Cranston is the reason to see this, what a great performance. I was surprised to discover afterwards this is his Broadway debut because there was nothing tentative or uncertain about his acting. Though I’d never think of him as an obvious actor to portray LBJ (the title “All The Way” comes from the campaign slogan “All The Way with LBJ”), Cranston captures LBJ’s physicality and presence perfectly, with a larger-than-life energy which not only seems fitting, it raises the energy in a show which might otherwise be boring.
This is a good show, but not a perfect show. It’s three hours long including intermission and when Cranston isn’t on stage it lags; the play could use some trimming.
The other major figure is Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. played by Brandon J. Dirden. Though he nails King’s voice and cadence, Dirden’s performance compared to Cranston’s is a little flat and dull. It’s not that he’s bad, he just doesn’t bring anything memorable. He’s fine, he’s serviceable, but he’s not very exciting, and when you consider King was a dynamic preacher and speaker, it’s a disappointment. Put him next to Cranston’s (very effective) scenery-chewing, and he pales in comparison.
The play focuses on LBJ’s efforts to get his civil rights bills passed and you see a lot of the backstage political maneuverings involved. That’s always interesting stuff and the show handles that well. But when the play shifts focus to King’s efforts, it’s an abrupt shift. King’s story is a dramatic one and should be equally as riveting as LBJ’s, but the play doesn’t handle those scenes as well.
On the other hand, you come away with a deeper appreciation for what all sides had to go through to get these bills passed, and the narrow margins by which they succeeded.
The play too often reads a bit like a history lesson and bogs down sometimes under political minutiae. Many references are made to the MFDP and if it was ever defined in the show, I missed it. (I looked it up later, it stands for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.) As Melanie pointed out, the show is a bit lacking in relationship and character development. Though Cranston’s LBJ is a fascinating, dynamic figure, I would have liked understanding his motivations and internal drives better, and would have liked having more insights into all the character’s relationships with each other. In other words, a bit more personal drama in addition to the professional turmoil (we get a good amount of LBJ’s agonized soul-searching as he tries to pass his civil rights bills) would have helped. At one point LBJ tells a story about being a young man and being struck by the inherent unfairness of the racism he sees, but the moment is a little light and unconvincing, sounding more like a politician politicking than a man baring his soul.
Cranston makes the production much better than it might otherwise be. His LBJ is a riveting, profane, salty Texan using language we might not expect from a president, including a fair amount of political incorrectness. Lenny Bruce used to do a bit about how LBJ couldn’t pronounce the word “negro” properly, his Texan’s mouth was incapable of forming the word. “Nigra, nigra-oh, nigger-oh, nagraoh; shit, I just cain’t say it!” Cranston’s LBJ uses “nigra” throughout and occasionally more derogatory terminology, but you never suspect him of being racist no matter how coarse he gets. You witness how shockingly insensitive and vulgar other people’s racial attitudes were at the time – especially shocking because they’re so nonchalantly and openly espoused - and if LBJ is less politically correct than you’d expect today, you admire him all the more for rising above the beliefs of many of his peers, especially his peers in the 1960’s south.
There’s only one set, which is made to look different from scene to scene by the projection along its upstage wall. Sometimes it’s a photo of the wall behind the desk in the Oval Office, sometimes a wall in the Senate, sometimes a restaurant, sometimes it’s an exterior of the White House as seen from a podium on the grass, sometimes a hotel room, etc. The stage itself has a semi-circular arrangement of tiered jury box-like seats. There’s a desk that sometimes rises up from center stage, sometimes is lowered making the stage a flat surface, and in one scene is lowered even more to form a grave. This is a play with a limited run and probably not much chance of making a huge profit, so the sparse trappings are probably one way of keeping expenses down while still making things interesting. It’s effective but does look a little cheap. The set is serviceable and doesn’t detract from the action, but it doesn’t enhance it much either.
I noticed a bit of sloppy tech work. The actors didn't appear to be wearing body mics and depending on where they stood, their voices changed noticeably in amplification and tone. I imagine there were overhead mics being used, and if so, they were far overhead indeed. I was able to hear the dialog fairly well (after the first few minutes), but the audio was uneven depending on where the actors stood. I noticed this especially when someone was delivering a monologue as they walked about the stage. There were some background lights that flickered a bit, and throughout the show occasional pieces of (what turned out to be) confetti drifted down to the stage floor. This is a preview performance, true, but for a Broadway show opening the following evening, I was surprised to see any sloppiness at all.
If these sound like serious complaints, they aren't. This is a show worth seeing. Cranston gives a tour de force performance which I’ll remember for a long time. Melanie said she read this is a labor of love for him. Apparently he said he made so much money from “Breaking Bad,” he doesn't need to obsess over a project’s paycheck, and took this job because he believed in it. The show is a “strictly limited engagement” and I’m not sure when it closes – at the moment tickets are available through June – but if you can, check it out. It’s a bit long, but Cranston makes it well worth seeing, even if he never once says, “Say my name.”
http://allthewaybroadway.com/
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