The Big Lesson from The Great Society

November 7, 2019: Robert Schenkkan’s newest play, The Great Society, chronicles the presidency of Lyndon Johnson from 1964 until Richard Nixon took office in 1968.

The cast is as follows:

Brian Cox is Lyndon Baines Johnson
Gordon Clapp is J. Edgar Hoover
Grantham Coleman is Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr,
Marchánt Davis is Stokely Carmichael and John Lewis
Brian Dykstra is Adam Walinsky, Gen. William Westmoreland,
Seymour Trammel, Stanley Levinson, and Gardner Ackley
David Garrison is Gov. George Wallace, Sheriff Jim Clark, Norman Morrison and Richard Nixon
Ty Jones is Rev. Ralph Abernathy and Rep. Adam Clayton Powell
Marc Kudisch is Dr. James Z. Appel, Richard J. Daley and General Earle Wheeler
Christopher Livingston is James Bevel and Jimmie Lee Jackson
Bryce Pinkham is Robert F. Kennedy
Matthew Rauch is Robert McNamara and Rep. Wilbur Mills
Richard Thomas is Hubert Humphrey
Tramell Tillman is Bob Moses, Rev. Dobynes, Hosea Williams and Marquette Frye
Frank Wood is Sen. Everett Dirksen, “Deke” Deloach, Colonel Al Lingo and Clark Gifford
Barbara Garrick is Lady Bird Johnson
Angela Pierce is Pat Nixon
Nikkole Salter is Coretta Scott King and LBJ’s secretary Sally Childress

It should be noted that among all these movers and shakers of those four years only four were women – three wives and one secretary.

In the midst of the #MeToo movement, woman can indeed look back and realize – We’ve Come a Long Way Baby. Looking around today, they can conclude – We’ve got a long way to go.