The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis begins its 49th year of stage productions with a riveting, ambitious political drama, All the Way. Robert Schenkkan, the prolific and multi-award-winning playwright, wrote the 2014 Tony winner for ‘Best Play.’ Under the hand of Rep artistic director Steven Wolff, this lightly fictionalized bio of the early days of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency and the passing of the Civil Rights Act possesses an exceptional cast and noteworthy technical properties.
Interestingly, this is one of the few Rep shows I’ve seen that wasn’t polished within an inch of its life at opening—and that served the raw nature of the content extremely well. Johnson was not a polished man, and Brian Dykstra, who plays LBJ, gives the audience all of his brutal bullying and all of his blunt charm. There were a few line bobbles opening night, and I found the lag time in the TV sequences took me out of what was being said. But the concept reminds us how short a time it has been since Americans first invited politics into our living rooms.
What the play truly drives home is how little politics and race relations have changed in 50 years. While we are currently up to almost 20 percent women and 18 percent minorities in Congress, our politicians are still overwhelmingly old, white men, seen in the play as shades of gray: gray hair, gray suits, gray politics. Passions start out black and white, and then everything muddies to compromises, concessions and conciliations. For politically savvy LBJ, that meant giving up voting rights to get the Civil Rights Act passed and then establishing those rights once he was elected for a full term. For Martin Luther King Jr. (played by Avery Glymph with pensive thoughtfulness, if lacking King’s charisma) and the rest of black America, it was just another indication of how little black America matters to (most) white politicians and how long some changes take. Certainly the lamentation at the funeral of the young, black freedom rider who was murdered in Mississippi—“I am sick and tired of going to the funerals of black men who have been murdered by white men”— rings true still.
A few actors played a single role, but most gave us two to four characters, and special mention must be made of Gary Wayne Barker and Jon Shaver, both of whom produced clear, full, specific work for each of their four personages. Barker’s Judge Smith and Shaver’s George Wallace were particularly affecting. It is always reaffirming to see St. Louis actors on the Rep stage, well represented by Ron Himes, Jerry Vogel, Barker, J. Samuel Davis and Alan Knoll. But, as usual, local women get notoriously short shrift.
All the Way continues through Oct. 4 at the Loretto-Hilton Center.
[on the marquee]
» De Kus (The Kiss) | Oct. 9 through 25
Upstream Theatre—Kranzberg Arts Center
» Heathers | Oct. 1
New Line Theatre opens its 25th season in its new home at the Marcelle Theater
» Seminar | through Oct. 4
St Louis Actor’s Studio—Gaslight Theater
Pictured: Brian Dykstra as Lyndon B. Johnson and Kurt Zischke as Hubert Humphrey
Photo: Jerry Naunheim Jr.