THE GREAT SOCIETY to play the Beaumont this Fall — Page 2

JVJ93 said: "Once this closes around the holidays, what do we think for the Beaumont in the spring ? Follies? Lehman Trilogy?"

NT said nothing confirmed re. Lehman Trilogy. Source

I was there last night.

I thought the play was a solid piece of political drama, but nothing extraordinary. I saw All the Way on Broadway, and I remember appreciating it at the time. I don't think this play is significantly worse or anything like that, but in the years since All The Way, I think I've come to realize that I just don't find this style of theatre very exciting. Not because it has to do with politics, but more because it feels somewhat lacking in a human core. We see these historical events play out, and we understand their significance, but I don't feel like they really give us much additional insight into who these people were, or what really drove them. Instead it focuses more on giving us an overview of the facts, and broader intentions at play (though they do it through dialogue, not narration, thankfully!). That doesn't necessarily make the play bad, but it's just not that interesting to me dramatically.

There were also some obvious attempts to draw parallels to today, but they tended to be too heavy-handed for my taste (especially one "groaner" line in the final scene, which I hope they cut). I had a discussion with my friend after the show about what the take-away was supposed to be, and it seemed like a major theme was about liberals not being able to agree with each other, and politicians not being able to win in the eyes of the public no matter what they do.

The most interesting parts of the show for me were the moments when LBJ has one of his opponents in his office, and he cleverly and smoothly manipulates them into getting his way, and getting them to change their stance in front of the press. There were several scenes like this throughout the show, and they were always my favorite moments (others seemed to agree - the first of these moments elicited applause from the audience).

As expected, the crowd was on the older side, and all the people I heard speaking around me tended to really enjoy the show. And I heard several comments to the effect of "we lived through this!"

This play also feels very in line stylistically with some of the other recent plays put on at the Beaumont, like Junk and Oslo - both of which I thought were also pretty "meh."

Brian Cox is very good. His take on LBJ is more restrained than Bryan Cranston's, and in general it struck me as a more grounded and nuanced performance. But Cranston's take was more charismatic, and felt more like an unstoppable force.

The supporting cast is filled with talent, but most of it isn't fully utilized. Kudisch has a few good moments as the mayor of Chicago. Pinkham does a great Bobby Kennedy voice, but there isn't much to the character. Richard Thomas has a lot of stage-time, but he is only ever onstage with Cox, and Cox tends to pull the focus in those scenes. So it still felt like he was underused. Grantham Coleman has one of the meatiest supporting roles as MLK (a much bigger part than it was in All The Way).

Updated On: 9/7/19 at 03:00 PM

SouthernCakes said: "How’s the design "



It’s relatively simple and small. They don’t make use of the vast Vivian Beaumont stage at all, and instead put the show exclusively on the small thrust, and the back area isn’t visible. But the design is smart, and works well for the show, and I was surprised that the show never felt cramped despite the number of characters and the amount of action. And it actually feels very intimate, which is nice.

Also, there is a clever stylistic choice in the design that is put into effect during the intermission.

SouthernCakes said: "Care to ruin that choice for me? (I’m not really into historical drama) "

I saw this at Theater Row back in 2013 where it had an extremely limited run (2 weeks), and saw "All the Way" afterwards. I had no idea that it was the same playwright when I saw "All the Way", but they were different enough to be unique. Of course, they have more of a name cast now for Lincoln Center, so I may re-visit, especially since it has been a long time. The intimacy of the small venue at Theater Row is what I remember, as well as a scene where LBJ reveals (nearly) all at an all men's "meeting".

JBroadway said: "Mark Waltz said: "I saw this at Theater Row back in 2013 where it had an extremely limited run (2 weeks), and saw "All the Way" afterwards. I had no idea that it was the same playwright when I saw "All the Way", but they were different enough to be unique. Of course, they have more of a name cast now for Lincoln Center, so I may re-visit, especially since it has been a long time. The intimacy of the small venue at Theater Row is what I remember, as well as a scene where LBJ reveals (nearly) all at an all men's "meeting"."

I did a bit of digging, and it turns out the play you saw is not the same play that's now on Broadway. It wasa different play with the same title, also about LBJ. That one was byAlexander Harrington.

https://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/news/president-lyndon-b-johnsons-war-on-poverty-brought_65707.html"

Thank you for confirming that. It gives me more of an incentive to see it. It'll be an interesting addition to my playbill collection when I file it next to the other (unrelated) one. It reminds me of discovering the existence of a flop play called "South Pacific" that played the Cort Theater for 5 performances starring Canada Lee and Ruby Dee in late 1944/very early 1945 written by Howard Rigsby and Dorothy Heyward and staged by Lee Strasberg or the various "Peter Pan's" over the years unrelated to the more famous one. Hoping one day that Encores stages the Bernstein version of that! .

This is longer than I expected. I'll have to catch a Matinee if I end up seeing this.

Besides Cranston, who do you suppose some of their first choices for the role may have been?