This Month in Theater: December 2009

RACE
Race is a new play, written and directed by David Mamet, which announces its theme in the title; with the playwright further describing it as being about "Race and the lies we tell each other on the subject."  There are four actors: Three men, James Spader, David Alan Grier and Richard Thomas, and one woman, Kerry Washington.  The story is set in law firm, and the drama ensues when the firm is offered the opportunity to defend a white man accused of a crime against a young black woman.
The Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 243 W. 47th St., (212) 239-6200. Previews Nov. 16, opens Dec. 6.
 
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
A Streetcar Named Desire  is one of Tennessee Williams's most memorable plays, set in steamy New Orleans (where there really was a trolley with that name).  Here it will get both a Down-Under and Scandinavian slant from The Sydney Theatre Company, with Liv Ullmann (known primarily as an Ingmar Bergman actor) directing.  Cate Blanchett plays the troubled, needy Blanche Du Bois, with Joel Edgerton as Stanley, her hunky brother-in-law (this is the stage role that catapulted Marlon Brando to Hollywood), and Robin McLeavy as Stella, her sister.
Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn, (718) 636-4100. Previews Nov. 27 & 28, opens Dec. 1-20.
 
SO HELP ME GOD
Back in the '90s, Kristen Johnson's force of being and sexy sense of humor took over every scene she was in during Jeff Weiss's Hot Keys, a late-night weekend serial that ran for months at Naked Angels Theater.  That same presence and talent won her two Emmys on 3rd Rock from the Sun.  Here she plays a demanding diva, doing battle with her understudy, Anna Chlumsky, à la All About Eve.  Along with 13 other actors, the pair battle back and forth in Maurine Dallas Watkins's 1929 backstage comedy.  Jonathan Bank directs.
Lucille Lortel Theater, 121 Christopher St., (212) 315-0231. Previews Nov. 18, opens Dec. 7-20.
THE DREAM EXPRESS
This is one of the great lounge act plays, with the three principals all Obie award winners.  Written and directed by Len Jenkin, with musical direction by Jack Kilgore, and starring Dierdre O'Connell and Steve Mellor, it's an evening of songs, stories and life revelations that is entertaining, profane and actually uplifting. Adding to the realism of a lounge act is the fact that Mellor and O'Connell have been doing this show for 12 years now, at venues like Joe's Pub and L.A.'s Mark Taper Forum.  I saw it five years ago and I still remember how good I felt afterwards.
The Chocolate Factory, 5-49 49th Ave., Long Island City, Queens, (866) 811-4111. Dec. 1-19.
 
DO NOT GO GENTLE
The title for Leon Powell's play comes from a poem Dylan Thomas wrote to his dying father, "Do not go gentle into that good night." The show is a tour de force by Welsh actor Geraint Wyn Davies, performing as the great/charismatic, wildman/alcoholic, poet/playwright (Under Milk Wood), as he reviews his life from Purgatory, recalling his childhood in Wales, his love and battles with his wife Caitlin, and his popular lecture tours of the U.S.  Perhaps we will get some details of his last hours, as he passed soon after setting a record for brandy shots knocked back at The White Horse Tavern in the West Village.
Theatre Row's Clurman Theatre, 410 W. 42nd St., (212) 279-4200. Previews Nov. 19, opens Dec. 6-Jan. 10, 2010.