How Succession鈥檚 Brian Cox Found His Voice for LBJ in Broadway鈥檚 The Great Society | 半岛体育

半岛体育

Interview How Succession鈥檚 Brian Cox Found His Voice for LBJ in Broadway鈥檚 The Great Society What the Scottish actor did to find the gravelly growl of the Texan President.
Brian Cox Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade

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. 鈥淗e鈥檚 such a brilliant operator,鈥� Cox says of the man he now inhabits eight shows a week in The Great Society at Broadway鈥檚 Vivian Beaumont Theatre. 鈥淗e really cajoles, seduces, bonds, blackmails; he does the whole bit.鈥�

In creating a character who nearly switches personalities according to his goals and environment, the actor set out to find the voice to match鈥攁 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鈥檚 first LBJ play All The Way on Broadway and for HBO. 鈥淓ach bring a different, very personal way in on the musicality of Robert鈥檚 language鈥攏ot unlike LBJ himself,鈥� says director Bill Rauch. 鈥淟BJ 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.鈥�

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March谩nt Davis, Brian Cox, and Bryce Pinkham Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade

Indeed, when Cox opens the play with a story about watching men ride bulls as a child, he slips into that relaxed Texan cadence, endearing himself to the audience; but when he鈥檚 haranguing Alabama Governor Wallace over suppression of voting rights among black citizens, the growl comes out.

Nailing the malleable accent for the Scottish actor is only one detail of the puzzle Cox had to solve with the help of dialect coach Dawn-Elin Fraser. She takes into account oral posture (鈥渉ow their mouth is shaped, whether or not they move their lips a lot鈥�), pronunciation, placement, prosody (鈥渓ike melody鈥�) and the effort (鈥淚s the way they speak, more like a press or a glide or a punch or a float?鈥�). Fraser and Cox dove into hours of recordings鈥攕peeches and addresses and secret White House tapes鈥攖o find a 鈥渉ome base鈥� sound.

Her questions led to that sound like a mathematical equation: 鈥淗ow the language moves from speaker to spoken to can either be direct or indirect; the weight of the language can either be light or heavy; and the way the words link together can either be sudden or sustained,鈥� she explains. (A strategy she employed with every actor in the cast who play figures from Bobby Kennedy to Richard Nixon.) 鈥淎 punch is direct, heavy, and sudden and a press is direct, heavy, and sustained,鈥� she says. Martin Luther King, Jr., played captivatingly by Grantham Coleman, glides and presses and floats, whereas 鈥淟BJ is definitely a press that sometimes moves to a punch.鈥�

Cox did his homework and mastered that home base quickly, using it only as one texture in the fabric of his LBJ. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not only technical sounds of the dialect, it鈥檚 how much meaning is conveyed and what鈥檚 the most important word in the sentence, how you drive a point all the way to the end of a thought, keeping up the vocal energy,鈥� Rauch adds. Not to mention who you鈥檙e talking to and the emotional stakes of the moment.

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Barbara Garrick and Brian Cox Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade

A 鈥渟tage beast鈥濃攁s Rauch calls him鈥攚ho has played everyone from Hannibal Lecter to King Lear, Cox layers in the emotional stakes of the moment, rich character history, and audience reactions in his ever-shifting performance.

Which is why the LBJ we hear onstage might not ring familiar to Americans alive during his Presidency, but still rings authentic.

Precision in this dramatic context isn鈥檛 about impersonation, it鈥檚 about emotional truth. 鈥淭he task was to find a meeting place between the actors鈥� own voice and essence, the essence of what Robert created, and the historical characters鈥攊t鈥檚 a three-legged stool,鈥� Rauch continues. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a documentary, it鈥檚 a dramatic ride.鈥�

And Cox is one hell of a conductor.

 
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