Kenny Leon’s starry revival of Thornton Wilder’s classic 1938 portrait of everyday life, Our Town, features a diverse, multiethnic cast but doesn’t hit you over the head with a message of inclusion or “wokeness.” Susan Miller took on that theme with her own adaptation of the play, called It’s Our Town, Too, which incorporates gay couples into Wilder’s Grovers’ Corners. Leon adds a few 2024 touches such as opening the play with the company taking selfies, listening to a cacophony of music of different faiths (Justin Ellington did the masterful sound design and Abraham Jam wrote the song that incorporates the various prayers). There is a Jewish star and a Moslem moon among the gravestones in the final act which deals with death. But otherwise, the in-demand Tony winning director presents Wilder’s tribute to family and community largely in tact and without heavy-handed directorial frills.
His staging is straightforward, stressing the touching love story between George Gibbs and Emily Webb which encapsulates Wilder’s eternal tale of birth, love and passing on. While this production does not achieve the devastating impact of David Cromer’s 2009 Off-Broadway production which made the final act into a hyper-realistic recreation of Emily’s childhood, Leon’s staging stands with previous memorable Broadway revivals in 1988 (with Spalding Gray) and 2003 (starring Paul Newman in his final stage role) in its beautiful simplicity.
Jim Parsons of “The Big Bang Theory” fame enacts the Stage Manager, the play’s narrator, with little inflection or characterization. He indulges himself with a sly twinkle in his eye and an ironic reading of a line or two which may be considered outdated, but his Stage Manager is mostly an observer of the small town. He allows the audience to draw its own conclusions on the universality of Wilder’s theme—that human beings are the same everywhere and at every time. The focus is on George and Emily, played with depth and feeling by Ephraim Sykes and Zoey Deutch.
The couple make the journey from first love to last rites, detailing all the significant stops along the way. Skyes, who was the stand-out in Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, proves he is equally strong with dramatic material as he is in musicals. He’s convincing and touching as a rowdy teenager whose main interest is baseball, a young man developing a sense of responsibility, and finally a shattered husband suffering the loss of his wife. Deutch is equally layered, especially as she re-experiences Emily’s twelfth birthday in the climactic final act.
Billy Eugene Jones, Michelle Wilson, Richard Thomas and Katie Holmes bring warmth and humor to George and Emily’s parents. Donald Webber Jr. imparts reams of subtext as the troubled, drunken choirmaster Simon Stimson. Reliable Julie Halston makes the most of Mrs. Soames, who enjoys weddings to the point of near hysteria.
Beowulf Boritt’s rustic, rough-hewn set incorporates audience members seated in pews onstage, evoking churches and town halls. Dede Ayite’s contemporary costumes place us in the present though the residents all look as if they’re attending a picnic at a summer resort. Allen Lee Hughes’ atmospheric lighting creates the perfect homey glow for this heart-warming Our Town.
