Joe Dziemianowicz of the New York Daily News says that, "In the past Mamet's work has been incisive, powerful and realistic. Here he goes for an easy, well-worn target and obvious setup: America's highest office is held by a low-life thug (Smith's political party isn't identified). It's so broad that 'November' is a satire with a big mouth but no bite." However, he thought, "There's plenty of bark though. Lane revels in his freewheeling performance, launching one-liners - some very funny - and endless expletives. Unlike in his dramas, Mamet's streaming profanity here seems like self-parody or ugly wallpaper - it just hangs there, demanding attention."

To David Rooney of Variety, "Mamet knows his terrain, and 'November' touches on plenty of pertinent issues regarding the current administration - a knowingly manipulated panic level and a public that no longer cares, a cavalier attitude to starting wars, unscrupulous solicitation of campaign funds, the diligent dissemination of immigration anxiety and knee-jerk opposition to same-sex civil unions. But while it's frequently funny, the comedy doesn't leave much aftertaste, too often relying on amped-up profanity or snide ethnic epithets for bite. Director Joe Mantello's last collaboration with Mamet was the incisive 2005 revival of 'Glengarry Glen Ross,' and while he bumps this production along at the same brisk clip, the writing here just doesn't compare. Modifying his trademark interruptus-speak for complete sentences, Mamet seems to be working hard to amuse without creating three-dimensional characters that inhabit a believable world." He credited the play with, "providing the actor with his best comic showcase since 'The Producers.' As widely despised president Charles H.P. Smith, Lane keeps the comedy buoyant with his high-energy turn, balancing unapologetic brashness and boldfaced shysterism with a deluded sense of his own martyrdom."

And Michael Kuchwara of the AP says, "Mamet is careful not to make his chief executive resemble any specific president, although Mamet most likely would not be too upset if you found some similarities with the current occupant of the White House. Lane has always been a master of the slow burn and then kaboom. High strung is his specialty. He gets to display a lot of outrage here. Baker, as a practical presidential assistant, offers superb support, ably setting up Lane's choicest moments of hilarity." He thought, "Director Joe Mantello keeps this merry-go-round of self-preservation moving as fast as possible on designer Scott Pask's realistic presidential set. Two supporting players, Ethan Phillips as a turkey lobbyist and Michael Nichols as an avenging Native American, jump into the fray without missing a beat." In sum, he says, "The play ends abruptly, almost too quickly. It says something about 'November' — and maybe the state of the nation — that its swift conclusion makes you yearn for a little more."

For Ben Brantley of the New York Times, "'November' allows mainstream theatergoers to feel comfortable with Mr. Mamet in a way they haven’t before." As he explains, "Despite the thick swarm of obscenities that are de rigueur in a Mamet play, there’s nothing remotely shocking about 'November.' If the play had been acted in the old Mamet tradition of louts stewing broodingly in homicidal rage and exasperation, it would probably be more unsettling when the president disgorges racist, sexist and xenophobic diatribes." Rather, he says, "Mr. Lane, it goes without saying, knows exactly how to pitch such lines, with a time-honed style that allows him to put the maximum spin on poisonous zingers and still keep the audience on his side. He doesn’t create a real character here. Laurie Metcalf, a fine actress, does a variation on the doormat character she played for years on “Roseanne,” and does it well. Dylan Baker, who appeared earlier this season in a Mamet-play manqué, Theresa Rebeck’s "Mauritius," keeps the requisite straight man’s straight face, even as the farce climbs into stratospheric absurdity."

Clive Barnes of the New York Post also thought the players outshone the playwright. "With a masterly sleight of hand, Nathan Lane turns slightness into giddy fun in 'November,' David Mamet's impeccably politically incorrect tale of a US president in pollster hell. Not that all the credit belongs to Broadway's current maestro of the aggressive put-down and the aggrieved double-take. Much the same virtuosity is shown by a suavely buttoned-down Dylan Baker and a hysterically buttoned-up Laurie Metcalf, all three directed with metronomic brilliance by Joe Mantello. To be sure, this is minor Mamet, little more than an extended revue sketch so replete with his signature F-word that its use begins to sound like an electoral slogan comparable to "change." But though Mamet's laughs are pretty easy stuff - some hit, some miss - they provide a few political jibes for a seasonably political time."

Finally, Newsday's Linda Winer was the least impressed: "Instead of wit and fury, we get gags and grimaces. Instead of humor so daring that critics have been known to bite their own lips to maintain decorum, the comedy is so eager-to-please that we strain to hear Mamet's voice beyond the punch lines. Oh, there is plenty of noisy impertinence and throwaway bits of pertinence in the hyperextended sketch about a failing incumbent. But mostly, this is a commercial Broadway fluff ball disguised as a tough-talking political troublemaker."