iTunes Exclusive Episode The Great Society

Greetings Empire member and or members.
If you are hearing the sound of my voice it means the following conditions have been met.
At least once in your lifetime you've checked out the clubhouse podcast live every Sunday
night seven Eastern for Pacific you're one stop shop for all things pop culture but it also
means you've checked out our little show in your favorite podcast app because it's time
for another our tom six folks at this will be number three fifty eight I know the math
is getting weird and some of these just roll with me okay just trust me on this.
My name is Rob I'm the executive producer of the clubhouse podcast and I will seek and
I will accept the nomination of my party as another term as your president oh wait a minute
I'm appointed for life as the mayor of awesome town it doesn't matter I'm not alone for this
particular episode joining me across the desk is my co-host and a man he enjoys a little
history every once again he is Chad welcome sir we are all a part of it whether we want to be
or not and what we're about to talk about closes right around the time you entered this world
really okay next to him is the official fact checker of the show and a man that H
driving on 635 you may know him is fond on go but his mama name don't for it I'm
gonna call him don't forward so if you're the mayor of awesome town what am I the mayor
of for life is that a question you really don't answer to odysburg or they play there
they play their town anthem on the v or hey speaking about that odys stuff my nickname
in high school is goober goober's McCoy was a full nickname because I look like a goober
oh my god sometimes the comedy rights it's oh my rounding out the day this is the lady
of the house and somebody's got to bring balance to the force here general is here welcome
friend hello everyone whatever we do one of these things it is to review something and
this is no different but this episode we're going to talk about a stage production that
I got to see we had to kind of divide and conquer a little bit on the evening of this press
night because we had multiple events and we want to cover as much as possible for not
only for the empire but also for our vendors this time around I got to see a little thing
called the great society but was that this whole thing yes sir and Kaley Derby the
Wiley and Dowtheaders such a fan they do such amazing work and this is actually playing
at the Wiley Theater Center through Easter Sunday all righty so first I'm still really
going over the goober McCoy thing yeah so let it roll man just let it roll goober's McCoy
I can come a goober goober my bad my bad I'm so sorry goober's just got weird chills
off to that so here's the deal a couple of years was it two years ago that we saw all the
way somewhere around yeah that sounds about right so about two years ago there was a production
that the while we put on this is not this is a local theater company this is not a touring
production of a of a of a production called all the way that that particular production is
about the journey journey if you will isn't that those pizzas never know that's not rock
rock of linden vanes Johnson as he rose into accidentally pretty much the presidency
right after JFK's assassination and it was done as an HBO movie with Brian Cranston and Anthony
Mackey I believe I believe Anthony Mackey was as far with King and it ends as he's getting
re-elected in 1964 okay this literally picks up right where that leaves off really so it's a
great it starts as happy days are here again or playing and people are saying Mr. President
Mr. President Mr. President and this goes through the end of his term what they're calling his
second term but I only called it his first term because technically he didn't yeah same exact
stage set up okay the stage just everything was exactly the same wow so you had the the desk of
the opal office and you had the chair for chairs in the table in front with the white looks like
marble flooring with the with the seal of the of the presidency on it the big columns in the
background exactly the same you know you had any of the same actors oh I'm getting there okay stay
with me okay because reprising his law his role as LBJ is Brandon Potter and you know how much I
enjoyed his portrayal the first go around like he doesn't necessarily has the physicality that's
what he's proving off about it yet but man he nails LBJ his mannerisms were on point and it even
says in his bio he's thrilled to be bringing LBJ back to the Dow stage and he kills it good for him
I'm glad they put the extra mouth because there was so much going on at the end of all the way
because racial tensions were heating up and he was having to deal with the presidency of the
pressure of a full presidency right and as this happens you're still dealing with the racial
tensions in Selma yes and act one ends as Martin Luther King is saying okay what about the north
and they play out the the the shooting in California but midway through the term
you're also dealing with the escalating situation in Southeast Asia right
so he's dealing with that and there's a lot of moving pieces to this I mean there's a lot of
people in this cast but a lot of people are still playing multiple roles right right what I really
prefer the stage version to the film version because what I really liked about all the way and there's
there's it's the same style because it's the same playwright so this really truly is a direct
it's a direct sequel absolutely and the playwright was there but I couldn't stay for stay late
which kind of bound me out Robert Shinken is the screen as the playwright so it's the same style
of storytelling so whenever LBJ's on the phone the person he's talking to is also holding a phone
receiver but even though it's a phone conversation they're still talking to each other which I think
is kind of cool because it helps you understand the dynamic with their body language which is a very
I've never seen it done that way but I really really dug that this does not with especially when
you get into the 64 to 68 especially as Vietnam starts to to escalate you have to have a strong
