Let the Race Begin

David Mamet's new play, which has a provocative four-letter word of a title, starts performances on Broadway tonight at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The four-person Race stars James Spader (Boston Legal), David Alan Grier (In Living Color, Broadway's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum), Kerry Washington (The Last King of Scotland, Ray), and Richard Thomas (TV's The Waltons, Broadway's Democracy) and is directed by Mamet, in his Broadway directorial debut. The play is about a law firm - made up of two black lawyers and one white one - who have the opportunity to defend a white man charged of a crime against a young black woman. The production will have its official Broadway opening at the Barrymore on December 6.