Bob Dylan was wrong.
In the winter of 1964, the indelible warbler proclaimed that “The Times They Are a-Changin’.”
But the times — specifically as they relate to political theater — haven’t moved many needles in the past 52 years. At least not very much.
Sure, wars occurred, the American south swapped from blue to red and a couple of guys by the names of Gates and Jobs invented some stuff, but, by and large, American history has remained remarkably cyclical.
Hopped-up politicians still point fingers. The economy still bowls strikes and gutter balls. And old folks still tell young folks that the music is too damn loud.
And an intricate political drama set in the year the country’s marquee folk singer yodeled about tinkering with the status quo is an eerily potent reminder of those unfading facts.
Penned just four years ago and currently onstage at the Denver Center for Performing Arts, Robert Schenkkan’s “All the Way” peers behind the rusty façade of the 1960s American political machine, carefully magnifying each cog and player with painstaking, if not overly rosy, detail.
The show begins amid the stunned aftermath of the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the sudden, “accidental” ascension of former Vice President and Texas spitfire Lyndon Baines Johnson (C. David Johnson) to the country’s highest office. Shaded by the tenacity of the American Civil Rights Movement, the plot proceeds to trudge toward LBJ’s eventual landslide victory in the election of 1964 and his relentless grind to pass the Civil Rights Act that same year.
At first blush, the show is a fun, star-studded history lesson thanks to uncanny and well-executed embodiments of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Terrence Archie), activist Stokely Carmichael (Laurence Curry) and longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (Steve Brady). Each member of the trio boils with his own brand of discontent with impressive, magnetic poise. And just as King did in real life, Archie carries the brunt of the dramatic payload in the simmering chess match that pits Johnson against Hoover against King.
But more than a tinsel-coated tutorial in American civics, “All The Way” is a downright spooky reminder of just how little the American political atmosphere has changed over the course of the past half century. Clusters of constitution-crazy congressmen attempting to hold the president and his agenda hostage. Heightened government surveillance. Declarations from a tempestuous, reactionary demagogue that he will retool the Republican Party and the country. Sound familiar?
Though never quite adrift of its mission of disguising education as theater and picking apart the tangled 1960s political environment, the play is long and it is dense — often teetering toward unpalatable extremes. An unflappable cadence riddled with dialogue after dialogue of Sorkin-esque quips and quibbles is only tolerable for so long before eyes begin to glaze over and attention spans wither. And the increasingly tired eyes and abrupt snores of the Baby Boomer-heavy audience during the Feb. 5 performance suggested that, after nearly three hours, limits were breeched.
Unfortunately, that failing test of the audience’s patience is due in no small part to a spotty portrayal of the leading man. Johnson’s take on the eponymous protagonist is so close to being so good, but a habit of overthinking and stumbling over his lines gets in the way. About 95 percent of Johnson’s dialogue is an engaging, expertly spit firestorm of brass and equanimity. He’s able to heatedly dispatch expletives at a rate that is only matched by his character’s ability to burn and rebuild bridges in his quest for social justice. But it’s that pesky, fatal and final 5 percent of clumsy word-searching and back-tracking that mars the performance, as the sporadic flares of brilliance are outshone by the regular verbal distractions. A Friday night wardrobe miscue that caused a swell of embarrassed chuckles across the arena didn’t help.
Directed by Anthony Powell, “All The Way” offers a complicated bag of rich story and uneven execution. It must be said that a stark, gladiatorial set by scenic designer Robert Mark Morgan, mawkishly patriotic music courtesy of sound designer Curtis Craig, and slick projection technology compliments of Charlie I. Miller, help the action float along. However, neither those bandages nor the ludicrously relevant plot are enough to fully make up for three hours of periodic slips from the production’s skipper.
Daily readers of The Hill and perennial re-watchers of “The West Wing” will be enthralled. But those less interested in questioning the veracity of Mr. Zimmerman’s 50-year-old claims and brushing up on the work of an undoubtedly complex president, may be best served leaving this one to the truly insatiable politicos.
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“All The Way”
Showtimes vary. Show runs Tuesday to Sunday through Feb. 28 at The Stage Theatre in the Denver Center for Performing Arts, 1101 13th St., Denver.
Tickets start at $37. Visit www.denvercenter.org or call 303-893-4100