Camryn Manheim as Laura Bush?

Would Camryn Manheim consider it a compliment that she makes a very convincing Laura Bush? At least, the First Lady as filtered through Tony Kushner's fertile polemical imagination. Manheim cum Mrs. Bush appeared this week opposite Stephen Spinella as an Angel in a reading of the opening scene of Kushner's next play, "Only Those Who Guard the Mystery Shall Be Unhappy."

The title comes from a line in "Brothers Karamazov," don'tcha know? And the springboard for the play, Kushner explained in a Q&A following--he was at UCLA's Royce Hall to talk about his work, including his "Homebody/Kabul," soon to open at Mark Taper Forum--was his finding out that the First Lady's favorite novelist is none other than Dostoyevsky.

The scene read by Manheim and Spinella imagines Mrs. Bush on a school visit to read to children, only in this case to youngsters who happen to be dead and Iraqi. With perfect aplomb, she says, "I'm sorry that you're dead--but all children love books!" As bald-faced as that premise sounds (and problematic, since one thing Mrs. Bush's husband might be credited with is in effect ending the sanctions that led to so many children's deaths), the nascent tidbit exhibits Kushner's characteristic wicked wit, outrage and empathy. Now who's in line to produce that?

Two other Tony bits: Mike Nichols' version of "Angels in America" will air in two parts on HBO on Dec. 7 and 14. And Kushner is writing a screenplay about Eugene O'Neill's attempted suicide at 23. Perhaps he's in L.A. for more than just a theatre opening?