A three-hour play about Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency does not sound like a premise for a rousing theater experience. But oh, how wrong you’d have been to miss American Repertory Theater’s remarkable production, starring Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston as LBJ, wheeling and dealing to get the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed. Cranston’s formidable star power and layered portrait of the former president would have been enough to make this a winning production. However, the entire cast and crew rose to the occasion, breathing life and intrigue into dense material and taking it, well, all the way to the top—and to Broadway, and two Tony Awards, after a sold-out run in Cambridge.
Other Winners
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Theater Production
2015 Winner: Huntington Theatre Company’s The Colored Museum
This revival of George C. Wolfe’s celebrated 1986 satire generated buzz long before the curtains opened…...