The setting is a conference room of a law firm.  Henry Brown (David Alan Grier) and his white partner Jack Lawson (James Spader) are interviewing a prospective client (Richard Thomas).  The client, a wealthy white man, is standing trial for the rape of a black woman.

Two expert attorneys interviewing a prospective client is the perfect device for Mamet to not only inform the audience of the facts at hand and the idiosyncratic personalities of the characters we will spend the next hour and a half of our lives with, but it also serves as a perfect showcase for the playwright’s legendary use of dialogue, timing, over-lapping speech patterns and no-holds-barred language.  For a Mamet addict, this is heroin.

It is a chance to watch a conversation that anyone outside that room was never meant to hear.  And the language the characters use reflect the comfortable and brazen style reminiscent of Glengarry Glen Ross and Speed-the-Plow, the unique vernacular often referred to as “Mamet-Speak.”

Also present but silent in the play’s opening scene is Susan (Kerry Washington), an associate at the firm.  She stays on a platform that stretches the length of the stage, upstage of the action.  She is always seen, observing but remaining silent.  We notice her, but we don’t focus on her.  Her mere presence (as well as the fact that she is a beautiful black woman and the plot centers on the rape of a young black woman) is a clear indication that she will play a pivotal role in the scenes that follow, and she does.

Yes, “Race” is about a rape trial.  And yes, race plays a factor in the case.  And yes, the race of the characters on stage serves as texture, tension and explosive material for the plot’s development.  But, the real over-riding subject of this play is Political Correctness and the destruction of our society because of it.

Guilt or innocence is rarely discussed by the attorneys in the context of the facts of the case or the strategy in defending their client.  They cynically attempt to navigate the politically volatile waters they find themselves in.  A major piece of evidence in the case is a twenty-year-old postcard written by the accused man which contains inflammatory language about black women.  This is held up as more critical to proving his guilt as a rapist than any physical evidence at the scene of the crime.  It is taken as a given that a rich white man who appears to hold a prejudice against black women will be assumed to be guilty of this heinous crime.  Thus, political correctness replaces jurisprudence and the constitutional presumption of innocence. 

Welcome to the Politically Correct world we inhabit.

And this is the world Mamet wants to expose.  Ever since his landmark play “Oleanna” which was written in the wake of the Clarence Thomas hearings, the playwright has been at his best when he shows us the roaches that live behind America’s proverbial refrigerator but only scatter when he shines his flashlight on them.

Mr. Spader and Mr. Grier are a stunning tandem.  Not since Ron Silver and Joe Mantegna delivered Mamet’s dialogue in mesmerizing cadences in the original Speed-the-Plow have two actors so expertly conveyed his style and message.   Hearing Mr. Spader’s terrific stage voice articulating the unmistakable Mamet style in an intimate, live setting is truly a treat, and I drank up every word.  And in a break-out performance, Mr. Grier proves that he is a force to be reckoned with on the Broadway stage.  He has already shown audiences his comedic and musical abilities, but now he commands attention as a dramatic leading man.  Unfortunately for the audience we have to wait too long for the two of them to be alone on stage for a lengthy and pivotal scene.  We want more of the two of them and, unfortunately, less of Ms. Washington.

Ms. Washington is most often paired with Mr. Spader for the bulk of her scenes and the match-up just isn’t fair.  Mr. Spader possesses a mesmerizing and powerful voice that fills the Barrymore (seemingly unassisted by electronic amplification).  Ms. Washington does not possess such a voice.  And when her character must express intensity or anger she resorts to a painfully strained vocal style which distracts from the actual text and just sounds shrill.

The crime is that the Ms. Washington’s performance has led some critics to lazily assume that her character is weak, thus buying into the latest trend of accusing Mr. Mamet of hating women (gee, I don’t know why he seems to want to rail against political correctness so much).  But, the fact is Ms. Washington’s character is actually one of the strongest female roles written for a young, black actress in a very long time.

Mr. Thomas serves his character and the play admirably in a role that is essential to the plot, but not really important to the message.  Thus his efforts are respected, but not what you leave the theatre humming.

Mr. Mamet also deserves praise for his no-nonsense directing style.  He allows the audience to see the action without distraction we too often get from directors trying to remind you that they are there.  The staging is straight-forward and simple and does what it is supposed to do; serve the text and the actors, nothing more.

The set is handsomely executed with what I believe to be either a planned bit of symbolism, or a remarkable accident.  Stretching across the entire stage, upstage of the action is an enormous set of bookcases filled to the brim with law books of all sorts.  They loom over the play at all times.  Every scene has them as its backdrop.  You can’t escape looking at them.  And yet, in this play presented as a legal drama, set in a law office, with lawyers debating about the guilt or innocence of their client, not one of the law books is ever touched.

