The Johnson Treatment
Hannah Benson chats with the creator, director and cast of LBJ: The Play.
“It’s 50 percent American History Fantasy and 50 percent Gender Play Rodeo,” director Caitlan Moore describes LBJ: The Play. A description that perfectly encapsulates the play-within-a-play written and starring Sunny Zimmerman. Taking place in a 5th grade classroom, the play follows a local performer (Zimmerman) giving a historical presentation as Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ). The teacher quickly finds that Sunny has gone method and to salvage the legacy of the 36th president, puts on an ambitious theatrical production with the help of some familiar faces. As the story continues–the line between Sunny and LBJ becomes blurred.
Winning Best of Fest 2022 at the Elysian Theater’s inaugural Spaghetti Festival, the show features Zimmerman, Katie Davis, Albert Muzquiz and Soraya Perry. I had the delightful opportunity to speak with this group of friends/performers before the play’s third run this May and June. I began the Zoom with Zimmerman and Moore to talk origin stories, reading for fun and yeah, there was a cool cat in the background, naturally.
Hannah: How did the story come to you?
Sunny: I was reading a series of biographies about LBJ written by Robert Caro [The Years of Lyndon Johnson] in Quarantine. I’m also a political nerd, so I was geeking out, always sharing stuff from the books with Caitlan and Albert. Then one day Caitlan said, ‘You just gotta make a show where you’re LBJ.’ I wrote a horrible first draft that was mainly info-dumping everything, because I had gathered too much research. Caitlan and the cast had a lot of great ideas on how to make things streamlined and make it funny–it was not funny at first. I wrote the script, because I was literally the one typing it, but it was very open-ended. We didn’t want to be precious about the script.
Caitlan: There was this one night where Sunny said, ‘I’ve cracked it. I finally know the story beats. Can I explain them to you?’ And they had this insane flowchart that they had made that was LBJ’s entire life and I need to say, I never lost faith in the process, but I remember in that moment thinking, ‘They’re in too deep. They’ve been LBJ-pilled.’ The way they were behaving was a way that would translate into the character. It was so perfect. The thing that we had to translate was [to Sunny] you are someone with the utmost respect for LBJ’s life story and you think it is worth showing. It was finding that emotional truth.
Sunny: It’s such a cliche in comedy, ‘Follow Truth’, but I really do believe that it’s the funniest thing.
Hannah: Can you elaborate on the ‘Gender Play Rodeo’?
Sunny: The ‘Rodeo’--- it’s a very western show, very Texan. The ‘Gender Play’ comes from the truth–where I’m non-binary and playing the role where I was very excited to dress as a guy: wear a suit, put on boots and a Stetson. In the last few years, I’ve been trying to lean into that a bit and since I’ve come out as non-binary, I’m discovering more and more. I like following what feels good... to me, gender-wise. Some characters I’ll do will have a mustache and I like that. I like wearing a mustache and I’ll build the character from there. I’ll start with what feels good to me. And that’s what I did with LBJ too. A big part of it was if we’re all going to do this, it’s going to be a lot of work and a lot of time doing this and what’s going to make me enjoy that part of it was that I want to be LBJ. I want to be in that role. The next logical step was how the historical actor thing came in too. I just wanted to stay in it. I just want to be LBJ, but mainly I want to be able to wear the costume and walk around like this and be accepted. Be totally normal and fine, it’s not weird. It’s for a reason.
Hannah: Caitlan, did you know much about LBJ before getting into this?
Caitlan: Not at all. All I knew was from historical biopics that I had seen in recent years that were all, ‘Ugh he’s on the toilet doing government, and he’s kind of advocating for civil rights but then he’s maybe a racist.’ I just knew the highlights. I was a person who thought we needed to stop this fixation on the presidents as “great men”. Especially now, where cynicism for the president is such a natural part of our generation and our attitude on politics. But learning more about him makes me think of this line early in the show that says, “Politics is about people.” People are endlessly interesting. I think part of the reason we all love comedy so much is because it gives you such an amazing platform to think about the strange things about people that make them really funny and endearing and kinda horrifying. LBJ has opened me up to this new kind of curiosity about what kind of sickness makes someone interested in having a long career in politics.
Sunny: Yeah, what kind of sicko would do that!
On that note, we were joined by the rest of the cast, Katie Davis (teacher), Albert Muzquiz (John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, LBJ’s dad, LBJ’s uncle) and Soraya Perry (Lady Bird Johnson, Jackie Kennedy, LBJ’s mom). Albert, Soraya, Caitlan and Sunny all went to college together, while Katie and Caitlan live together. It’s all connected! And they’re all really sweet to each other.
Hannah: You all were a part of The Elysian’s first Spaghetti Festival. How did the theater help you during that time?
Caitlan: I was so intimidated by what you need to do for live theater, just the tech elements of it. The Elysian is a professional theater, but everyone there is so approachable and cool. I’ve gained this whole new literacy. I can say, ‘Okay, we want a full wash for this, but then we’re going to switch to the red spots.’ It just makes me feel so much cooler now that I can say things like that and know what I mean. Shoutout to the tech department of The Elysian!
