Bryan Cranston as LBJ in ALL THE WAY on Broadway

If Bryan Cranston is the draw for audiences who want to see Walter White on the Great White Way, so be it.  Come for the actor and absorb the historic 11 month pivotal history which changed the face of our nation with regards to race and civil rights.  ALL THE WAY begins the day JFK was assassinated and LBJ was sworn in as President.  LBJ repeatedly referred to him as the President by accident.  This I found offensive.  It was not an "accident" but a gruesome murder of a Pres. beside his wife forever embedded in our nation's history and the end to what has been referred to as Camelot.  However, Camelot we clearly were not:  lest we forget the blight of Jim Crowe Laws, segregations, the reign of terror by the KKK and oppression of whites over blacks.  The plays scans the 11th months from the assissination to the Presidential election in 1964 which LBJ is obsessed with winning to remain in power.  "Politics is War."  In order to "Win by not losing" LBJ is cunning, devious, ferocious, pugnacious and sagacious at garnering votes and passing legislation.  Getting votes required pandering to the Negro voters which meant getting the Civil Rights Amendment passed.  This brilliantly staged play depicts our Govt. as a House of Cards with Walter White playing  Kevin Spacey in the reincarnation of LBJ during a turbulent & divisive time in our country's recent history.  Other intriguing historic figures represented were Rev. MLK, Sen. Thurmond, Gov. Wallace, Sen. Humphrey and J. Edgar Hoover.   Playwright, Robert Schenkkan is a Tony & Pulitzer Prize author.  Schenkkan's powerful play exposes the murders of the Freedom Riders, fire hoses aimed at Black protestors and the tempest brewing within MLK's affiliates.  Outside the theatre was a peaceful mob waiting at the stage door for our nation's current cult hero, Bryan Cranston.   Regardless of your motivation, make your way to see ALL THE WAY.