A CurtainUp Review
All the Way
By Elyse Sommer
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"Politics is war. . .It
means, no mercy. It means, no prisoners. That's a political
campaign. Sometimes the battle is tens of thousands of people
across dozens of states. And other times it's just you and
him and it's a knife fight in a dark room with a slippery
floor. There are no gracious losers and no sore losers; just
the walking dead. You know how you win a campaign? By not losing it!" —Lyndon Johnson, addressing the audience to set the tone for the no holds barred campaign, after the end of his terms as the accidental president." |
Bryan Cranston (Photo: Evgenia Eliseeva)
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With All the Way Schenkkan has smartly opted to leave the cradle to grave portrait of Johnson to book biographers like Caro and Doris Kearns Goodwin and to focus on one tumultuous and ripe for high drama year, 1963 — the year John F. Kennedy was assassinated, making Johnson our 36th President.
But, hurrah, hurrah! Though limited in scope, All the Way doesn't cater to audiences whose idea of a perfect theatrical outing is the 90-minute play that allows plenty of time for post show dining. Instead this slice from the whole loaf of Johnson's life takes its time to unfold. To be exact, three hours. But, the three hours whiz by. Act one zeroes in on Johnson's finagling the passage of the civil Rights Act he believed in and also championed to support his own political ambition. The second act gives free rein to that win-at-any price political fervor.
In a season dominated by that most successful borrower from history, William Shakespeare, it's a real treat to have a freshly minted, full-bodied history play on Broadway. The big buzz about the play's landing at the Neil Simon Theatre during the pre-Tony rush is that it stars Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston. Luckily, this is not just another case of high profile casting to sell tickets. Without pushing for more of a look-alike persona, Cranston IS Johnson. he's nailed the crude manner of speech, the back slapping political maneuvering and ruthless treatment of even his own wife. And he's riveting!
Cranston is so much All the Way's centerpiece that it could almost come off as a solo drama, were it not for the pleasure of seeing a generously sized ensemble: Nineteen splendid actors play fifty-two of the characters swirling around Johnson during the period starting with his being sworn in and the culmination "accidental presidency" with a landslide victory a year later.
The satisfyingly large cast includes some especially vivid performances by the key players.
Betsy Aiden is wonderfully poignant as the ever loyal Lady Bird Johnson. She also handles brief appearances as Washington Post's Katherine Graham and Representative Katharine St. George.
Brandon J. Dirden as Martin Luther King Jr. makes his meetings with the Civil Rights Movement's leaders as intriguing as his confrontations with Johnson.
John McMartin embodies Johnson's conservative Georgia friend Senator Richard Russell; ditto for Robert Petkoff's Senator Hubert Humphrey. The one actor who most closely resembles his real life role model, is Rob Campbell as Alabama Governor George C. Wallace
Michael McKean's sly J. Edgar Hoover has us shudder at what the FBI chief would do with today's technology. Obviously Hoover's own secret life is well known enough to have much of the audience burst into appreciative laughter during a conversation about Walter Jenkins (Christopher Liam Moore), the top aide Johnson disowns when he's arrested for a sexual misdemeanor.
Director Bill Rauch ably steers the large, multi-tasking cast in and out of view. A superb design team further helps to make everything flow with cinematic smoothness.
Christopher Acebo's single set surrounds a circular central area with wood paneled boxes for the other actors. With Johnson spending most of his stage time in that central circle it's an apt metaphor for a fight ring in which Johnson wages his battle to succeed with his civil rights and personal agendas.
Deborah M. Dryden and Paul Huntley's costume and wig designs abet the various character transitions. With Wendell K. Harrington, who made projection design an indispensable part of stage design, serving as consultant, Shawn Sagady's upstage projections beautifully expand and enrich the set and the play's events. The projections of the three young men murdered in Mississippi (Michael Chaney a local black man and two white New Yorkers, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner), are followed by a particularly powerful scene in which we see Chaney being buried as Johnson talks about the effect of the murder on his election.
Sadly, politics has not become less of a nasty take no prisoners game during the fifty years that have passed since Johnson manipulated, charmed and bullied his supporters and opponents into passing the Civil Rights Act and getting him elected by a landslide. But on stage Beltway skulduggery makes for richly entertaining theater.
Though Schenkkan has ended All the Way with Johnson's triumphant election, a follow up, aptly named The Great Society, is already scheduled for a July premiere at Mr. Rauch's Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Here's hoping Bryan Cranston will be available to perhaps bring it to New York.
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All the Way by Robert Schenkkan Directed by Bill Rauch Cast: Bryan Cranston (President Lyndon Baines Johnson), Eric Lenox Abrams (Bob Moses/David Dennis), Betsy Aidem (Lady Bird Johnson/Katharine Graham/Representative Katharine St. George), J. Bernard Calloway (the Rev. Ralph Abernathy/Butler), Rob Campbell (Gov. George Wallace/Representative James Corman/Joseph Alsop/Senator Mike Mansfield/Walter Reuther), Brandon J. Dirden (the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.), James Eckhouse (Robert McNamara/Senator James Eastland/Representative William Moore McCulloch/Gov. Paul B. Johnson Jr.), Peter Jay Fernandez (Roy Wilkins/Aaron Henry), Christopher Gurr (Senator Strom Thurmond/White House Aide/Butler), William Jackson Harper (James Harrison/Stokely Carmichael), Michael McKean (J. Edgar Hoover/Senator Robert Byrd), John McMartin (Senator Richard Russell), Christopher Liam Moore (Walter Jenkins/Representative William Colmer), Robert Petkoff (Senator Hubert Humphrey), Ethan Phillips (Stanley Levison/Representative John McCormack/Seymore Trammell/the Rev. Edwin King), Richard Poe (Cartha DeLoach/Representative Howard Smith/Senator Everett Dirksen/Gov. Carl Sanders), Roslyn Ruff (Coretta Scott King/Fannie Lou Hamer), Susannah Schulman (Secretary/Lurleen Wallace/Muriel Humphrey/Senator Maurine Neuberger), Bill Timoney (Senator Karl Mundt/White House Aide/Butler) and Steve Vinovich (Representative Emanuel Celler/White House Aide/Butler). Sets by Christopher Acebo Costumes by Deborah M. Dryden Lighting by Jane Cox Music and sound by Paul James Prendergast Projection design by Shawn Sagady Projection consultant, Wendall K. Harrington Hair and wig design by Paul Huntley Sound consultant, Peter Fitzgerald Dramaturge: Tom Bryant Stage manager, Matthew Farrell Running time: 2 hours 50 minutes Neil Simon Theater, 250 West 52nd Street From 2/10/14; opening 3/06/1; closing 6/29/14. Reviewed by Elyse Sommer at March 12th press matinee |
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