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If it werent so doggedly self-serious, Robert SchenkkansThe Great Societywould be almost entertainingly bad.
But it is, and its on Broadway.
Its a marathon with no real reward in other words, a slog.
What else can they do with such a barrage of pushy, one-dimensional text?
And there are plenty more where that came from.
Theyre not playing humans; theyre doing impressions.
If theyre wooden, its not their fault.
The meat of good drama real feeling, personal and interpersonal complexity, human connection is in short supply.
Take Richard Thomas as LBJs vice-president, Hubert Humphrey.
Our firstland basein Vietnam?
Eighty miles along the Jefferson Davis Highway, through the worst Klan country in the South?
Humphrey yelps, aghast, when MLK proposes his march from Selma to Montgomery.
Move from a strictly defensive posture of air strikes to a policy ofoffensive action?
he cries, when McNamara proposes a draft increase and a more aggressive military stance.
This stuff is practically self-parody.
Truly, its hardly even a play.
The Great Societyis at the Vivian Beaumont Theater through November 30.
