2024 the best man play review
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(as of Nov 17, 2024 10:53:15 UTC - Details)
The Best Man.
Publisher : Dramatist's Play Service; Revised edition (January 1, 1998)
Language : English
Paperback : 82 pages
ISBN-10 : 0822215276
ISBN-13 : 978-0822215271
Item Weight : 3.2 ounces
Dimensions : 5 x 0.25 x 7.75 inches
Reviewer: Koshka
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Very Fun
Review: This play is very easy and fun to read. I was required to read it in my literature class, But I do not regret. If you liked the movie "Primary colors", the book has pretty much the same idea.
Reviewer: MoiraFromNewYork
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Gore Vidal a zinger at the Kennedys; the same time, a rumination on the need for civilized (and lost?) politics
Review: The wonderful Gore Vidal seethes because he was on the losing side of history, but scarcely can speak of it, so highly regarded are the winners and their narrative.Gore had a complex and diffident relationship with his relatives the Kennedys, but clearly their kind of politics and Democratic Party was not the Party of the old Wallace, Eleanor Roosevelt, Stevenson that Gore mourns.This play was the most emphatic of his efforts of vengeance against the Kennedys (while hiding behind fiction), and in one of the key pivotal characters in this play Gore Vidal twists and hypes Kennedy ruthlessness and flirtation with the Anti-Communist Right into a narrow and single minded power-hungry caricature of Jack Kennedy.If you followed Vidal as I did, he would from time to time give of a glimpse of his angst of his at being caught unredeemingly in the eddies of history. But even in this play he avoids a full attack on the winners, giving himself a bit of deniability for what he knows would be a deeply unpopular view. But absorbing all background that makes Gore Vidal's sophisticated cynicism in all his books deeper and richer.
Reviewer: Dana Pless
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A great production!
Review: I bought this CD set as part of my preparation for a play reading of The Best Man. It was a great radio production of Vidal's wonderful play, with top-notch performances by several members of the cast.
Reviewer: David Fulmer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A Brilliant Political Play
Review: This play is about the backroom dealings surrounding a Philadelphia convention to pick a partyâs candidate in an upcoming presidential election. The two leading candidates are William Russell, the former Secretary of State and a proud man of principles with a past of mental health issues, and Senator Joe Cantwell, an unscrupulous self-promoter who excels at television performances but who also has his own skeletons in the closet - sexual secrets dating back to his WWII service in the navy. The play consists entirely of the back room dealings with a few snippets of press interactions. Russell and Cantwell discuss their campaigns with their advisors and wives, and ultimately have a dramatic face to face confrontation where their true characters come through. An ex-President, Art Hockstader, mingling amongst the two candidates and promising an upcoming endorsement of one of them helps Vidal to include some folksy American political satire (âI've often pretended I thought there was a God, for political purposes.â).While Vidal doesnât shine quite as brightly in the theater format as he does in the essay genre, this is still a fantastically cutting satire of the American political process and the archetypes of Washington D.C. The quips and maneuverings among the political candidates are entertaining and believable, and while this was originally produced for the stage in 1960, over a half century ago, it still feels timely and relevant. The dramatic elements - mental problems and homosexual pasts - and the political maneuverings, even the role of China in foreign relations, itâs all still a part of modern American political life. This is a devastating critique of both the process of a party picking a candidate, and the candidates themselves, which is why itâs called, ironically, âThe Best Man.â
Reviewer: Jordan Edwards
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Five Stars
Review: What a wonderful play. I love it!
Reviewer: audrey frances
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: competent play about the political process
Review: This is a fairly simple story. Two candidates seek the presidential nomination. One is a good guy, an intellectual, the other a crass opportunist, someone who's ruthless and unprincipled. Another important character is the ex-president; both men are fighting for his endorsement even as another drama unfolds: the thuggish guy has information about the good guy that will hurt his chances and he intends to release it.Then the good guy receives information that would devastate the bad guy's chances. Does the good guy use that information? If he does, is he still a 'good guy'?The play is short. The dialogue sounds authentic. The themes still stand up, unfortunately. But I agree with the reviewer who found it too simplistic. I would love for 1990s Vidal to have written an updated version.
Reviewer: Timothy P. Biglow
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: "The Best Man" indeed wins
Review: This script is just as timely today during the current election climate as it was when Gore Vidal first penned it back in the 60s. Yes...as with all writings, some material is a bit on the dated side, (especially the references to women before the women's right movement of the 70s) but all in all the same truths hold up today as they did back then. A good read. By chance the other night, I also happened to catch the film version with Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson. It was faithful to the script and very good.
Reviewer: Kentucky Kurio
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A little dated but still excellent
Review: There were a ton of great political movies made in the early and mid 1960's and this is the basis for one of the best. Originally a Broadway play, it was made into a movie starting Henry Fonda and a young Cliff Robertson. (I highly recommend the movie.)It's the story of two very different men vying for the nomination of their party for President. One is moral and intellectual and the other, well, not so much. The dialogue is outstanding and has certain expectations of the reader. Younger readers may have to keep Google on stand-by. But it flows well and builds towards a great surprise ending.One caveat: It is a play, not a novel.
Reviewer: Michael.
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Vidal's play is more than prescient, given events since it was first written. Vidal is easily the best USA writer since the Second World War. If you wish to be informed of US culture, politics, arts and society, he's your man.
Reviewer: Tanja Weth
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Alles perfekt. Die komplette Abwicklung. Fünf Sterne, besser geht es nicht.Danke für den Service!!! Falls ich wieder mal ein Buch aus den USA benötige, sind Sie die erste Wahl!