Robert McNamara (Mark Murphey), President Johnson (Jack Willis) and Vice President Hubert Humphrey (Peter Frechette) react to the rising cost of the war. (Ensemble, gallery, Richard Elmore) Photo by Jenny Graham.
The New York Times has been in love with Oregon — especially Portland — for some time now. That’s no surprise, as the Northwest offers so much of what the Northeast lacks in the way of uncrowded living and natural beauty along with great coffee and an artistic urban culture.
Still, it was a thrill to see today that Charles Isherwood takes the Oregon Shakespeare Festival seriously enough to fly out here and review its premiere production of Robert Schenkkan’s “The Great Society,” which runs through Nov. 1 in the festival’s inddor Angus Bowmer Theatre. (Hint: Isherwood liked it.)
A few years back I asked Bill Rauch, OSF’s brilliant artistic director, whether the locus of American theater might someday shift from New York. He said, in essence, that it already had — that American regional theater, such as OSF,was where the action was and would be.
That certainly seems to be the case here — though, of course, the Times only stood up and took note of the show because OSF’s 2012 “All the Way,”Schenkkan’s predecessor to “Great Society,” went on to Broadway and the Tony award for Best Play.