Jack Willis in All the Way and The Great Society Photo: Chris Bennion |
The duet of plays at Seattle Repertory Theatre, All the Way and The Great Society (both still playing in
repertory through January 4, 2015) are powerful and dense and meticulous works
by Robert Schenkkan featuring Lyndon Baines Johnson’s presidency. Their scope
is an arduous undertaking and the revelation to a modern audience (now 50 years
removed from that history) works to reacquaint us with the mercurial,
passionate, gruff, power-hungry, sometimes vicious visionary that was LBJ.
As a vehicle to bring a historical figure to life, it’s
masterful. Clearly, any actor who inhabits the role will henceforth consider it
a career-making move, and Jack Willis
roars and whispers and rails about with the greatest finesse, showing his
tremendous abilities on stage. It’s a pleasure to watch him work. Like Bryan
Cranston, awards for his work should be forthcoming.
The plays delve deeply into Johnson’s personality and his
canny grasp of political gamesmanship. However, in some ways, both plays
undercut the drama, which is puzzling for stage work. All the Way was particularly underwhelming in the sound department,
where underscoring of sound or music could have helped color the emotions of
situations more effectively.