"All the Way" - on Broadway through June. (All the way with LBJ) Thanks,Oregon Shakespeare Festival

[UTUSN]

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_the_Way_(play)

The play was commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) as part of its "American Revolutions: The United States History Cycle."[2] It premiered at OSF on July 28, 2012, and was produced at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the fall of 2013 before opening for a limited run on Broadway on March 6, 2014, where it was scheduled to run through June 29, 2014. Since it was commissioned all productions have been directed by Bill Rauch. ....

All the Way is the first of two plays on Johnson's presidency. The second part, The Great Society, will premiere at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in the summer of 2014. Jack Willis, who played Johnson at its Oregon premiere, will play Johnson again in Great Society when it opens in Oregon. The sequel, also to be directed by Rauch, will continue the Johnson story from 1964 to 1968.



http://variety.com/2014/legit/reviews/broadway-review-bryan-cranston-lbj-all-the-way-1201127585/
[font size=5]Broadway Review: Bryan Cranston as LBJ in ‘All the Way’[/font]
Marilyn Stasio

What do you say we take up a collection and send every one of those clowns in Congress to “All the Way,” Robert Schenkkan’s jaw-dropping political drama about President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Herculean efforts (and Pyrrhic sacrifices) to get the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed. Bryan Cranston — three-time Emmy winner and everybody’s favorite bad boy as the scholarly drug czar in “Breaking Bad” — owns the role of LBJ, cracking the politician’s hard shell to expose the man’s personal crisis of conscience. But the shocker is watching real legislators legislating, crossing the aisle, however reluctantly, to get difficult things done. ....

A canny psychologist, LBJ gives friend and foe alike exactly what they want — a flattering lie for this pompous ass, a friendly slap on the back for that sad schmuck, a filthy joke for this good ole boy, a key piece of legislation for that shrewd politico. And before the victim knows what hit him, the big Texan has picked the poor guy’s pocket and stolen his vote right out of his wallet.

Watching him work is a textbook lesson in Machiavellian manipulation. It’s beautiful, the way he brings to heel Minnesota Sen. Hubert Humphrey (Robert Petkoff, trying like hell to give the man his dignity) by dangling the vice presidency in front of his nose. Or the way he uses an old friendship to betray Georgia Sen. Richard Russell (John McMartin, the soul of Southern gentility). Or the way he pledges his affection to win the loyalty of his closest aide, the tragic Walter Jenkins (Christopher Liam Moore, a heartbreaker).

“This is not about principle,” he declares, after breaking one of these promises. “It’s about votes.” The best thing about Cranston’s turn is that you’re never quite sure when Johnson is being truthful with others — or honest with himself. ....

Getting himself elected is a different story, with black freedom fighters threatening to withdraw their political support every time Johnson makes some concession to the Dixiecrats. In his own, more high-minded way, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Brandon J. Dirden) is as consummate a politician as the president. But with J. Edgar Hoover (Michael McKean) out for his blood, King is fighting for his life. And with influential leaders like NAACP director Roy Wilkins (Peter Jay Fernandez) and Stokely Carmichael (William Jackson Harper), the young firebrand running SNCC, fighting one another tooth and nail, he’s forced into playing LBJ’s own game.

And a thankless game it is, too, as Schenkkan makes clear in the second act, when Johnson finds himself alone and unloved. For all the blood he sweated, the hardest loss was the unity of his party. Making the choice, he sacrificed his core supporters of the once solid South (“my boys”), knowing full well that they might never return to the party. And he was right. Fifty years later, they’re still wandering in the wilderness.

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[Bluenorthwest]

1. It is a great play, I'd love to see Cranston in it but I will have to settle for

seeing Great Society later in the year at OSF. East Coast DUers should make a bee line to Broadway. Fools if they don't.