cast to carry the emotion behind this that's heavy weight and this cast carries it really well
I would say that I liked all the way a little bit better because the second act
crawled a little bit for me but it's because there's so much going on because you're dealing with
all the really really really heavy stuff in act two as it gets to a point where LBJ's things are
careening out of control he's spending billions on Vietnam which at one point you know it was 30
thousand troops and a couple of bombings and now they're up to six digits worth of people and the
draft and the protests and and a lot of that's depicted here the march in Alabama where they were
stopped at the bridge by George Wallace's cops and they couldn't get the federal government to
intervene on their behalf and you you don't necessarily have to be a history buff to get what's
going on here but it helps to have a rudimentary knowledge of what LBJ went through and a lot of
the themes that are in this are very relevant to now yeah I kind of figured it and but it doesn't
do that whole hey nudge nudge thing it just tells its story and by telling its story you can see
things and go wow a lot of parallels yeah absolutely and that's one of the things I really really
liked about this is it just tells its story it lets you make the conclusions of how you tie an
audio visually very intense because I mean all the way was the I mean stage wise production wise
how closely did it mirror all the way strongly okay there's a couple there's a little bit more
multimedia to this one so still using a rear projection showing the progression of time going
across the columns and what vertically right but not it's not as heavy on that part of it okay there's
more things that the way they light the stage at certain sections this is just one of those that
there's going to be a lot of people I'll probably be turned off the people if you were turned off
by all the way you're going to be turned off by this because it's more of the same but it's still
that second part of the story that needed to be told and again Brandon Potter just
I mean he he showed that so many sides of Johnson whether it was if he knew he could bully you he did
right yeah or what you mean he knew if he could manipulate you because when especially a lot of
people don't know he's the guy that's pretty much responsible for Medicare and he met a lot of
resistance from the American Medical Association trying to get Medicare and acted that was his
biggest hurdle and then when his budgetary people come to him and they're like look you're going
to have to raise taxes you're going to have to cut progress because this war you're wanting to
Vietnam it's costing a lot of money to hamstringing you you know and his dynamics with people like
Mayor daily in Chicago especially after Martin Luther King and his family moved there from Atlanta
to try to to march there and peacefully protest and things like that it's very intense
there's a lot going on you have to really pay attention but this was a may zing did you feel certain
did you feel tension in the room during certainty absolutely yeah absolutely because it was
palpable on all the way especially with the image that it closes with very chilling
final image and I won't spoil it we can talk about it off air okay but I will tell you that the
final sequence is the transition as the transition begins as LBJ is leaving and Nixon is coming in
and it's all I thought I thought it very auspicious that the same actor played both George Wallace
and Richard Nixon and he played them both very well and he separated both very well but I
thought that that was kind of a tonight okay all right I mean I'll roll with you that's how you
want to go with it but everybody in this cast is strong uh from top to bottom I mean there's
Sean Hamilton as Reverend Martha Luther King I want to say it's the same guy but I'm not for sure
because they use a lot of the same people because it's a local theater company right uh some of the
people that that gentleman I saw when we saw hair they were back for this it's just really well done
and I liked it all the way just a little bit more but this was really really good did it get into
why he did not go for another term a lot because enough enough for you I mean you see it coming with
everything that he goes through and the fights that he picks and the lack of faith that grows
exponentially within his own party because you also have the rise of Bobby Kennedy going on at the
same time well then Martin Luther King dies and then Bobby dies and spoiler alert um really
but the ramifications of that and there's there are some intam intamations intamations I was
struck the word right that maybe there was some shady dealings as far as that's concerned of
of things like wiretapping and surveillance that wasn't on quite the up and up for people
that LBJ as time went on saw as his enemies and Martin Luther King and Bobby being two
of them.
And there's a really interesting reference towards the end that you go, oh, now I will
tell you, and I say this in my written review currently located at www.theclubhousepodcast.com
That's our website.
That's another very, very strong performance here.
I want to make sure I get this right by Chris Hutchison, who he is multiple roles, but
one of the roles he plays is Robert McNamara.
And McNamara, who was played by Bruce Greenwood in the post, very strongly tied.
Both of those performances draw very tightly to each other.
And it actually Hutchison's performance actually elevates it, because when I saw Greenwood,
I mean, I'm a huge Bruce Greenwood fan.
Well, the guys played Batman, you know, so there's a bias there.
But great actor, and I saw him in the post, and I was, but I still saw Bruce Greenwood.
But when I saw Hutchison here, it made me look at Greenwood's performance differently
in the post, because this, the post takes place not long after this ends.
So that elevated that for me, and it made that performance sell to me even more on both
sides of that fence.
It's amazing how you can see something in something that's just slightly related, but
not completely related.
