Gore Vidal’s The Best Man—a play about all the chicanery that goes into a presidential race—was last revived on Broadway in 2000, the year of a highly contested, acrimonious presidential election. Well, just as the Mayans predicted, 2012 has occasioned an even more strident race, which in turn occasions another revival. The play’s even more apt this year, as it’s set during a national convention as two candidates try to nose each other out; if Rick Santorum wins a few more states, this could become reality! Real politics, though, rarely has figures as charismatic as stars James Earl Jones, Candice Bergen and Angela Lansbury.

Opens at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 West 45th Street.

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