Playwright David Mamet (pictured) will be maintaining a blog to promote his new Broadway play, November, which stars Nathan Lane as contemporary American president Charles Smith and Laurie Metcalf as his lesbian speech writer. What’s interesting, perhaps, is that Mamet will be writing the blog – which he says he’ll update for the duration of the open-ended run – as President Smith. Sample entry from Monday:CONGRESSIONAL PAGE SEX SCANDALS It seems to me that, at......

RENT, the surprise smash hit musical that premiered in 1996 and went on to become the seventh-longest-running Broadway show in history, will close June 1st, producers have announced. Over the years the show cultivated a fanatical army of young repeat viewers (“Rentheads”) whose ardor has translated into profits of $280 million on Broadway, four Tony awards and a Pulitzer. Productions have been mounted on six continents, while an ill-conceived movie version of the show, filmed......

NY Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni, he of the fast-food cross-country road trip (he swears by Chick-Fil-A, which has but one local outpost in NYU’s food court), has revealed more of his inner workings in a recent interview with website Refinery 29. For starters, Bruni eschews a big breakfast because of all his professional eating burdens throughout the day. On most mornings he strolls over to Levain Bakery and picks up a baguette with butter......

Yesterday's lovely weather made the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a big crowd pleaser. An estimated 3.5 million spectators watched as giant balloons, floats, and hundreds of parade performers sauntered from 77th and Central Park West to Herald Square. Some people waited since 4AM in hopes of catching a glimpse of their favorite performers, who included Dolly Parton, Wynonna, the cast of Legally Blonde, American Idol winner Jordin Sparks, Good Charlotte, Menudo (really!), the Rockettes......

For the first time since November 8th, Local One, the stagehands’ union, is meeting with the Broadway producers’ league to talk it out. (Local One has been on strike since last Saturday over proposed changes to their contracts.) Insiders are expressing guarded optimism about the talks because they’re proceeding with the help of Disney’s senior V.P. of labor relations, Robert W. Johnson. Disney is not a member of the producers' league and thus not directly......

Having already seen one of this season’s most anticipated Broadway plays, Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll, we haven’t been yet been personally disappointed by the Local One stagehands’ strike. While we sympathize with the union and the theatrical community that’s now out of work, we’re not exactly losing sleep over tourist tweens missing out on Legally Blonde for a few days. Now, however, we’re really starting to sweat it: though talks will resume this weekend,......

Local One, the Broadway stagehands’ union, has never struck in its 121-year history. Since salaries for stagehands – who handle lighting, props, sets and, yes, even Tarzan's vine – currently top off at 100K, who could blame them? But The League of American Theatres and Producers, who control 22 of 39 Broadway houses, are now wringing their hands after the union’s unanimous vote on Sunday to strike. (Last week the Nederlanders, the producers who......

Aha! We were right when we suggested that August 8, 2008 might be another coveted wedding date to consider, now that July 7, 2007 has passed. The date 08/08/08 is considered very auspicious by Asian cultures (in fact, the 2008 Olympics in Beijing will start on that day), and some weddings planners who specialized in Chinese weddings are seeing a big rush. One told LJWorld, "We like to do three weddings max a day, but......

If you detected a frisson of fabulous excitement scorching the air this morning, it’s because the 61st annual Tony award nominations were announced! (For those who may not fathom the awesome significance of the Tonys, the awards are the Broadway theater world equivalent of the Oscars and named for Antoinette Perry, an actress, director, producer and who passed away prior to the first award show in 1947.) Turning a profit on Broadway takes a perfect......

The Times has a great story today of a Broadway animal trainer who turns pets into stars, using only rescued animals. William Berloni has been training all sorts of animals for Broadway appearances for more than 30 years. His latest casting project is for the stage production of "Legally Blonde." Mr. Berloni, who has trained animals for 42 Broadway shows, began his career more than 30 years ago, when he reached instant fame just......

The Sanitation Chronicles, a new play by and about New York’s Strongest, premiered on Wednesday. Actor/playwright Paul Brno, who’s been moonlighting for the Department of Sanitation for the past 17 years, says “every day is still a great day to be on a garbage truck.” The “slice of life” play explores the daily prejudices, anger and violence faced by “Sanmen”, all of which is exacerbated when one of the guys shows up for work dressed......

Today on Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery at East 238th & Katonah Ave. in the Bronx, a triple stabbing on 34th Ave. in Queens, and a Fire Dept.-involved multi-vehicle accident at Utica & St. John's in Brooklyn. Officer Jarred Barretti talked a man perched on a midtown Manhattan ledge out of jumping. They had a sort of rapport as Barretti had arrested the same man in Queens three months earlier. Mayor Bloomberg doesn't know......

Smelling salts! Icy towels! The heat has gone to Michiko Kakutani’s head! Her review of Benjamin Kunkel’s Indecision is written in Holden Caulfield’s voice. Gothamist can’t remember such a wacky review since she favored us with her thoughts on Candace Bushnell’s Trading Up, said thoughts taking the form of a memo from Elle Woods to Bushnell’s protagonist. (Seriously, read it. It’s crazy.) While it’s hard to say that Michi’s grasp of voice is absolutely secure—however......

These days, reading a Hollywood trade is like seeing a TV Guide grid from the 80s - it's all about making movies from 80s TV shows. Today, Universal announced they are remaking Miami Vice, ideally with Colin Farrell and Jamie Fox as Crockett and Tubbs. Earlier this week, Stephen J. Cannell said he's going to go forward with the long-awaited A-Team movie! And Robert Luketic, best known as the director those canonical films, Legally......

If trying to get advance tickets for T3 or Legally Blonde just becomes boring, go see The Whale Rider. The lyrical movie with a more powerful female empowerment theme than Charle's Angels is about a young girl, Pai, whose mostly absent father, mourning the death of her mother and twin brother, has left her grandfather, a Maori tribal chief, to search for the next male chief. Pai wonders why she can't be in line, as......

Hellfire and damnation, Michiko Kakutani reviews Candace Bushnell's new book, Trading Up. As Elle "Legally Blonde" Woods. No joke. Kakutani, as Elle, writes a memo to the book's main character, Janey Wilcox: "Excuse the interruption, but I just read your story in "Trading Up," and thought I really, really need to write you. I mean, we Blondes have to stick together, right? And we both started out with so much in common � like we......

The Post turns the summer movie season into a battle of the sexes, or at least a dilemma for couples, with counterprogramming of Terminator 3 and Legally Blonde 2 one weekend, The Hulk vs Alex and Emma another. A little of the article, which makes Gothamist a bit batty: "If it's the first or second date, go with the chick flick," urges John Fate, co-author of "Make Every Girl Want You." "You want to......