The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University announced today that single tickets for the first production of the 2013/14 Season are now on sale to the general public. The A.R.T. will open its season with Robert Schenkkan's new play All The Way, directed by Bill Rauch, with three-time Emmy Award-winning actor Bryan Cranston playing the lead role of Lyndon Baines Johnson. The production begins performances on September 13.
Bryan Cranston is joined by 2013 Lucille Lortel Award nominee Brandon J. Dirden (The Piano Lesson off-Broadway, Enron on Broadway) in the role of Martin Luther King, Jr. They lead an ensemble cast, each playing multiple roles, including Drama Desk Award winner Michael McKean (The Homecoming and Superior Donuts on Broadway; A Mighty Wind, This is Spinal Tap) as J. Edgar Hoover; Obie Award winner Reed Birney (Picnic on Broadway, Blasted Off-Broadway; "Gossip Girl") as Hubert Humphrey; Dakin Matthews (Gore Vidal's The Best Man and Henry IV on Broadway; Lincoln) as Richard Russell; Arnie Burton (Peter and The Starcatcher and The 39 Steps on Broadway) as Robert McNamara; Crystal Dickinson (Clybourne Park on Broadway) as Coretta Scott King; Betsy Aidem (Nikolai and the Others Off-Broadway; "The Americans") as Lady Bird Johnson; Eric Lenox Abrams (The Piano Lesson Off-Broadway; "Boardwalk Empire") as Bob Moses; Peter Jay Fernandez (Cyrano de Bergerac and Macbeth on Broadway; "House of Cards," "The Good Wife") as Roy Wilkins; Marianne Hagan (Mercy Off-Broadway; "Friends," "Third Watch") as Lurleen Wallace; William Jackson Harper (Titus Andronicus, and The Total Bent Off-Broadway; "The Electric Company") as Stokely Carmichael; Christopher Liam Moore (All The Way at OSF; "10 Items or Less") as Walter Jenkins; and Ethan Phillips (November and My Favorite Year on Broadway; The Island, Green Card) as Stanley Levison. The cast also includes Dan Butler and J. Bernard Calloway in multiple roles.
Set design is by Christopher Acebo, costume design by Deborah M. Dryden, lighting design by Jane Cox, original music and sound design by Paul James Pendergast, and video projections by Shawn Sagady. The dramaturg is Tom Bryant.
1963. An assassin's bullet catapults Lyndon B. Johnson into the presidency. A Shakespearean figure of towering ambition and appetite, the charismatic, conflicted Texan hurls himself into Civil Rights legislation, throwing the country into turmoil. Alternately bullying and beguiling, he enacts major social programs, faces down opponents and wins the 1964 election in a landslide. But in faraway Vietnam, a troublesome conflict looms. In the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright's vivid dramatization of LBJ's first year in office, means versus ends play out on a broad stage canvas as politicians and civil rights leaders plot strategy and wage war. A searing, enthralling exploration of the morality of power.
"All the Way plays much like a Shakespearean history, with a complex, commanding monarch and competing factions embroiled in wars and rebellions. Only here, their battlefields are the Oval Office and Congressional chambers, their swords motions and filibusters." - Austin Chronicle
All the Way was recently awarded the inaugural Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History and the 2013 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award. It was commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF)'s as part of its American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle and premiered there in 2012.
For tickets to All The Way and further information call 617-547-8300 or visit americanrepertorytheater.org.
Photo Credit: Peter James Zielinski
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