In Mamet’s view of American law, the actual law is not merely as important as the new, unforgiving rules of political correctness.  Go, David, Go!

Just as last season brought a record number of plays as well as stellar gross sales (despite doom-sayers in the industry) this season already looks locked and loaded with a huge number of shows scheduled to open between October 1st and the first week of May (the traditional Tony nomination cut-off).  So to help the readers of Big Hollywood plan their trip to the Great White Way (we can still say that, can’t we?), I submit the top 10 things to look for from the center/right perspective:

10.  ”Superior Donuts” – A transfer from Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre (one of my personal favorite regional houses in America), the play stars “Spinal Tap”’s Michael McKean as an aging hippie who owns a donut shop in a largely black neighborhood and Jon Michael Hill (do all young Broadway actors HAVE to go by three names now?) as a 21-year-old from the neighborhood who talks his way into a job at the shop.  From the New York Times review:  ”In one of the play’s most amusing exchanges Franco challenges Arthur to name 10 black poets. Arthur names a few, then stands dumb, a look of deep concentration on his face. “It’s like watching George Bush on ‘Jeopardy!’ ” Franco cracks.”

9.  ”Hamlet” – Uber-UN activist Jude Law stars as the Danish prince in a Broadway transfer from London’s famed Donmar Warehouse theatre company.  His performance was almost universally praised by Fleet Street’s snarky critics.  This production has Hamlet delivering his “To be, or not to be” soliloquy in an on-stage snowfall.

8.  ”Bye, Bye, Birdie” – One of the first musicals to embrace pop music with a back-beat, “Bye, Bye, Birdie” will receive a revival at New York’s Roundabout Theatre Company.  It will star Gina Gershon, Dee Hoty, Bill Irwin and (wait for it….) John Stamos.  All I can say is this production has the potential to be fantastic, or to be a complete disaster… don’t expect anything in between.

7.  ”The Neil Simon Plays:  Brighton Beach Memoirs & Broadway Bound” – Revivals of two of the three plays which made up the Neil Simon “BB” trilogy will play in repertory this Fall (I’m guessing the middle play, “Biloxi Blues,” is omitted because Brighton Beach and Broadway Bound share the exact same set which is the Brighton Beach home of Simon’s alter-ego, Eugene, so it is much easier to play them in Rep.  Biloxi takes place in an Army barracks as it follow Eugene through basic training).  The revivals will star Laurie Metcalf.

6.  ”In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play)” – After having its world premiere at Berkley Rep., this play is transferring to Broadway via Lincoln Center Theatre.  The New York Times describes the play as:  “A fanciful but compassionate consideration of the treatment, and the mistreatment, of women in the late 19th century” and the show’s website calls it “a comedy about marriage, intimacy and electricity.” Hmmm…  In the words of Forrest Gump:  ”And that’s all I have to say about that.”

5.  ”Race” – World Premiere of David Mamet’s newest play starring James Spader, Kerry Washington and Richard Thomas.  When asked about details of the plot, producer Jefferey Richards said:  ”The title speaks for itself.”  Mamet, Spader and a play called “Race.”  Seriously, ENOUGH SAID!

4.  ”A Steady Rain” – Starring Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman, this play is one of the most anticipated of the Fall.  A press report describes the Chicago premiere as: “A Steady Rain chronicles love and rage on the streets of Chicago as a domestic disturbance call sends two Chicago cops, friends since childhood, on a harrowing journey that will test their loyalties and change their lives forever.” But, as the NY Post succinctly said: “Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman in police uniforms? All the boys will be there!”

3.  ”The Addams Family” – A musical adaptation of the famous, macabre characters starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwerth.  I am both embarrassed and proud that I am SO looking forward to this show!

2.  ”The Royal Family“  – George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber’s famous parody of the Barrymore family, this revival will star Rosemary Harris, Stephen Collins, John Glover, Tony Roberts, Jan Maxwell, Ana Gasteyer and Reg Rogers.  Its view of celebrity and privilege in the tunnel-vision perspective of an actor’s life resonates just as perfectly today as it did in 1927.  Really looking forward to see this cast play those characters (especially since I went to school with one of them!).

1.  ”Oleanna” – The Broadway premiere of Mamet’s 1992 Pulitzer-Prize winning play (it appeared off-Broadway at that time making this production it’s Broadway premiere).  When originally produced, this play was a compelling, challenging and electrifying reflection of the ground-breaking Clarence Thomas hearing that had split the nation the year before.  The 1992 production starring William H. Macy and Rebecca Pidgeon was universally praised for its thought-provoking approach to the issue of sexual harassment and the use of rhetoric as a weapon in politically correct America.  None other than Frank Rich gave it one of his strongest endorsements as theatre critic of the New York Times.  But, a funny thing happened between 1992 and today, David Mamet famously proclaimed himself “No longer a brain-dead liberal.”  Will this breach of liberal dogma and orthodoxy in any way affect the theatre community’s once universal praise of “Oleanna”?  I know I will be looking very closely at how it is received by the critics as well as industry insiders.  This new revival premiered in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles.

