In 2014, All the Way won a Tony Award for Best Play. Robert Schenkkan masterfully chronicled LBJ’s ascendance to the presidency from JFK’s assassination through the passage of the Civil Rights Act and a triumphant landslide reelection over Barry Goldwater in 1964. The Great Society is a sequel which covers his second, less fondly remembered, term in office.
Brian Cox (HBO’s Succession) portrays Lyndon Baines Johnson in this version. Brian Cranston won a Tony for his earlier profile of this down home Texan and masterful political manipulator. He was able to showcase the glory years as well as the man’s craftiness. Mr. Cox presides over a time of race riots and Vietnam. The mood is definitely darker and LBJ is edgier and much less self-assured.
The 36th President of the United States is, however, far from timid during this period. Mr. Cox opens the play with some commentary intended to underscore the man’s outlook. On bull riding, LBJ ponders “why would I do that?” The fairly obvious analogy being drawn is how brilliantly LBJ rode the bulls of Washington to move his agenda forward.
In 1965, LBJ is straddling the fence between securing poverty bills or voting rights. Vietnam looms as a small thorn which will metastasize shortly. He is managed by General William Westmoreland (Brian Dykstra) to increase the number of American troops. “I don’t want to be the president who lost Asia.”
All during this time, America is embroiled in enormous social conflicts. The murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson (Christopher Livingston) leads to the Selma marches and police violence. One of the organizers asks an unanswerable question: “how can LBJ send troops to Vietnam but not to South Alabama?” This play has a plethora of historical drama at its disposal. Therein lies the problem.
The Great Society is overstuffed with facts and characters. All the material is interesting especially if you are a history buff. There is a Spark Notes sketchiness to this play, however, which makes fascinating figures such as Martin Luther King (Grantham Coleman) and Hubert Humphrey (Richard Thomas) look like like unremarkable sidekicks in LBJ’s bombastic solar system. No one in his orbit emerges as a three dimensional person.
Projections add additional facts and photographs to emphasize what is being dutifully dramatized on stage. David Korins’ benign set design appears to suggest a courtroom with jury boxes. I attempted to determine why certain characters were seated on stage at various times. All of my theories lead nowhere. Different people just watch as LBJ summons them in and spews them out. The master manipulation is super fun and uneventful at the same time.
Not that there isn’t a reason to consider the significance of LBJ’s socially progressive agenda in light of current events. The Supreme Court just weakened the impact of the Voting Rights Act. Large swaths of American citizens do not understand the phrase “Black Lives Matter” and its import. Hard hitting dialogue registers and forces you to sit up in your seat. The federal government leaves “black children in the streets to starve” as they kill “yellow children with jelly bombs.”
This play remembers that civil rights was not simply a north versus south story. Chicagoans held protests with signs which read “Who Needs Niggers” and “Negroes Go Back To Africa.” The scene recreating this event is presented so artificially that it generates no emotion on the stage or off. The subject matter is never boring but the direction by Bill Rauch is not helpful.
Many actors have multiple roles. The storytelling is not confusing but it is very basic. I saw a group of high school aged young adults in the theater. This play gives a nicely detailed recap of LBJ, the war in Vietnam, our country’s racial tensions and the often disheartening compromises required to make legislation happen. Nothing is new but the overview could bring some needed backdrop to the next generation.
The most memorable performance comes from David Garrison as the unctuous racist George Wallace and Tricky Dick Nixon. (The wiretapping surveillance of Nixon by LBJ was a particularly interesting factoid.) Bryce Pinkham is a fine Bobby Kennedy, refreshingly portrayed as a real wheeling and dealing politician rather than an iconic demigod.
As the man himself, Brian Cox plays LBJ a tad smaller than ideal. Mr. Cranston was a firebrand in his depiction. Mr. Cox is naturally covering the tougher years when this leader ran into a wall and his political career died. That weariness is beautifully realized before it’s time for another scene. And another. And another.
I enjoyed sitting through The Great Society despite its many flaws. The play is too long and crammed with too many scenes which are only mildly interesting. The documentary tone and brisk pacing saps this incredibly rich story of needed depth. Any drama which makes you focus on an eighteen month period where troops in Vietnam grew from 24,000 to 375,000 young men is worth thinking about. Any drama which makes you understand how power corrupts is worth a listen. This one is for people who want a quick overview of a tumultuous period in American history.
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