CLEVELAND, Ohio – “Like the hint of a career-ending scandal, the question dogging Robert Schenkkan’s political drama “All the Way” into regional houses is whether the play can hold a crowd without white-hot star Bryan Cranston at is center. Cranston first slipped into Lyndon B. Johnson’s Lucchese boots in 2013 at the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University, home of nascent blockbusters “Porgy and Bess” (2012) and “Pippin” (2013) before they pulled up stakes for Tony Award-winning runs on Broadway. True to form, “All the Way” transferred to Broadway’s Neil Simon Theatre in 2014 and won two Tonys: one for best play and the other for Cranston’s bullying, beguiling performance as Johnson during the first year of his presidency following the assassination of John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963. I saw Cranston tear into the towering role at the A.R.T. and wondered then if Schenkkan’s work would feel as vital and engrossing without him. So here’s the old-school news bulletin: Not only does the Cleveland Play House production of “All the Way” hold up without Cranston, it shoots out the lights, as LBJ’s compatriots in his home state of Texas might say, with a potent combination of topicality (yes, despite being a period piece), smart staging and Steve Vinovich at the helm as the 36th president of the United States.” To read more, click here.