One of the things that fascinates Brian Cox about President Lyndon Baines Johnson is that the 36th President of the United States was a different person in every room he was in. “He’s such a brilliant operator,” Cox says of the man he now inhabits eight shows a week in The Great Society at Broadway’s Vivian Beaumont Theatre. “He really cajoles, seduces, bonds, blackmails; he does the whole bit.”

In creating a character who nearly switches personalities according to his goals and environment, the actor set out to find the voice to match—a voice previously brought to the stage by Jack Willis (a Kansan with a Midwestern bent) at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Bryan Cranston (to Tony-winning effect) in Robert Schenkkan’s first LBJ play All The Way on Broadway and for HBO. “Each bring a different, very personal way in on the musicality of Robert’s language—not unlike LBJ himself,” says director Bill Rauch. “LBJ would lean into the Texan twang more when he was trying to charm someone or when he was pulling out a folksy anecdote in order to disarm or make a point.” To read more, click here.