Watch the Play, Now Read the Book

You may have read about the staged reading of an adaptation of the Mueller Report that was live-streamed on Monday with 18 actors in the roles of the various participants.  Presented by Law Works, it was titled, The Investigation: A Search for the Truth in Ten Acts,

The actors included Jason Alexander, Annette Bening, Wilson Cruz, Noah Emmerich, Gina Gershon, Joel Grey (an especially wonderful Jeff Sessions), Kevin Kline (who read for Robert Mueller), John Lithgow (as Trump), Justin Long, Ben McKenzie, Alyssa Milano, Piper Perabo, ,Kyra Sedgwick, Michael Shannon, Aidan Quinn, Zachary Quinto, Frederick Weller and Alfre Woodard,  Bill Moyer served as the opening host.

It's worth noting that there was "star power" for the writer and director of the production, as well.  (A writer was needed to edit the long report down to a little over an hour, structure the piece so that the piece worked together with a dramatic coherence, and add some narration to tie it all together.)  It was written by Robert Schenkkan, whose credits include the Broadway play about Lyndon Johnson, All the Way starring Brian Cranston -- winning Tony Awards for Best Play and Best Actor -- and later made into an HBO film, the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Kentucky Cycle, and the screenplay for the wonderful, though little seen film The Quiet American that got a Best Actor nomination for Michael Caine.  and presented by Law Works Monday night.  And the reading was directed by Scott Ellis among whose many credits are two Tony-nominated musicals from this year alone -- Tootsie and the revival of Kiss Me, Kate -- the stage adaptation of Twelve Angry Men, the revival of The Elephant Man that starred Bradley Cooper, and the revival of 1776.

If you don't have time for watching the whole thing, it's easy enough to jump around.  Even the moments are often terrific.