Grand Rapids Civic Theatre takes on award-winning “All the Way” with LBJ
The historical play tells the story of Lyndon Johnson, hurled into the Presidency after the assassination of John F. Kennedy and using that political capital to fight for the Civil Rights Act.
On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated, plunging the nation into mourning and pushing Lyndon Johnson into the presidency.
“The greatest leader of our time has been struck down by the foulest deed of our time,” Johnson said, speaking to Congress. But he saw Kennedy’s death as more than just a tragedy. It was political capital. It was something he could use.
“All The Way,” Robert Schenkkan’s Tony award-winning play, dramatizes the use to which Johnson put that capital: the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
It opens at Grand Rapids Civic Theatre on January 12, the first time it’s being produced by a community theatre. Jon March takes on the lead role, with Eddie Stephens portraying Martin Luther King, Jr., with whom Johnson collaborated to make that Act happen.
In that role as LBJ, March will flatter, twist arms, bully, appeal to conscience, and more—all in the service of a bill that perhaps no one else could have passed. March will have to communicate Johnson’s ambition as well as his insecurity; he’ll also be onstage nearly all the time.
“This is the biggest role I’ve ever had by far,” he says.
Part of the reason he decided to take on its challenges was its historical importance.
“So many people in our country unfortunately don’t have any knowledge of that time,” he says. Although the Johnson presidency was within living memory for many, it can also feel like the distant past. “All The Way” resurrects that time, reminding us of its continued relevance.
In doing so, it makes use of the historical record, not all of which is spotless. March cautions in particular audiences sensitive to unvarnished language. He speaks of Civic’s audience, with affection: “One ‘goddamn’ and we get letters.”
“Some of this language is hard to hear,” Executive & Artistic Director Bruce Tinker cautions. “Johnson used every word in the English language and some that aren’t in it. Look, none of us are in the business of offending people. But this is reality.”
All that said, both March and Tinker recommend the play to high school students. “All The Way,” not only informative but entertaining and, in its best moments, gripping, gives new life to an old struggle: the struggle, as March says, “For African-Americans just to be treated as human beings.”
“All the Way”
Grand Rapids Civic Theatre
January 12–28
Wednesday through Saturday 7:30 p.m.
Sunday Matinees 2 p.m.
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