Tickets are now on sale to see Emmy and two-time Olivier Award winner Brian Cox star as Lyndon B. Johnson in the Broadway premiere of The Great Society at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater.
Playwright Robert Schenkkan returns to the Great White Way with this second play, celebrating LBJ's presidential legacy. This new work accompanies Schenkkan’s Tony Award-winning All The Way, which saw Bryan Cranston win his first Tony for "Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play" back in 2014 for his performance as the 1960s American president.
All The Way played the Neil Simon Theatre from February 10 through June 29, 2014, taking home the Tony Award for “Best Play.”
This production actually marks Schenkkan’s third Broadway outing as a playwright. In the fall of 1993, he made his Broadway debut as a writer with The Kentucky Cycle, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1992 and led to his first Tony Award nomination for “Best Play” in 1994.
Taking the reins from Bryan Cranston and carrying the LBJ baton into The Great Society, Brian Cox is also no stranger to the Great White Way, of course. Having made his Broadway debut back in February 1985 in Eugene O’Neill’s Strange Interlude, he has gone on to make waves in the theatre with his performances in Yasmina Reza’s Art in 1998, Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll in 2007, and Jason Miller’s That Championship Season in 2011. A native of Dundee, Scotland, he also boasts a formidable résumé, when it comes to the UK stage. A two-time Olivier Award winner in his own right, he has worked extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, alongside other esteemed establishments around the UK. He is one of the true veterans of the theatre with an intimidating stage presence more than capable of living up to the powerful figure of LBJ.
The Great Society depicts a crucial era in American history – including the rise of the Civil Rights Movement and the atrocities committed in Vietnam – and promises great writing, great acting and great drama.
(Photos by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)
7 images Capturing Johnson’s passionate and aggressive attempts to build a great society for all, The Great Society follows his epic triumph in a landslide election to the agonizing decision not to run for re-election three years later. In an era that would define history forever: the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, the destruction of Vietnam, and the creation of some of the greatest social programs America has ever known - and one man was at the center of it all: LBJ.
LBJ is back on the Great White Way! Last night, the New York Theatre Guide headed to Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater to celebrate the official opening of The Great Society. Following on from playwright Robert Schenkkan's 2014 Tony Award-winning "Best Play" All The Way, starring Bryan Cranston as President Lyndon Baines Johnson, this second chapter in "The LBJ Plays" sees Emmy Award winner Brian Cox taking the baton and portraying LBJ's mighty attempts to build The Great Society in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam era.
Take a look at LBJ! Producers of the Broadway premiere of The Great Society have now released official production photos, featuring Emmy Award winner Brian Cox as President Lyndon B. Johnson alongside the rest of the Broadway company.
LBJ on the Great White Way... again! The Broadway premiere of The Great Society begins previews at the Vivian Beaumont Theater tonight, ahead of an official opening on October 1 and a limited engagement through November 30, 2019. Written by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Robert Schenkkan as Part II of the LBJ Plays, following the success of his Tony Award-winning "Best Play" All the Way, which starred Bryan Cranston in a 2014 Tony Award-winning performance, The Great Society is directed by Bill Rauch.
Producers of the upcoming Broadway premiere of The Great Society, scheduled to play the Vivian Beaumont Theater from September 6 through November 30, 2019, with an official opening on October 1, have now revealed complete casting.
Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Robert Schenkkan’s new play The Great Society, the second of his two dramas about the legacy of Lyndon B. Johnson, will open on Broadway for a limited 12-week engagement at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in September. Beginning previews on September 6, the play will be directed by Bill Rauch and star Emmy Award winner Brian Cox as Lyndon B. Johnson, Tony Award nominees Marc Kudisch and Richard Thomas as Richard J Daley and Hubert Humphrey, respectively, and Grantham Coleman in his Broadway debut as Martin Luther King Jr.
Like Lyndon B. Johnson with his great society programs, playwright Robert Schenkkan tries to do too much. Focused on building a domestic agenda — Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, and Food Stamps — Johnson, the consummate politician is overtaken by his times — by the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement. Similarly, Schenkkan is taken by the cosmic balancing act that is the Johnson... Read more
