President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty Brought to Life Onstage in Alexander Harrington’s The Great Society

Playwright Alexander Harrington is the son of Michael Harrington, author of The Other America: Poverty in the United States, which profoundly impacted President Kennedy’s administration and helped to spark President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. The Great Society continues this political legacy, following President Johnson after being unexpectedly thrust into power as he fights to end legal segregation and wage war on poverty. Harrington’s interest in President Johnson was inspired by his father’s comment “Jack Kennedy was a dilettante when it came to poverty; Lyndon Johnson was serious about doing something for the poor of this country.”

The Great Society stars Mitch Tebo (The Revenger’s Tragedy) as Lyndon Johnson; Elena McGhee (Blue Bloods) as Lady Bird Johnson; Yaakov Sullivan as Richard Russell; James Lurie (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as J. William Fulbright; Curtis Wiley (Broadway National Tour: The Lion King) as Martin Luther King, Jr.; Charles Gray (Broadway: The Color Purple) as Bayard Rustin; Reed Armstrong (Broadway: Miss Saigon) as Robert McNamara; Charles F. Wagner IV (Regional: The Tempest) as Hubert Humphrey and Seymore Trammell; Robert Ierardi (West End: West Side Story) as Everett Dirksen and Nicholas Katzenbach; Jeff Burchfield as Strom Thurmond and George Wallace, and Mac Brydon (Lipstick Jungle) as Jack Valenti, as well as Wayne Morse.

The creative team features scenic design by Michael Minahan, costume design by Sean Sullivan, lighting design by Dana Sterling, props design by Preesa Adeline Bullington, and music/sound design by John D. Ivy.

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