So what was your biggest fault of this?
The pacing of the second act, like I said, it kind of weighs itself down, but it kind
of has to, at the same time, because there's so much going on that they're trying to jam
into, you know, two and a half hours, and that includes a 15-minute intermission.
They try to, they want to get the whole story in, but some of it gets a little rushed,
and some of it gets a little convoluted, but it works, you know, I'm intrigued, I'm
definitely intrigued.
It's one of those productions that, and I say this also in my review that, go see it
if for no other reason to understand the strength of the local theater market in Dallas.
Like it's a prime example of how much great talent we have in this town, and it's all
on display here.
And they also have the desk set up that we saw last time.
It's in a different place, so you can take your picture behind a replica of the desk
in the Oval Office.
So, and again, the themes are timely, and it's just really well done.
I can't complain.
So from someone, say you know someone that's a big history channel buff.
That would be my sister.
Is this going to be something a history channel person can enjoy, or is it a big thing?
Absolutely.
Yeah, I would say you don't have to see all the way first, but it helps.
Yeah, I would.
Well, I'm thinking for...
Because again, this literally picks up as the lights went up for all the way.
I mean, it literally picks up right where all the way leaves off.
I'm just thinking of some of that may have lived through that time.
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah.
I absolutely.
Because they're going to identify what's going on, and I feel it's honest in its portrayal.
I don't know the full accuracy of everything, but I would say it's honest in its portrayal.
They try to be as accurate as possible.
None of us know the accuracy because we weren't actually there at that moment, but...
For Nixon, we do.
Because it was all recorded.
But...
Oh, yes.
Anything else you guys want to know before we get to the final analysis?
No, no.
How was Tech?
Tech was great.
Because you know, a lot of times that...
The wildies...
The wildies always great with their tech.
I mean, what I love about the wildie is there's 90 different ways to configure that room.
And they nail it every time.
Yeah.
With the limited amount of real estate they have to work with, they get the maximum usage
out of it.
I'm always very powerful, powerful, emotional punch, too.
All right, let's go to the final analysis.
The way we do the final analysis on the show, we're not going to give you thumbs up, thumbs down.
We're not going to give you letter grades, numbers, campaign buttons, anything like that.
Two questions that I have to ask, that I have to answer.
Question number one is, would I check this out again?
If the answer is no, we're done here.
But if the answer is yes, then the question becomes, where do I want to sit?
Now, with the wildie...
There's just not a bat.
No, I'm not supposed to say.
No, I'm not supposed to say.
Let's tell you that for this production, and if you saw my post on social media when
I was there, I was in the second row stage left.
But the first row ended three seats to my left.
I literally could have stretched out and used stage left as a footrest comfortably.
Wow.
That's how close I was.
So that's where I was sitting.
A little bit closer than we did for Robin Hood.
Yeah.
There were some things that I couldn't see the TV.
If you remember the TV, that was stage right.
Yes, okay.
I couldn't see that, but I knew what was going on because they projected it onto the stage.
Okay, all right.
Would I see this again?
Absolutely.
I kind of figured as much.
To understand our history, you owe it to yourself to do so.
It's fair, it's honest, and it's brutal, and it has to be.
Where would I sit?
I'd actually like to sit, of course, more centered, so I can see everything.
But I'd like to be back a little further.
I'd kind of like to be back so I can take everything in because it was kind of neat.
You talked about the tech of putting things on the columns.
As time went on, it updated you with this number wounded, this number killed in Vietnam.
At this point in the administration, like it was really solid in that particular realm
as well.
That's impressive.
It's at the Wiley until April 1st, and it is the great society.
I'm going to throw in this whole thing.
Again, we've got, thank Kaylee Nierby at the Wiley in the Dallas Theater Center for
a minute.
Thank you guys.
The AT&T Performing Arts Center always does such amazing things.
They just rolled out.
Their announcement just a couple of days ago of the next season, I'm going to tell you something
brother, it's going to be strong.
Really?
And hopefully we're going to be a part of it so we can tell you guys about it because I'm
telling you, these next couple of years in Dallas Fort Worth, it is a game time.
Every year, it's got real.
Every year, we see the lineup and we're like, how are you going to beat that?
And then they do.
I think you're questioning, is it Sean Hamilton that played Martin Luther?
Yeah, you're going to make me look this up again.
Martin Luther King Jr. in this particular was played by Sean Hamilton.
Yeah, same guy.
Yeah, he's amazing.
Amazing.
All right, let's do the plugs.
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So until next time, for Gen Rome, for Don, for Chad, and for the Empire.
I'm Rob, Clubhouse is closed, and there was a girl at the thing that looked kind of
Brittany Palmer-ish, kind of freaked me out a little bit.