The Great Society

See it if You really like Johnson and just love the history around his presidency

Don't see it if You are expecting to learn anything new

Also I’m just not a big fan of history. In fact if I were going to score the future, the present and the past on show score I would give the future and 87, the present and 82 in the past 21!!
I don’t know much about history but even I didn’t learn much seeing this show. Brian Cox was completely over the top and basically screamed for two hours and 30 minutes. Inside the playbill they give you an extra part that lists like 50 characters. They have to do this because there’s absolutely no way you will be able to figure out who is who while the play is going on.
The Lincoln Center shows are usually very well staged but then again if you’ve been to the Lincoln center they should be staged well because it’s a great space to work with... Read more Read less

See it if and ONLY if you are a fan of actor Brian Cox.

Don't see it if you were expecting lighting to strike twice being that this is the playwright who wrote the hit play All The Way.

Also Playwright Robert Schenkkan, who wrote the two BRILLIANT plays, 1992's Tony Award winning play The Kentucky Cycle and the 2014 Tony Award winning play All the Way, disappointed me with his latest play The Great Society as it was anything but "great". The play begins where his last play -All The Way- left off with Johnson's Presidential campaign in 1964. The drama chronicles his landslide victory but devolving presidency as the Vietnam War takes hold. I must confess that I am NOT a fan of historical dramas, but I might have been more interested if actor Bryan Cranston has reprized his role as LBJ. Unfortunately, he didn't and so audiences are stuck with actor Brian Cox's chrisma-less portrayal of LBJ and thus my bordem was born. The length of this play - 2 hour and 45 minutes play borders on being criminal. Why is it so hard for successful playwrights to have lighting strike twice or for that matter three times time. One wonders!... Read more Read less

See it if you have no knowledge of the period in question and want to see it enacted in a production devoid of theatrical or artistic interest.

Don't see it if you have literally anything else to do. Slow moving and dull.

Also It's three hours long, but it flies by like four. The only interest is generated by the actual historical events depicted. The staging, set, and performances are all completely forgettable. Didactic and boring.... Read more Read less

See it if you want to get an overview of lyndon johnson’s presidency, with the focus on civil rights and the war in vietnam.

Don't see it if you are a serious student of the turbulent late 1960s ... this play will do nothing but frustrate and disappoint.

Also the expository first act is little more than a classic comic book parade of historical characters, with some actors doing feeble impersonations & others not bothering. talking points are ticked off in rapid succession, actors finding it necessary to yell to each other instead of conversing (except for grantham coleman as a highly principled MLK & matthew rauch as a quietly malevolent bob mcnamara). richard thomas is dreadful as hubert humphrey; bryce pinkham’s robert kennedy & david garrison’s richard nixon are comical caricatures worthy of an SNL sketch; and what on earth was gordon clapp going for as j.edgar hoover? LBJ’s unraveling in act two finally gave brian cox something to sink his teeth into. too little too late. frenetic scene changes & flashing screen projections undermined any character development. what we’re left with is a plethora of brief superficial skits, overstuffed with too many actors (wearing silly wigs) playing too many different parts. A HOT MESS.... Read more Read less

See it if You have a friend involved in the production if only to demonstrate your willingness to see anything.

Don't see it if avoidable! Film clips do a good job presenting this time. Lousy even terrible accents and hair! Painfully uncomfortable seats.

Also Trivializes rather than ennobles. The “docudrama” play can succeed but this one fails. Is it intended as amateurish? Lots of “jokes” about Medicare aimed at earning easy laughs from this aged audience. Many empty seats. Many people left at intermission.... Read more Read less

See it if On second thought, DON'T see it.

Don't see it if you value your time.

Also One of the more aggressively bad shows I've seen on Broadway. These are (mostly) important historic events, but the playwright adds no new insights into Johnson or the many supporting players. I lived through these times and saw some of them in action. Almost everyone is miscast--or make no effort to convey the person they are supposed to be portraying. I've seen most of these actors do good to great work. But they aren't given a good script or the direction needed to make this a worthwhile time in the theatre. If you're really interested in this era, see the PBS docs on Vietnam and LBJ or the Errol Morris doc on Robert McNamara (The Fog of War).... Read more Read less

See it if you are a Lydon B. Johnson fan.

Don't see it if you want to see a slow production that tells history rather than shows it or gets into the real emotion of the characters. MLK actor was gr8

See it if you are a History major and prefer history plays, real or fictionalized.

Don't see it if you like some action. This is all boring talk, even if you like LBJ.

See it if You are a history buff, who is very interested in LBJ

Don't see it if You want good acting or a more engaging play

See it if You can learn (some very slanted) history of the 1960s. Some very talented actors in int.

Don't see it if Playwright is so totally smitten with his lead character that the show is wildly unbalanced, like a bad lecture.

See it if This is a marathon with a huge cast, and some very good acting, but a play with no soul. It is ambitious and it strives hard

Don't see it if but it somehow trivializes its subject and just scrutinizes it, making the show feel longer then it already is and painful to watch.

See it if You're very fascinated in the history.

Don't see it if You don't want to see capable actors' talents wasted on a long, confusing recount of historical events with no insight into the characters.

See it if you want to see a bygone era of a standard high-school American history textbook onstage.

Don't see it if you want any semblance of theatricality.

See it if Your love of history and politics exceeds your desire for well performed,absorbing, and excitingly staged theater. You enjoy tedious, monotn

Don't see it if You cannot bear to see the same scene over and over again in the course of a performance. If you ever respected Bria Cox’s acting skills, as

Also He just bellows, barks, and bullies his way in an uninteresting, monochromatic performance.... Read more Read less

See it if you'd like to see a good performance from Brian Cox at LBJ.

Don't see it if you're uninterested in traditional "great man" narratives of history.

See it if You are looking for a primer about why the Johnson Presidency ultimately foundered

Don't see it if You are looking for interesting character development, dramatic tension, or an engaging plot.

Also Play is ill-conceived and poorly executed. Scenes that should have been gripping like the protests against segregation are lifeless. Characters are two-dimensional. Stokely Carmichael thinks nonviolent protest movement is inneffective. Hubert Humphrey struggles with his loyalty to Johnson. But nobody cares about either because the characters are nothing more than cardboard cutouts at a 1960's reenactment. Some actors try to recreate the accent of the real life characters (Mayor Daley, RFK), but Brian Cox doesn't even attempt Johnson's Texas drawl, nor does he fully capture Johnson's unique personality traits either. The play ultimately delivers a confusing message about whether Johnson was a good man who was defeated by circumstance and bad advice , just a political hack who was in over his head, an man of no morality, or something else. And you end up not really caring what the answer is because of the boredom that sets in after 3 hours of drama-less theater.... Read more Read less