ALL THE WAY
November 1963. An assassin’s bullet catapults Lyndon Baines Johnson into the presidency. A Shakespearean figure of towering ambition and appetite, this charismatic, conflicted Texan hurls himself into the passage of the Civil Rights Act—a tinderbox issue emblematic of a divided America—even as he campaigns for re-election in his own right, and the recognition he so desperately wants. In Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award–winning Robert Schenkkan’s vivid dramatization of LBJ’s first year in office, means versus ends plays out on the precipice of modern America. ALL THE WAY is a searing, enthralling exploration of the morality of power. It’s not personal, it’s just politics. (Excerpt from DPS website.)
[The themes of ALL THE WAY are] power and morality. In an attempt to do the “right thing” politically, how many corners can you cut, how many deals can you make, how many people can you throw overboard?
[The] only note I will add for future productions: race is such a key part of this play (and America in 1964) and the power dynamics it explores. It is difficult for me to see this play done with “color-blind casting.”
