The Great Society NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (279)
See it if want to see Brian Cox on stage, else no reason.
Don't see it if want characters with any kind of depth - each was just a name and a way to tell the story. not much action onstage - it happens off.
See it if You like historical re-enactments with actors trying out accents as they assume the characters of historical figures.
Don't see it if You like motivation and character in your historical characters, not bullet points and anecdotes. Read more
Critic Reviews (25)
"In ‘The Great Society,’ Another Presidential Nightmare: Brian Cox plays Lyndon B. Johnson at the height of his powers, when history decided to bring him down."
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3/5 Stars "Brian Cox plays a weakened LBJ in Robert Schenkkan's Broadway sequel to 'All the Way'"
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"The Great-Man Theory of 'The Great Society'"
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"Brian Cox stars as Lyndon Baines Johnson in the continuation of playwright Robert Schenkkan's sprawling account of the tumultuous 36th U.S. presidency that began with 'All the Way.'"
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Grade: B "Lyndon Johnson gets another term on Broadway, with Brian Cox in 'The Great Society'"
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"‘The Great Society’ Starring Brian Cox: Cox plays President Lyndon B. Johnson in Robert Schenkkan’s political drama about the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964."
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"A Most Complicated History: Playwright Robert Schenkkan sees his play as ‘the origin story for our present political crisis.’ Luckily, the drama is more nuanced than that."
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"‘The Great Society’ Broadway Review: LBJ Meets His Match – Again – As Brian Cox Picks Up Where Bryan Cranston Left Off"
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"In ‘The Great Society,’ history marches numbingly on, and on, and on, and on"
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"‘The Great Society’ has lots of history, not enough bite in play about LBJ’s last years as president"
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3/4 Stars "Lyndon B. Johnson play an action-packed drama"
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"If the play feels overstuffed, it’s still an important history lesson. Schenkkan calls it a tragedy. But the real tragedy is that if we don’t pay enough attention, history is hellbent on repeating itself."
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"'The Great Society' on Broadway and the America LBJ Built: The second part of Robert Schenkkan's history of Lyndon B. Johnson opens at the Vivian Beaumont Theater."
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"Robert Schenkkan's 'THE GREAT SOCIETY' Takes On The Last Four Years of LBJ's Presidency"
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"If you weren't alive in the Johnson years, it is a concise and electric summary of the conflicts that led directly to today's divided America. If you were there, be prepared for it to come crashing back, in all its tumult and fury."
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"In this sequel to the Tony-winning 'All The Way,' Lyndon Johnson's historic and tumultuous Presidency comes off like a dry-as-dust high school textbook."
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3/5 Stars "'A Not So Great Play About LBJ': Troubled 1960s events overwhelm a President and dishearten a drama"
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3/5 Stars "'A Leader in Shades of Gray, in Another Troubled Time': Brian Cox plays LBJ in Robert Schenkkan's sequel to 'All The Way'"
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"Brian Cox takes on the role of LBJ in Robert Schenkkan’s follow-up to All The Way."
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" LBJ receives a lengthy reprise in ‘The Great Society’"
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"If you invest the time and money to watch Cox's LBJ get all these bills that made America greater than ever passed, I suspect you'll exit the theater fervently hoping that Robert Shenkkan -- or some playwright -- will soon have the facts to write a play to fit the title 'The Rise and Fall of Donald J. Trump.'"
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"Less a drama and more a chronological list of the destructive events the plagued his second term in office. Too much information is packed into the nearly three-hour verbal onslaught and none of it is new or delivered in a fresh manner that results in entertainment."
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"A sequel to 'All The Way' that offers some of the same pleasures. It too employs a big cast - 19 actors portraying some 50 characters - for a sweeping lesson in history and politics. It is smoothly directed, competently acted, and often fascinating, But it is ultimately less satisfying."
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"Examining practically the entire presidency of LBJ in less than three hours, Schenkkan has crafted a somewhat compelling -- if overstuffed -- play that too often regurgitates well-known history at the expense of a deeper character study of the man in the Oval Office."
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"The show moves swiftly, only rarely slowing down to catch its breath (and give us a breather from its informational overload), as it races through the multiple crises…So much transpires…that even those who lived through the traumatic times it depicts will have difficulty keeping up with it."
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