All The Way Previews

I saw the first preview of All The Way this evening and liked it a lot without completely committing to loving it. There are two things everyone will be talking about after seeing this play: Bryan Cranston and the over three hour run time.

Each act feels like it could be its own play with both halves containing fully developed character and plot arcs. They felt more like parts one and two of a six part mini-series rather than a finished play, and despite the length I felt cheated out of parts three through six. Maybe Shenkkan could adapt the piece for HBO and give us the entire administration.

Act one was like 1776, except instead of the Declaration of Independence they're trying to pass the Civil Rights Act. Even the one piece evoked memories of every production of 1776 that I've ever seen. Act two dealt with the '64 election and Johnson's rivalry with Barry Goldwater. It also prominently featured MLK Jr and the civil rights movement taking place in Alabama and Mississippi. We all know the endings to these plots, so the drama must be found elsewhere. Like John Adams before him, LBJ must carry this weight and luckily Bryan Cranston is more than up to the task.

Judging by the audience response most people were there to see Cranston, and he really delivered. It's a towering performance that fills the entire Neil Simon. The rest of the cast is a parade of stars, perhaps not seen since A Free Man of Color a few years ago. Whereas that play was a little too ambitious for its own good and didn't know how to balance the dozens of storylines it attempted to tell, All The Way manages to keep everything clear and easy to follow, even with all that is going on.

Michael McKean did nice work as J. Edgar Hoover and Roslyn Ruff was very moving as Fannie Lou Hamer.

If you're a history nerd or a Cranston fan then this is unmissable.

---

With the regards to the incomplete mini-series feeling, Schenkkan actually has written "part two." It's called The Great Society and is being done at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival this summer with the same director and designers who did All the Way.

http://osfashland.org/productions/2014-plays/the-great-society.aspx

ALL THE WAY was a great night of theatre for myself, my niece and friend. It was interesting to see how a 23 year old saw the play and processed parts of history that I lived through that she has only heard about.

Bryan Cranston does a fabulous job, he does a real interpretation not impersonation. His arc and passion carry the storyline in getting a Civil Rights Bill passed is a great race and doesn't feel like a history lesson. There was also a lot of humor in the piece in LBJ's crass and sexist attitudes which seem almost shocking today but the behind the scenes horse trading, unfortunately, does not seem that shocking. Michael McKean as Hoover is smugly menacing, Brandon Dirden is smooth and laid back as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Petkoff is vulnerable as Hubert Hoover, providing a great counterpoint to LBJ. John McMartin seemed to have his arm in a sling but still delivered a barbed and complex portrayal as Richard Russell with some great repartee with LBJ.

The play really took off when LBJ started to teach Humphrey the ins and outs in trying to get bills passed through the House and Senate. The set and projections on the back scrim helped illustrate the massive scope of scene and story that is told. Bill Rauch did a good job staging the 20 actors and getting Cranston to give a nuanced performance, it did not feel like three hours to us. There were a few performers we had problems hearing or understanding and the last montage of speeches between Hoover, King and LBJ seemed unfocused and messy, not sure why Robert Schenkkan tied up the plot with that sequence. That's just a small quibble, as we enjoyed the production very much. Highly recommend seeing this!

Is there a rush policy in place yet? I stopped by the theater to inquire and they said they thought there would be but it wasn't up and running yet (this was a week or so ago).

The time period for "The Great Society" is 1965 to 1968. It ends with LBJ deciding not to run again. I doubt there will be a third play.

Here is a discount code until March 13th I believe. Be sure to enter the code in the in the yellow tab where it says "Got an offer Code", use NED1 to find the cheapest seats once you pick a date. There were some seats for $49 in the upper mezzanine.

http://www.ticketmaster.com/All-the-Way-tickets/artist/1939314?tm_link=edp_Artist_Name

Updated On: 2/11/14 at 04:32 PM

Here's pictures of the set design:

http://www.christopheracebodesign.com/christopheracebodesign.com/portfolio/Pages/All_the_Way.html#grid

It's been changed a bit because the Neil Simon stage isn't as large as those at OSF or ART, but it gives you an idea.

The set really works because of the large screen that the projections are displayed on. My knee jerk reaction to hearing about a lot of projections is to groan, but then you see a production like this where they are employed tastefully and effectively and my faith in the technique is restored.

---

I'll be the one to ask... Is the stage door a mad house?

Saw it last night from the front mezz. Bryan Cranston gives an incredible performance as Lyndon Johnson. The supporting cast-particularly Robert Petkoff as Hubert Humphries and Michael McKean as J.Edgar Hoover were also very strong.

As to the play, act one dragged a little (it could use a little better pacing or something). However, act two was pretty engrossing. (It seems like it loses momentum when Cranston is not on stage.)

I loved it overall and appreciate its relevance in our current political situation.

Cranston is wonderful in a very tedious bore of a play. Christ, it's long.... I couldn't recommend it to people, not unless they are dead set on seeing Cranston on stage.

---

Saw it Sunday night and it clocked in at 2:50. A wonderful night of theatre with an outstanding cast led by the brilliant Cranston (and I've yet to see an episode of Breaking Bad). I hope he's moisturizing well because that constant scrunching of all of his facial muscles has the potential to etch some deep ruts into his face.

If you are not intrigued by history and the game of politics, this may not be for you. Then again, I don't consider myself an avid fan of either and still found watching all the behind-the-scenes machinations of getting the Civil Rights Act passed utterly fascinating.

A stunning, masterful performance in an intricate large cast play about the machinations of getting civil rights legislation passed, while simultaneously trying to get nominated and then elected to his first actual term in office after JFK's death. Cranston disappears into the bombastic, profane, warrior persona of LBJ completely and naturally.

It's also a concise and illuminating history lesson by the playwright, Robert Shenkkan. Balancing many simultaneous stories, the writing was crystal clear and easy to follow as it bounced back and forth between Washington and Missisippi.

MLK (Brandon J. Dirdan, calmly convincing) fights to hang on, squeezed between radical young Blacks and the establishment NAACP, getting backstabbed by Johnson and eventually demanding blacks be seated at the Democratic Convention to represent Mississippi. Also, lurking around the edges is J. Edgar Hoover, in a very realistic, non-winking and yet comical without being camp performance by Michael McKean, taping everyone and trying to forward his own power agenda.

People warned me that play was long, but it seemed to fly by, and I felt as energized at the ending as I did when I walked in. It also reminded me of 1776 in that we knew the historical outcome, but were kept hanging in suspense wondering how the election was going to turn out, as he kept losing points the South.(Spoiler: LBJ wins.)

The whole company is richly human and believable, down to the last small part, and Bill Rauch's direction was imaginative and smart in its use of the design elements, sometimes allowing three scenes in three locations to happen at once, without losing any momentum or focus in the narrative.

And also an effective use of onstage actors sitting in what could be a jury or a choir loft or a committee meeting room, with LBJ's big roller chair front and center.

The play also makes a larger point, quoted by LBJ about politics: That politics is not "war by another means. It's just war."

Having personally participated in a non-violent resistance march against the hatemongering of Jerry Falwell, I was especially drawn to the arguments in the MLK camp, as their anger pushed them to rebel against the use of "love and non-violence" and to get into the streets with fists.

LBJ didn't just play. He played to win. Cranston stomps and storms and cuddles and coos and threatens and rails and laughs -- so much bull-bodied laughing in this play from the audience and from the actor.

And if a little bit of Walter White crept in around the edges in moments, it was only deepened rather than detracted from the character because people addicted to power play by a set rules that the rest of us avoid, and the central one is ruthlessness.