Nixon's Nixon (Play)

“I don’t feel like I’ve done anything wrong,” the president of the United States is saying peevishly, his mouth puckering into a lemon-sucking moue. “They gave me so much power, why are they surprised I used it?” Care to guess the name of the president in question, who is currently being depicted spewing self-justification from the stage of the Lucille Lortel Theater?

You might be inclined to choose the White House’s current occupant. After all, according to some analysts, George W. Bush has presided over the biggest power grab by the executive branch in American history. And certainly he’s a favorite punching bag of Off and Off Off Broadway theater these days.

But I’m afraid you’d be wrong. The cranky figure braying excuses for his role in the crisis enveloping his country is actually Richard M. Nixon, as portrayed with captivating relish by Gerry Bamman in the MCC Theater revival of Russell Lees’s play “Nixon’s Nixon.”