MARK KENNEDY
AP Drama Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Robert Schenkkan’s “All The Way” has won the Tony Award for best play.

Starring Bryan Cranston, the play focuses on President Lyndon B. Johnson’s first year in office and explores both his fight for re-election and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Schenkkan, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for his epic “The Kentucky Cycle,” also co-wrote the feature film “The Quiet American.” His TV credits include “The Pacific” and “The Andromeda Strain.”

“All The Way” made its debut at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and then jumped to the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A second part, called “The Great Society,” is due to make its debut at the festival this year.

It beat out “Act One,” ”Casa Valentina,” ”Mothers and Sons” and “Outside Mullingar.”

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.