Sunny: I think the biggest thing was providing the opportunity, the resources–they gave us money up front that we wouldn’t have had otherwise–and the big deal of having someone believing in us was huge. And they let us do our thing. They weren’t interfering or trying to change the recipe. They trusted us.
Katie: I’ve always been a loyal audience member of The Elysian. My favorite comedy shows since being in LA have been there. To have an opportunity like this festival to allow new artists to put up a show and have that supported by the festival structure, I feel so grateful, because I don’t know where LBJ would have lived without it.
Soraya: You can see all the different styles and shows that can happen in the same space and that was a really awesome chance for us to articulate what we can learn and do. The variety of methods was really helpful for what we wanted to do specifically. I also really enjoyed working with Chad Damiani on clown coaching and everything that The Elysian does with clown for me has been really helpful figuring out who my character is and how my character uses the space.
Hannah: Is there an audience reaction that stood out to you during the first run of the show during the festival?
Caitlin: There's a moment in the finale of LBJ, we have a musical number, there’s this reveal at the end with Sunny's big musical number and when I was in the audience looking around me at Spaghetti Fest, I thought, ‘This is playing exactly like I dreamed.’ I had chills.
Katie: I remember being in the rehearsal process, we were a little worried and didn’t want people to think that we love LBJ and think he’s an awesome dude. But helping people understand the layers of it and towards the end in the moment Caitlan is referring to, I heard audible, ‘Awhs,’ from the audience. It was so cool to see Sunny write and perform in a role that had so many layered responses, because at the same time the character’s disgusting, the character’s funny, the character’s vain, the character is who the real guy was.
Soraya: The first time we did it was a cool reminder of how well simple, physical comedy plays. And the simplest jokes. The script that Sunny created is so layered and complex and then you also have ample space to make a really silly joke and have people be at ease enough and comfortable enough in whatever’s happening to just go along with that joke. It has helped me learn how to implement it and in my body and when I say my lines moving forward to just lean into something that’s a bit silly.
Albert: We keep each other on our toes in this really fun way. There’s this element of ‘How are they going to do it this time?’ And we feed off that energy as the audience does too which keeps it really authentic and fun and it’s going to be a little different every show.
Switcheroo Corner! I interviewed the cast in character, because ‘method’ and ‘fun’.
Hannah: LBJ, can I have your name and pronouns please?
LBJ: My name is Lyndon Baines Johnson and my pronouns are L-B-J.
Hannah: How did this opportunity come to you, Mr. President?
LBJ: That's a good question. It’s a little bit of a blur between the end of my presidency and now. I seemed to have blacked out a bit. When I was coming to, I woke up to a phone call from some sort of agency and asked me if I could go in and speak with a classroom about my time in politics.
Hannah: What was it like working with the 36th President of the United States?
Lady Bird: I’ll just say I love to work with my husband. I came into this marriage knowing it was a contract of commitment, not only to the nation, but to theater and I’m just so happy to support him. And we go and work on this for a little bit and then I go and work on my china pattern and I’m having a great time. That’s all I’ll say about that, by Jo. And God bless you. Thank you for that.
JFK (incredibly accurate accent): The actor playing Lyndon Johnson is a demanding scene partner and he has asked us to remain in character for this interview and it's been a gift. I’m the late president, John F. Kennedy–
Lady Bird: God rest your soul.
JFK: It’s been an honor to tell my side of the story and correct some narratives that have been falsely reported in the zeitgeist.
LBJ: He really nails the voice–I mean nothing.
Teacher: You know for me, as the teacher of this fifth grade class, it’s a little more than I bargained for. When they came in, I was hoping to shed some light on the Sixties, but things got a little bit off the rails. We learned some things but it ended up happening so you know…
Hannah: What makes you laugh?
Teacher: Improv!!!
LBJ: I always love whipping the dick out. That always gets me and everyone around me. Everybody loves it.
JFK (in–I cannot stress this enough–an incredible accent): I love a song sung by a beautiful woman. Makes me laugh.
Lady Bird: What makes me laugh is the joy I feel when we provide good bills and good service to the American people. I laugh out of happiness.
Fun’s over!
Hannah: What’s the future of LBJ: The Play?
Caitlan: The Tonys.
Sunny: We’ve talked about it as a cast that we’re really blown away by the reception and weren’t really thinking beyond that, and now we want to do the show as much as possible because it’s so fun. We may want to go to New York or Edinburgh, anything’s possible.
Caitlan: This is a direct quote that you can print for me, ‘Lin Manuel Miranda, we are coming for your gig.’
Catch this sweet group of friends doing what they love to do May 18th through the 20th and June 2nd through the 4th at 7:30 PM. You’ll see where that gig is going.
LBJ: The Play is produced by The Elysian Theater. It was developed in 2022 for The Elysian's first annual Spaghetti Festival where its sold-out premiere won Best of Fest 2022.
