The Great Society On Broadway Supports Voting, Voter Rights & Voter Registration In Partnership With FairVote, Motivote, NYC Votes & The NAACP

'GREAT SOCIETY PRIMARY' LAUNCHES WITH FOUR VOTING BOOTHS AT THE VIVIAN BEAUMONT THEATER IN CELEBRATION OF LYNDON B. JOHNSON'S 111TH BIRTHDAY

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The Great Society

Aug 27, 2019, 18:17 ET

NEW YORK, Aug. 27, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Robert Schenkkan (Tony Award & Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright), Joshua Javits (son of the late Senator Jacob K. Javits), Geoffrey Eric Eaton (President of the NAACP Mid-Manhattan Branch), Eric Friedman (Assistant Executive Director for Public Affairs; New York City Campaign Finance Board), Rob Richie (President and CEO, FairVote) and Jess Riegel & Rachel Konowitz (Co-Founders of Motivote), and the company of Schenkkan's new Broadway play THE GREAT SOCIETY announced today a new effort on Broadway to support voter registration and turnout.

In celebration of President Johnson's 111^th Birthday, the 'Great Society Primary' launched this morning in the lobby of the Vivian Beaumont Theater. Beginning at the first preview performance on September 6, all attendees of The Great Society will have the opportunity to 'vote' for the candidate they would like to see win either the Democratic or Republican 2020 presidential primary in one of four voting booths in the theater lobby. You can also cast your ballot online; results will be shared following each performance at Twitter.com/GreatSocietyBwy.

Before select performances, voter registration partners will be available to register new voters in the lobby.

Capturing Johnson's attempts to build a just society for all, The Great Society follows his triumph in a landslide election to the agonizing decision not to run for re-election just three years later. It was an era that would define history forever: the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, the escalation of the Vietnam War, and the creation of some of the greatest social programs America has ever known—and one man was at the center of it all: LBJ.

Emmy Award winner Brian Cox stars as LBJ in Robert Schenkkan's The Great Society, directed by Bill Rauch. The 19-member cast also stars Grantham Coleman as Martin Luther King Jr., Richard Thomas as Hubert Humphrey, Marc Kudisch as Richard J. Daley, Bryce Pinkham as Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Frank Wood as Senator Everett Dirksen, Gordon Clapp as J. Edgar Hoover, Marchánt Davis as Stokely Carmichael, Brian Dykstra as Adam Walinsky, Barbara Garrick as Ladybird Johnson, David Garrison as Richard Nixon; Ty Jones as Reverend Ralph Abernathy, Christopher Livingston as James Bevel, Angela Pierce as Pat Nixon, Matthew Rauch as Robert McNamara, Nikkole Salter as Coretta Scott King, and Tramell Tillman as Bob Moses.

Performances of The Great Society will begin Friday, September 6, 2019 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (150 West 65^th St).

The Great Society is produced by Jeffrey Richards and Louise L. Gund, with Rebecca Gold, Jayne Baron Sherman, and co-producers Stephanie P. McClelland, Jennifer Manocherian/Judith Manocherian, Gabrielle Palitz/Cheryl Wiesenfeld, Mark Pigott KBE, Cynthia Stroum, Jacob Soroken Porter and Lincoln Center Theater.