The last is what's most wrong with it."
Edge
- Recommended
"...In the end, this production of "November" at the Mark Taper Forum comes off as a success."
Stage and Cinema
- Not Recommended
"...Given the hard, cramped Mark Taper Forum seats, I for one was very glad the show ran faster than its promised 80 extremely glib minutes."
The Hollywood Reporter
- Not Recommended
"...He fulminates too hard to too little effect, often on the assumption that the zing of howling political incorrectness will suffice to give the piece heft, most of which has become far less transgressive as real-life rhetoric in the current campaign has far surpassed these hoary whoppers. November is a very short piece, barely 75 minutes, yet it has the feeling of an over-extended sketch that can only sustain itself by repeating the same humorously styled gambits many times over."
StageHappenings.com
- Not Recommended
"...Director Zigler has moved everything nicely around on Takeshi Kata's elegant office of the president, with Laura Bauer's tactful costume design, but it doesn't add up to very much, most unfortunately. I want to laugh (instead of cry) at what we have wrought in today's nation of greedy fools, but this wasn't the moment. More's the pity."
Examiner
- Recommended
"...Unlike "Romance," the 2005 Mamet comedy it most closely resembles, "November" is not a turkey. This latest comedy, at the Mark Taper Forum directed by Scott Zigler, is tighter and funnier, its broadness used to greater comic and emotional effect."
ArtsBeatLA
- Recommended
"...Performances are all very good, but then again, the material has its own buoyancy and run-away-train rhythm to it. Nor is anyone asked to do much with their role apart from maintain some cracking comedic timing."
LA Stage Times
- Not Recommended
"...Knowing this background, Mamet's current political predilections and the fact that an African American is now the president who's running for re-election, I couldn't help but wonder what November would have been like if a black actor had been cast in the presidential role. Sure, it probably would have roused the ire of some of the Taper's patrons who support Obama – and that might have included me as well. But at least it would have made the play seem more pointed than pointless, more incisive than insipid."
On Stage Los Angeles
- Recommended
"...This is simply brilliant theatre."
Neon Tommy
- Somewhat Recommended
"...By all accounts, the play should make a more memorable impression than it does; it was penned by David Mamet, a well-respected playwright, it features a respected cast with a slew of film, TV, and theater credits under their belt, and it should be particularly relevant with the forthcoming election. Yet somehow, "November" plays from start to finish without making a real impact."
Frontiers
- Recommended
"...Director Scott Zigler and a first-rate cast tear into Mamet's boisterous dialogue with abandon, mining the material for maximum laughter, demonstrating sharp insight into the playwright's jaundiced view of the Washington political zoo."
TheaterMania
- Not Recommended
"...Mamet sprinkles the play with many chuckles, but the play meanders too freely, and when it finally arrives at its destination, it seems like much ado about nothing. It doesn't really have much new to say. Politicians are hypocrites. Politicians are greedy. Politicians don't mean what they say in speeches .Ultimately, the play either needs to be wittier and more farcical or much darker with more political intrigue."
VC Star
- Somewhat Recommended
"..."November" is outrageous, but does offer an opportunity to laugh at just about everything that most everyone agrees shouldn't be comic fodder. It's a guilty pleasure, but not a distinctively well-wrought one."
Culture Vulture
- Somewhat Recommended
"...It's not-so-good when Mamet scatter-shoots one-liners at lesbians, liberals, Jews, blacks, Democrats, Republicans, Iranians, American allies and foes, and scores of other targets. After a while, the shots begin to seem cheap."
Total Theater
- Recommended
"...The America that is depicted in November is completely and utterly venal, corrupt and mindless. It's also hysterically funny, thanks to Mamet's pungent dialogue and to the skilled actors who deliver it."
The Stage Struck Review
- Recommended
"...And it's funny – funny like any good farce. Ridiculous things happen and you laugh. Surprises are constant, and you laugh. That you get to laugh at the whole idea of a President and campaigning is a gift Mamet and the Taper have given to a weary electorate. Taking a look at this will make even the antics of the upcoming debates seem calm and reasonable."
Grigware Blogspot
- Recommended
"...It takes a master playwright – no one better than David Mamet – to put an audience smack dab in the middle of the political arena, in the Oval Office no less, where slings and arrows of undeniable speed fly, attack and injure."
Huffington Post
- Recommended
"...Like any good farce, this play pushes the envelope - and then some. Mamet has lots of zingers that are entirely appropriate in this silly season of electoral politics. While the script is as much Borscht Belt as Broadway, and doesn't hold a candle to the reality show that is contemporary American politics, it is a funny and wickedly enjoyable escape from the real farce playing out daily on cable news."
LifeInLA
- Recommended
"...Whether you are new to Mamet or identify yourself as a longtime fan, November is sure to entertain. Real issues come to hyperbolic life and give us an opportunity (on the eve of an election) to laugh at the absurd."
