Bryan Cranston To Play Lyndon B. Johnson on Broadway

More star power on Broadway as “Breaking Bad’s” Bryan Cranston will play President Lyndon B. Johnson in “All the Way,” by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan at the Neil Simon Theatre (250 West 52nd Street) for a limited run. It is directed by Bill Rauch, Artistic Director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

The play will begin rehearsals on Tuesday, January 14, 2014, with previews beginning Monday, February 10, 2014 and an opening night set for Thursday, March 6, 2014.

Cranston will be joined on stage by Michael McKean as J. Edgar Hoover and Brandon J. Dirden as Martin Luther King, Jr. Both played those roles at the American Repertory Theatre.

A press release from publicist Jeffrey Richards Associates states:

“This drama will take audiences behind the doors of the Oval Office and inside the first years of Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency, and his fight to pass a landmark civil rights bill. Cranston, McKean and Dirden will be joined by an ensemble cast playing additional roles such as Hubert Humphrey, Richard Russell, Robert McNamara, Coretta Scott King, Lady Bird Johnson, Bob Moses, Roy Wilkins, Lurleen Wallace, Stokely Carmichael, Walter Jenkins, Stanley Levison, George Wallace, Ralph Abernathy and Judge Smith.

“‘All the Way’ was commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle and premiered at OSF in 2012. It then went on to play a sold-out and critically acclaimed run at the A.R.T. from September 13-October 12, 2013 starring Cranston.

“The play was awarded the 2013 inaugural Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History, established through Columbia University in honor of the late Senator Kennedy, honoring new plays or musicals exploring US history and issues of the day.”