Tried and true classics are, quite naturally, regularly revisited by future generations. The experience of reading a novel remains precisely as the author envisioned, unless revisionists or censors intrude and “improve”; a classic motion picture remains as was, unless you make the mistake of watching a remake. Plays and musicals, though, are created at a certain moment in time with live performers in productions that are necessarily ephemeral. New productions of old classics are inevitably going to differ from the legendary originals.
Kenny Leon’s production of Our Town, which is in many ways respectful to the spirit of playwright Thornton Wilder, starts with a cacophony of prayer. At the preview attended, whether by directorial intention or simply an errant sound mix, the first and dominant thing this viewer heard emanating from the loudspeakers was the Hebrew prayer known as the Shema. While we did not attend the original production of Our Town in 1938, one imagines that the Shema was the last thing Wilder or innovative director/producer Jed Harris (born Jacob Horowitz) intended or dreamed would be heard in their fictional New Hampshire community of Grover’s Corners. Here, the combined Muslim, Jewish and Christian prayers are followed by ensemble singing with a relatively contemporary sound.
Our Town, as fashioned by the playwright, is intended to begin with what appears to be a stage manager stepping on the empty stage, setting up some chairs and a table, cueing the lights, and informing the audience that “the play is called Our Town.” Hence, the character is referenced in the script and the program, but not onstage, as “Stage Manager.” This stage-manager-setting-the-scene concept helps justify Wilder’s choice to have his play presented with minimal scenery and mostly invisible props. In the new production at the Barrymore, we get five minutes or so of song, as well as a couple dozen actors clambering up the aisles onto the stage before a bearded Jim Parsons ambles in to introduce us to what we have been watching for five minutes already.
[Read David Finkle’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
Leon is an intelligent and cogent director who has done continually fine work over the past seasons (including Purlie Victorious, Home, A Soldier’s Play and Ohio State Murders). He explains in a program note that his concept is to be true to the play while relevant to the audience: “in this production, time is then and now with the intention of speaking to the people sitting in the theatre today.” This is reasonable enough. Despite this shakily, non-Wilderesque start to the proceedings, Leon does indeed accomplish what he intended, making Our Town relevant to audiences steeped in the very different world of today.
A professional production, overall, and one which is worthy of commendation. (Excepting the simple-looking but exceptional lighting design by Allen Lee Hughes, which enhances Wilder’s theme and deserves a higher level of praise.) But that leads to a second issue when dealing with oft-produced classics. Are we to judge revivals by their effectiveness, or lack thereof, to contemporary audience members who have never seen or read it? Or by how well the production does by the material? A play as familiar as Our Town has a built-in advantage, from a ticket-sales aspect. But many of us have seen multiple productions of the play; I have watched Henry Fonda, Paul Newman and Spalding Gray amble on and introduce us to Wilder’s world of Grover’s Corners.
Parsons is OK in the role, although without the authority of the above actors. He seems far more comfortable when he has a few lines to deliver as an actual townsfolk (Mrs. Forrest, a crotchety neighbor, or Mr. Morgan at the soda fountain) than while serving as homespun narrator. One expects that Richard Thomas—onstage as newspaper editor Webb, and like Parsons an iconic television star from his years as John-Boy on The Waltons—would be more effective in the role. Thomas is in good company. Katie Holmes (Mrs. Webb), Michelle Wilson (Mrs. Gibbs), and Billy Eugene Jones (Doc Gibbs) all do well, while that inveterate scene-stealer Julie Halston earns good-natured laughs without unduly disrupting the proceedings.
Zoey Deutch makes an impressive stage debut as Emily Webb, the youngster we follow from love and marriage to death. Deutch is smart, sympathetic and knowing from first to last, with perhaps the strongest performance of the group. She is joined by an a highly likable Ephraim Sykes as George. That said, George’s final scene at Emily’s grave on the hilltop cemetery—usually one of the play’s most emotionally-wrenching moments—here falls unaccountably flat.
So here we have a sturdily functional production of the Wilder classic. But when you walk out of a revival thinking how thrilling the play was the last time you saw it—well that’s a problem, isn’t it? David Cromer’s 2009 production at the Barrow Street Theatre (and elsewhere) was vibrant, stunning and altogether unforgettable. The new Broadway production is—well, not.
Our Town opened October 10, 2024 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and runs through January 19, 2025. Tickets and information: ourtownbroadway.com
