Asolo Repertory Theatre stages Tony-winning play about Lyndon Johnson in Sarasota

A.K. Murtadha knew about "All the Way" by reputation before he ever auditioned for it. The Broadway run of the drama about Lyndon Johnson's presidency had won the 2014 Tony Award for Best Play. Bryan Cranston also won the Tony for his portrayal of Johnson.

Murtadha knew it was a play he wanted to perform. But it never occurred to him that he'd end up in the role he has in the new production at Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota.

"It was a play I wanted to do before I knew that Asolo was going doing it," he said. "I wanted to get into it. But I wanted to do one of my heroes, Stokely Carmichael. I didn't see myself as Martin Luther King at all. Martin Luther King was such an iconic figure. It's hard to imagine yourself playing him."

It's been kind of an intimidating process, Murtadha said. But the approach is essentially the same as developing any character for any substantial play. "It's hard to avoid being swept away by the iconography and the mythology of King," he said. "You have to peel back the layers to get to the truth of who he was, get to the humanity that underlies the mythology."

"All the Way" comes from playwright Robert Schenkkan, who's best known for

"The Kentucky Cycle," which won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

The play begins when Johnson is thrust into the presidency after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. It takes the audience through the first 11 months of Johnson's tenure, focusing largely on the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Besides Johnson, King and Carmichael, the dramatis personae include Hubert Humphrey, Strom Thurmond, J. Edgar Hoover, Ralph Abernathy, George Wallace and Robert McNamara.

Schenkkan relied on Oval Office recordings and other documents for some of the dialogue, but relied on artistic license to further develop the interpersonal relationships. And the Civil Rights Act, which was vehemently opposed by most legislators from the South, wouldn't have passed without those interpersonal relationships, and the fortitude of King, Johnson and others. It wasn't a simple matter of political discourse.

"There's a point in the play where King says, 'We're going to hold his feet his feet to the fire,' " Murtadha said, "and Johnson weathers the test and rises above it."

Even people who remember the era and the negotiations that went into the passage of the Civil Right Act will find surprises in the richness of Shenkkan's story and dialogue, Murtadha said. "I think you're going to see a little bit more of the soft white underbelly," he said. "You're going to come away thinking 'I see the humanity of these people.' Whether you love Johnson or you hate Johnson, you'll understand what made him the kind of person he was. I think all of the characters are the kind of people you can relate to, once you get past that mythology."

Details: Jan. 6-April 9, Cook Theatre at the FSU Center for the Performing Arts, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Show times: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, 8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: $12-$57 previews (Jan. 6-7), $13.50-$77 Jan. 8-April 9. Information: 941-351-8000, asolorep.org.

Marty Clear, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-708-7919. Follow twitter.com/martinclear.

This story was originally published December 31, 2015 at 3:50 PM with the headline "Asolo Repertory Theatre stages Tony-winning play about Lyndon Johnson in Sarasota ."