The Great Society - 2019 Broadway History , Info & More
Vivian Beaumont Theatre (Broadway)
150 West 65th St. at Broadway New York, NY 10023
Tony Award & Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan will return to Broadway with the second of his two exhilarating dramas celebrating Lyndon B. Johnson's legacy: THE GREAT SOCIETY.
Capturing Johnson's passionate and aggressive attempts to build a great society for all, THE GREAT SOCIETY follows his epic triumph in a landslide election to the agonizing decision not to run for re-election just three years later. It was an era that would define history forever: the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, the destruction of Vietnam, and the creation of some of the greatest social programs America has ever known-and one man was at the center of it all: LBJ.
The Great Society - 2019 - Broadway Cast
FEATURED REVIEWS FOR The Great Society
THE GREAT SOCIETY: A LEADER IN SHADES OF GRAY, IN ANOTHER TROUBLED TIME
6 / 10
What we get less of a sense of, despite Society's largely sympathetic portrait of its still controversial subject, is the turmoil Johnson must have endured, along with other leaders he engaged. Their dialogue is often too obvious to invite reflection, so that even the most supple actors can seem as if they're reciting lines in a well-crafted reenactment of historical events. Richard Thomas, who generally makes any production worth seeing, is wasted as Johnson veep Hubert Humphrey, presented here as part dutiful aide, part convenient foil. Marc Kudisch juggles a few heavies who contest Johnson's more progressive policies, among them Chicago's Mayor Richard J. Daley, and emerge as cardboard slimeballs-accurate in spirit, perhaps, but less interesting in execution.
Lyndon Johnson gets another term on Broadway, with Brian Cox in The Great Society
8 / 10
Should the lack of impersonation matter? It doesn't have to, but it does, especially when David Garrison's Nixon and Bryce Pinkham's Robert Kennedy are instantly identifiable caricatures. Cox has brusque, punchy energy. He can thunder with a king's power and howl with a titan's rage. At other times he's more like an executive who's sick and tired of boardroom fighting but not ready for his severance package. What Johnson actually was is hard to pin down - a hollow colossus, a giant ego, a black hole of need and want, a master manipulator, a bleeding heart. But he was neither king nor salesman: He was an American president. Somehow he's gotten away from this play.
The Great Society History
Other Productions of The Great Society
| 2013 | Off-Broadway |
World Premiere Off-Broadway |
| 2019 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
The Great Society - 2019 Broadway Awards and Nominations
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Wig and Hair Design | Tom Watson |
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