All the Way is a gripping new play about a pivotal moment in American history. This drama will take audiences behind the doors of the Oval Office and inside the first years of Lyndon B. Johnson's presidency, and his fight to pass a landmark civil rights bill. Bryan Cranston, Michael McKean and Brandon J. Dirden will be joined by an ensemble cast playing additional roles such as Hubert Humphrey, Richard Russell, Robert McNamara, Coretta Scott King, Lady Bird Johnson, Bob Moses, Roy Wilkins, Lurleen Wallace, Stokely Carmichael, Walter Jenkins, Stanley Levison, George Wallace, Ralph Abernathy and Judge Smith.
All the Way was commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle and premiered at OSF in 2012. It then went on to play a sold-out and critically acclaimed run at the A.R.T. from September 13-October 12, 2013 starring Cranston. The play was awarded the 2013 inaugural Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History, established through Columbia University in honor of the late Senator Kennedy, honoring new plays or musicals exploring US history and issues of the day.
Cranston doesn't look or act much like the real LBJ (at least the one most of us saw on TV), and that's one of the more intriguing aspects of Bill Rauch's direction. Except for a dead-on Lady Bird Johnson (Betsy Aidem) and George Wallace (Rob Campbell), the cast avoids the Madame Tussauds approach to acting that has taken over biopics (and rarely fails to win actors their Oscars). Rauch keeps the focus on telling a complicated story as nimbly as possible, dispensing with the extreme makeup and mannerisms that would only get in the way as Brandon J. Dirden's MLK, Christopher Gurr's Strom Thurmond, Richard Poe's Everett Dirksen, William Jackson Harper's Stokely Carmichael, Robert Petkoff's Hubert Humphrey, Michael McKean's J. Edgar Hoover and Cranston's LBJ do battle with each other in 1964.
ohnson has similar concerns about both King and Hoover, and most of the men he deals with, and expresses them even more colorfully when not on guard. Schenkkan embraces LBJ's well-documented penchant for raw language, and other traits, without reserve - and Cranston plays them with relish. Strutting gut-first and affecting a gruff Southern drawl, the leading man delivers the emphatic, crowd-pleasing performance that the play, and Bill Rauch's vigorous direction, require, while also making Johnson affecting as a flesh-and-blood human being.
2014 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2014 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Bryan Cranston |
2014 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Director of a Play | Bill Rauch |
2014 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Play | Robert Schenkkan |
2014 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Projection Design | Shawn Sagady |
2014 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Sound Design in a Play | Paul James Prendergast |
2014 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Bryan Cranston |
2014 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play | All the Way |
2014 | New York Drama Critics Circle Awards | Best American Play | 0 |
2014 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Bryan Cranston |
2014 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Director of a Play | Bill Rauch |
2014 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | John McMartin |
2014 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Broadway Play | All the Way |
2014 | Theatre World Awards | Outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway Debut Performance | Bryan Cranston |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | Bryan Cranston |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Play | American Repertory Theater |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Play | The Oregon Shakespeare Festival |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Will Trice |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Cheryl Wiesenfeld |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Gabrielle Palitz |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Play | JAM Theatricals |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Gutterman Chernoff |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Caiola Productions |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Play | William Berlind |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Harvey Weinstein |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Barbara H. Freitag |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Scott M. Delman |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Rebecca Gold |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Double Gemini Productions |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Stephanie P. McClelland |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Jerry Frankel |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Louise Gund |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Jeffrey Richards |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Robert Schenkkan |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Gene Korf |
Videos