The Tony Award for Best Play in 2014 went to playwright Robert Schenkkan for All the Way, a play about President Lyndon Johnson. The play, which focused on Johnson’s efforts on civil rights, also won a Tony Award for its star, Bryan Cranston. Schenkkan is back with a new play about Johnson called The Great Society. The production begins previews this week at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center on Friday.
All the Way depicted Johnson up to and immediately after President Kennedy’s assassination. The Great Society will follow Johnson as he begins his administration, navigates turmoil at home and the growing war in Vietnam. The play follows Johnson up to his decision not to run for re-election.
Schenkkan, who won a Pulitzer Prize for The Kentucky Cycle in 1992, has spent a lot of time working and re-working The Great Society. There have been at least six productions of the play prior to its New York opening. Bill Rauch, who also directed All the Way, helmsThe Great Society.
Starring as Johnson is Brian Cox (currently seen in HBO’s Succession). Richard Thomas (The Americans) plays Hubert Humphrey. Grantham Colman, who appeared in Choir Boy at the Geffen Playhouse, plays Martin Luther King, Jr. Marc Kudisch (Assassins) plays Richard J. Daley. Bryce Pinkham (A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love and Murder) plays Robert Kennedy. Frank Wood, most recently seen in Network on Broadway, plays Everett Dirksen. The rest of the sizable cast includes Gordon Clapp, Marchánt Davis, Brian Dykstra, Barbara Garrick, David Garrison, Ty Jones, Christopher Livingston, Angela Pierce, Matthew Rauch, Nikkole Salter, Tramell Tillman, Ted Deasy and Robyn Kerr.
In a New York Times story about the play coming to Broadway, Schenkkan is quoted as saying about the difference between his two plays, “All the Way is a drama and The Great Society is a tragedy.”
With these two plays and Robert Caro’s detailed study of Lyndon Johnson, the 36th President is getting more than his share of attention these days.
The official opening night for The Great Society is October 1st. The play will run through November 30th.
For tickets go here.
This post will be updated once production photos have been released.
