Gore Vidal is an astute and extremely good writer, although he’s not known necessarily as a playwright, but as a political writer, he’s bar none about as good as you get. So I think it will have a resonance certainly this season. It is dark, but it’s the sort of thing we’ve been watching and noting every day on the television and on the news, the kind of brickbats the candidates [aim at each other]. It’s nothing new. Politics have always been like this, down through the ages. I come from a political family so I know. My grandfather on my father’s side [George Lansbury] was the leader, the creator actually, of the Labor Party in Britain in the early part of the 20th century. And my father was involved too to a great extent although he was also a businessman.

- Angela Lansbury, discussing her role in the revival of “Gore Vidal’s The Best Man” on Broadway this spring