Bryan Cranston as LBJ, according to people who worked with him

Bryan Cranston portrays former President Lyndon B. Johnson on Broadway in Robert Schenkkan’s play All the Way, directed by Bill Rauch

by Ken

Even those of us whose strong memories of Bryan Cranston go back beyond Breaking Bad not just to hilariously bumbling but dangerous dad Hal on Malcolm in the Middle but to his appearances as agenda-driven dentist Tim Whatley on Seinfeld, his post-Breaking Bad incarnation as former President Lyndon B. Johnson is, well, not so much a stretch as a "huh?" Let's do one of our quick show-of-hands polls: Raise your hand if you're keen to see a play about LBJ. No, really raise 'em. Hmm, I thought so.

The Washington Post "In the Loop"-ster Al Kamen has been thinking about the Cranston impersonation from a different angel: verisimilitude. "The critical buzz around Cranston's portrayal of Johnson in All the Way," says Al, "is that the actor is impeccable in the role." He adds that "anyone who watched Cranston in Breaking Bad knows his talent range," but ventures that "only those who knew Johnson can say with authority how fully Cranston embodies Johnson."

"So," says Al, "we reached deep into our Rolodex to find people who worked in the Johnson administration to survey about how well Cranston does." He has already pronounced the overall verdict in his lead: "Like Walter White morphing from meek family man to unrepentant meth lord, Bryan Cranston transforms so completely into Lyndon Johnson that, for those who knew the 36th president, Broadway's Neil Simon Theatre is a time machine."

Here's what Al found.

JOE CALIFANO
"Johnson's top domestic policy aide" -- "saw the show on opening night"

When Cranston shouted a command on stage, that familiar formidable tone shook Califano, transporting him back nearly 50 years. "I'll tell you there were moments when I thought I was actually looking at him or hearing him," Califano said.

It's hard to distinguish whether Cranston "has taken over Johnson or Johnson's taken over him," he said. Cranston "went from ‘Breaking Bad' to breaking good," he added.

For Califano, who reasons he ate more meals with Johnson than his own family in those years, Cranston perfectly captures Johnson's intensity -- his anger, his frustration, his humor, how he'd bark an order while doing five other things simultaneously.

DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN
"a historian who worked in Johnson's administration as a White House fellow, helped the president write his memoirs, and wrote her first of many books about her conservations with him" -- "also saw the show on opening night"

"Thank God LBJ kept those tapes," Goodwin said of the telephone conversations mined to tell the complete story of Johnson's political process in the early years of his presidency.

Johnson "comes alive in this," she added. "When he's on stage," she said of Cranston, "it's just magnetic."

Cranston captures Johnson's mannerisms, such as using physical proximity to intimidate, she said. Much of the play shows Johnson on the phone, "which is exactly the right way to capture him," she said. "The phone was the instrument of his power."

LLOYD HAND
"first worked for Johnson in the Senate and then in the White House"

[H]as yet to see the show, but a cadre of former Johnson officials have planned a reunion in New York to see [the show] together in mid-May.
A "Breaking Bad" fan, Hand initially could not reconcile Walter White -- a character with "no redeeming qualities" -- playing someone Hand held in such esteem.

Hand hopes the play, which focuses on Johnson's domestic achievements, serves to revisit his boss's legacy beyond the Vietnam War.

LARRY LEVINSON
"Johnson's deputy counsel"

[A]lso has yet to see the show, but has heard the same feedback from Johnson alums about Cranston's "unerringly perfect performance."

"The buzz from Austin on this is that it is an enormously helpful portrayal . . . a most accurately interesting portrayal," he said.

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