Adrian Horton

With the fates established from the jump, it’s remarkable that Parade feels as dynamic and moving as it does. That’s in large part thanks to Brown’s Tony-winning score and orchestrations – music director and conductor Tom Murray’s version is lush and chill-inducing from the jump – and a top-to-bottom slate of excellent vocal performances, particularly from leads Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond.

an Hove's West Side Story, produced by Scott Rudin, makes a lot of gambles in moving the show from mid-century Upper West Side to somewhere in 2020 New York (still the same area, according to the program, though its minimalist style and backdrop of empty, graffitied streets suggest elsewhere). The characters have Soundcloud rapper-esque face tattoos and iPhones; mini-dresses and body-con streetwear replace full skirts, while fluid Latinx-influenced dances sub for the original's ballet-based choreography. The production keeps the original book by Arthur Laurents with music and lyrics by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, though cuts I Feel Pretty and the intermission, thus running a brisk, bracing hour and 45 minutes straight.

The Great Society is a man's show; the focus on Johnson and King and Kennedy, with small parts for Lady Bird Johnson and Coretta Scott King as concerned and embittered wives, ones who feel underutilized. That being said, it's difficult to justify any less stage or speaking time for Cox, whose sublime swings from bullishness and crippling guilt capture the real Johnson's notoriously volatile moods, even if the Texas drawl is more evocative than spot-on. What he lacks in Johnson's physical stature - the real president was 6ft 4in - Cox recoups in palpable energy; as he strides about the room, literally strong-arming lobbyists and senators into public promises, shading his vowels brassier or less so depending on the audience, it's a brilliant portrait of intimidation and presence.