The Great Society

See it if You know nothing about the 60s and want to have a very surface understanding of the Johnson administration.

Don't see it if If you are hoping for a well developed character study of LBJ. The pay feels like a 3 hour news real.

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

See it if This fast-moving dramatization of the relationship between LBJ and MLK is absorbing, with a bombastic performance by Brian Cox.

Don't see it if But the length begins to drag in the second half, which feels at least 15 minutes too long.