ALL THE WAY Reviews

Post 'em here!

Sidebar: I caught the final preview last night. Thoroughly enjoyed. Cranston is giving a brilliantly realized performance!

A great production of a great show!

Isherwood's review is positive...I think.

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My sense was this was rushed to Broadway to capitalize on Cranston's peak of notoriety. I hope it came together and is well received.

I think it was rushed. In a good way. Though it played sometime ago, it was all very quick. To get a big star like this for a Broadway show at the top of his popularity is fast. Sometimes it takes 3-5 years and by then the actor could lose popularity steam. To me this was quick and well worth it.

Tremendous production, with a terrific lead performance, but not a great play. Fortunately it deals with a most eventful year in history, so there is a built-in interest factor it does not fall below even though it never rises above.

LBJ is the only three-dimensional character in the play, the result of Schenkkan covering more ground than one play can handle.

The "B" from Entertainment Weekly, the three out of four stars in the News and the Post and the did-he-or-didn't-he like it? review from Isherwood are all on the money in my opinion.

I saw it last weekend...I thought Cranston was incredible,, an incredibly powerful yet nuanced performance (note: I've never seen Breaking Bad, although I did enjoy him in "Malcolm in the Middle"). As someone who regularly works in and around the political world, as a whole the show didn't come together for me as much as I would have liked. I enjoyed it, but even for a political person, the level of detail got to be a bit much at times. If you're a fan of Cranston, definitely see it. Otherwise, "B" seems to be about right.

I'm going in a few weeks. Can anyone tell me please what the running time is? Much thanks!

Great, thanks!

Saw All The Way yesterday. I thought it was absolutely riveting, with a tour de force performance by Bryan Cranston. If you're on the fence about seeing it, go. This is a performance of a lifetime.

The play itself has a few flaws and isn't perfect, but that didn't spoil my enjoyment in the least. (There could have been a little more about LBJ's Vietnam inner turmoil, and a little less about convention issues, for example.)

But Cranston was a powerhouse and he was ably supported by other fine actors, who made the show entertaining and much more than a mere history lesson. John McMartin (who I can never get enough of), was wonderful as LBJ's friend but ultimately defeated mentor, Sen. Richard Russell.

Brandon J. Dirden channeled Martin Luther King, Jr. perfectly, voice and all. I look forward to much more in the future from him.

Michael McKean as a softly conniving J. Edgar Hoover, and wily character actor Ethan Phillips (Neelix, Star Trek Voyager), were fun to watch strut their stuff.

Eric Lenox Abrams, as real-life Congress for Racial Equality leader David Dennis, nearly stole the show. He delivered an impassioned speech at the memorial service for three young civil rights activists murdered in Mississippi by the Ku Klux Klan and moved the audience to burst into thunderous applause.

We sat in the third row center orchestra, and on his way out from the stage door, Brandon J. Dirden was especially chatty (probably because by then nearly all the other fans had left). He apologized if he spit on us during an intense shouting scene with Bryan Cranston. I told him that was okay, it's what I live for, to be spit on by great actors. Then he insisted on having my husband take a picture of him and me. Now, that was a first.

Updated On: 4/13/14 at 11:36 AM

That sequel to All The Way has already been written. It's called "The Great Society" and is following the same path as its predecessor, scheduled to premiere this summer at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. It is also being directed by Bill Rauch, The Festival's Artistic Director who directed All The Way.

"That sequel to All The Way has already been written. It's called "The Great Society" and is following the same path as its predecessor, scheduled to premiere this summer at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. It is also being directed by Bill Rauch, The Festival's Artistic Director who directed All The Way."

This seems to imply the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is being used as a tryout theatre for both plays. "All The Way" was commissioned by OSF as part of the American Revolution series. At that time, there were no plans to take the show to Broadway. "The Great Society" was commissioned by and co-produced with Seattle Repertory Theatre. "The Great Society" with Jack Willis, again as LBJ, runs July 23-November 1.

Both plays will be done at Seattle Repertory Theatre, directed by Bill Rauch and with Jack Willis this fall.