Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Kenny Leon’s brisk and unsentimental production of OUR TOWN is only occasionally revelatory

• By drediman
• October 14, 2024
• No Comments

This past weekend, I also had the opportunity to attend the current Broadway revival of Thornton Wilder’s timeless and evergreen play Our Town at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. Segmented into three acts — “Daily Life,” “Love and Marriage,” and “Death and Eternity” — the landmark Pulitzer Prize-winning work clear-eyed blueprint of the fictional American town of Grover’s Corners during the early 20th century, using meta-theatrical techniques to convey its everyday goings on (the main player, after all, is the “Stage Manager”).

I’ve seen numerous productions of this American classic, as I’m sure many of us have (to date, the most memorable for me have been Gregory Mosher’s 1989 LCT production starring Spaulding Gray and, of course, David Cromer’s iconic 2009 Off-Broadway staging). That the work defies easy categorization is one of the reasons theater-makers keep coming back to it. Indeed, Our Town is a play of contradictions — it’s both quaint and ahead of its time, minute and panoramic, mundane and cosmic. Despite Wilder’s very specific stage directions, recent productions have put their own directorial spin on the play. Kenny Leon’s current revival tries hard to keep things unsentimental, which is in awkward contrast to the inherent warmth of the director’s work. Nevertheless, his very brisk staging (gone are the intermissions) boasts a welcome sense of universality and a focus on music that I found occasionally revelatory in its interaction with the play. Otherwise, Leon keeps things relatively straightforward, by and large staying out of the play’s way, letting the disarming masterpiece speak for itself.

The revival features a starry cast, including the likes of Jim Parsons as the Stage Manager, Katie Holmes as Mrs. Webb, Richard Thomas as Mr. Webb, and Michelle Wilson as Mrs. Gibbs. Coming off best are Ephram Sykes as a dynamic George Gibbs, as well as Donald Webber, Jr., who is quietly devastating as the unsettled choir master Simon Stinson (the play commences with him stepping onto the stage). However, because the play is taken at such a sprightly pace, the actors at times telegraph their lines or act them in quotations, somewhat diluting the work’s stark spirituality.

SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED

OUR TOWN
Broadway, Play
Ethel Barrymore Theatre
1 hour, 45 minutes (without an intermission)
Through January 19