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The big stars and directors are the cool kids – the jocks – the preppies – James Spader in “Pretty in Pink.” They own the school, strut the halls and decide who’s in and who’s out based on one’s ability and willingness to conform into one of them.

The Motion Picture Academy is the Student Council packed with James Spaders who game the system in order to keep the pecking order ordered and to their liking.

Variety and the Hollywood Reporter are the school paper. Both are staffed with wannabes and once-weres who protect the myth and clothe the emperor living for those moments when James Spader gives them a taste of the inside where they can bask in his glow.

This leaves us with the cheerleaders, the Mean Girls, the most openly cruel of the bunch — a catty, nasty gaggle of bitches unafraid to say what the others think and determined to enforce what defines a James Spader. In Hollywood the cheerleaders are the gossip rags; newspaper columns, entertainment websites and most certainly E!

James Spader loathes Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers and Heidi Montag, but mostly Miley because she represents the worst kind of threat to his kingdom: She’s already popular and a big, talented star, but she doesn’t want to be like him and therefore must be taught a lesson. And so his minions have been loosed.

Just last month, the head cheerleader, the L.A. Times, went after Miley over “the Jesus thing,” and soon after one of the cool-kid leaders himself, Jamie Foxx, blew his stack with outrage over her innocence. Tuesday it was E!:

Indeed. Gone are the days when we had a lone Kirk Cameron here, a random Mel Gibson there. Now it seems like the whole Disney talent stable is flashing a giant collective promise ring in our faces, bathing us in the virgin-white dazzle of all that metal.

Miley and the Jonas Brothers of course publicly love themselves some Jesus. Heidi Montag, too. Miley even twitters about it. A lot. (Jesus is Miley’s Neosporin? Really?) …

And that’s the new trend of “oversharing” among celebs…  At least they’re sparing us their bathroom habits-for now.

Those of you who buy into the idea that E! would like to be spared “oversharing among celebs” might want to change your middle name to “Duh.” If celebs didn’t overshare, E! wouldn’t exist. If there were laws about truth in advertising, E! would have to call themselves, “O! The Overshare Channel.”

E! also doesn’t have a problem with celebs who “love themselves some Jesus.” Sean P. Puff Diddy Daddy Combs is all about tweeting his love for Jesus – and from the looks of just the last few hours, does so a lot more than Miley. But E! is okay with that because Combs is one of them; a leftie fully engaged in the mission to spread Gomorrah throughout the land.

This isn’t about religion or celebrity oversharing, this is about the culture war – this is about a promise ring that “bath[es] us in the virgin-white dazzle of all that metal.” Because in celebrity-dom, that virgin-white dazzle is like throwing Holy Water on a Vampire.

Miley’s a target-rich environment for celebrity enforcers because she’s openly opposed to the spread of Gomorrah and therefore a threat who must be marginalized through ridicule at every opportunity. Now, Miley’s a big star and no cool kid or cheerleader can bring her down all on their own. But the plan’s bigger and more sophisticated than that.

One possible outcome is that someday, like all of us, Miley slips up in a way that allows the left to gang up and attempt to destroy her as a moral hypocrite. Call it the Miss California Playbook. But worse case, through their ridicule of Miley, the celebrity enforcers have sent an unmistakable warning to any up-and-comers who might have considered being true to who they really are and following in Miley’s moral footsteps.

The message is crystal clear: The path of least resistance to becoming one of the cool kids and spared public humiliation is to join the James Spader Collective.

Creepy, right? I have not seen Haunting and will probably wait for DVD or pay cable, but that is a weird, startling, attention-grabbing image. As a movie junkie, I love good movie art. The best movie posters are evocative. They capture what a movie is all about without giving away the mystery. There are certain movie posters that instantly put me back in that theatre experiencing the film for the very first time. The best movie posters are not just promotional tools. They stand as a work of art on their own. These are my favorites, buit it is by no means a definitive list. Feel free to add your favorites (and subtract any of mine).

#1 – JAWS
I saw this all-time classic as a 9-year-old on opening day, and saw it a second time at the Saturday matinee. To this day, I am afraid to swim in the ocean. That shark is always there in my imagination. The poster is literal, but haunting.

#2 – CHINATOWN
This is truly a work of art. The smoke shrouding the ultimate mystery of Evelyn Mulwray, and the stylized version of Jake Gittes (played by Jack Nicholson), the hard-boiled detective who unravels it all.

