The Best Man at The Adobe Theater

The Best Man, by Gore Vidal, is set in 1960 at a hotel in Philadelphia where an unnamed political party is holding its nominating convention for an upcoming presidential election. The two main candidates vying for the nomination are William Russell and Joseph Cantwell. Russell, an ex-Secretary of State, is a wit and scholar with high liberal principles, beloved of the eggheads and suspected by practical politicians. Cantwell, a senator, is a ruthless and hard-driving young man, a dirty fighter who will let no scruples stand in the way of his ambitions. And Arthur Hockstader is an ex-President who loves politics for their own sake, admires a rough and tumble battler more than a chivalrous one, and is determined to have the final say in the selection of his party’s candidate. Cantwell has obtained a purloined medical file revealing that Russell once suffered a mental breakdown, and he is poised to expose this information at the convention unless Russell withdraws his candidacy. Dick Jensen, Russell's campaign manager digs up evidence that Cantwell may be a homosexual, but the scrupulous Russell is loath to play Cantwell's game. Scruples don’t appeal to the ex-President who enjoys egging on the battle. The political war rages back and forth with escalating tension and drama until a shocking turn of events blindsides everyone. Intertwined amid the action are touching and poignant subplots that detail the loving and unloved wives of the candidates, Alice Russell and Mabel Cantwell. Author Vidal is masterful in presenting this brutal competition with compassion and complexity. The Best Man is a play with no absolute heroes or villains, as much as we might like it to be so. And that is what makes it not just a powerful piece of theater, but also an accurate reflection of the moral ambiguities faced by those who quest after power, and the differences between real leadership and mere image. Does the best man win?