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.
HE GREAT SOCIETY is a good play, and a fine history lesson, but it appears sluggish when compared with its predecessor. With four years to cover, and the complex issue of how the seemingly uncontrollably escalating Vietnam War is getting in the way of developing domestic programs such as Medicare and Urban Renewal, the play hops from issue to issue with supporting characters doing little more than making guest appearances.
That's not enough to replicate the success of 'All the Way,' which won the Tony Award for best play. Mr. Cranston, whose portrayal of L.B.J. won a Tony Award as well, could carry that story, essentially a comedy, on pure skill and charisma. 'The Great Society,' a tragedy, needs more than that but instead gets less. It's bad enough that Johnson is so two-dimensional; the supporting characters have it worse. Their traits are parceled out on a one-per-customer basis: Humphrey's a patsy, King a worrier, Carmichael a hothead and Wallace a weasel.
2013 | Off-Broadway |
World Premiere Off-Broadway |
2019 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2020 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Wig and Hair Design | Tom Watson |
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