#3 – THE DARK KNIGHT
Impossible to separate Heath Ledger’s death from his remarkable interpretation of The Joker. This is an amazing image. In 30 years, I will look at this poster and immediately feel the impact of Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece.

#4 – BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S
You can almost hear Audrey Hepburn warbling “Moon River” at the sight of this iconic poster. Every woman wanted to be her and every man wanted to be with her.

#5 – SECRETARY
The 2002 cult classic about a sadomasochistic relationship between a demanding lawyer (James Spader) and a submissive secretary (Maggie Gyllenhaal). The movie is an under-appreciated gem. The poster may be even better.

#6 – UNFORGIVEN
This is my favorite poster made for Clint Eastwood’s masterful revisionist Western. Simple. Classic. Tells you everything you need to know about Clint’s Bill Munny character.

#7 – AMERICAN BEAUTY
A beautiful image that suggests the perversity that lies just beneath the surface of the suburban neighborhood created by screenwriter Alan Ball and director Sam Mendes.

#8 – SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
“You will let me know when those lambs stop screaming, won’t you?” You can almost hear Dr. Hannibal Lecter say it. The Death’s-head moth “lodged” in Clarice Starling’s throat. Brilliant image.

#9 – VERTIGO
An ode to acrophobia as Detective Scottie Ferguson (as played by Jimmy Stewart) battles his fear of heights while becoming obsessed with Madeleine Elster (the stunning Kim Novak). This kaleidoscopic design immediately brings the strains of Bernard Hermann’s amazing score into my head.

#10 – PULP FICTION
Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace in all her swagger. Yes, she does wind up with a sharpie circle on her chest and a shot of adrenaline, but the whole gritty movie is captured with this image.

HONORABLE MENTION
- in no particular order -
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
SWEENEY TODD
MEAN STREETS
AMADEUS
GONE WITH THE WIND
METROPOLIS
KING KONG (1939 Fay Wray version)
CLOVERFIELD
THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

Steve Mason is on Facebook and now also on Twitter@LAMase.

I don’t mind the humor in these shows. In fact, I laugh along with everyone else, but it would be interesting if those on the anti-gun side of this television firm (which is everyone else) would have similar fun poked at their own gun control views. Is it just not possible to think of similar jokes?

Right after Denny is shown using the gun defensively, there’s a segment showing him accidentally firing a gun into the ceiling.  After that we learn Denny’s been carrying around eight guns and a “blow torch,” which was hidden on him in a place I won’t describe, though I’ll admit that was also amusing.

What was most disturbing about the episode was that it was filled with facts and numbers about the problems with guns but not one fact or number on the use of guns defensively.  We are treated to numbers on how many people are killed with guns or commit suicide or are accidentally killed, but no numbers on defensive gun use.  Contrast that to the show’s other segment regarding a child custody case where the mother is employed as a sex surrogate.  Both sides in that discussion cited studies and statistics to make their point.

While the Brady Bill Campaign could have written the prosecution’s closing argument on the danger of guns, Denny Crane’s closing defense brought up pro-control arguments that weren’t even offered by the prosecution.  To the defense, the question is whether the jurors are concerned about something as “trivial as human life.”  The defense further argues that the Supreme Court decision in the Heller case was a joke and that they just inserted their own political views, not caring what the Constitution really meant to protect — we are told that is the right of the military to have guns. No mention of all the research provided here, here or here about concealed handguns saving lives and preventing other violent crimes.

Alan Shore ends the show with a small speech about how he’s shot guns but can’t understand why people don’t get together and agree on common sense gun control laws like “background checks and bans on assault weapons.” He also notes: “I see a lot wrong with an assault weapon and people like you walking around with guns.” Unfortunately, Denny is reduced to an unrelated response about how surprising it is that a liberal like Shore would own a gun.

Back in 1999, the show’s creator David Kelly, was among 200 celebrities who signed an open letter to the NRA, that appeared in ”USA Today,” advocating a ban on semi-automatic assault weapons, ammunition clips holding more than 10 rounds, a minimum three-day waiting periods, safety locks sold on all guns, one-gun-a-month restrictions, and the restricting of minors from firearm access. The letter was sponsored by Handgun Control.

The problem is that there’s not a single study by criminologists or economists that finds assault weapons bans reduce crime (see here and here). Similarly, there are no academic studies by criminologists or economists that find any other laws reduce violent crime (here and here), but there is some evidence indicating that laws requiring people lock their guns lead to more deaths.

Possibly, it’s just inherently easier to make fun of those that use guns than those who have irrational fears of them, but can’t one make fun of anti-gun people being forced to fruitlessly plead with criminals to be reasonable with their victims?