‘OUR TOWN’: Ephraim Sykes & Zoey Deutch. Photo: Daniel Rader.

OUR TOWN
By Thornton Wilder
Through January 19, 2025
Directed by Kenny Leon
Ethel Barrymore Theatre
242 West 47th Street
www.ourtownbroadway.com

By Scott Harrah

The latest revival of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town bears little resemblance to the classic drama often produced in high schools. Director Kenny Leon has reinvented the renowned story set in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire into a modern-day look at small-town life that reflects 21^st century America instead of the early 1900s (the original period for the play).

The show opens with characters onstage singing a hymn that combines Jewish prayers in Hebrew, Muslim prayers in Arabic as well as Christian references. The Stage Manager (Jim Parsons) who narrates the story is still an integral part of the show, but Mr. Leon has added many of the touches that European directors insert into American stage classics to give a “new” twist, such as audience members seated on the stage. Characters in the show enter via running down the aisles through the audience and hop on stage. Although these directorial choices are often effective, they may not please purists of the show.

Our Town has always been produced with minimal sets and props, and in this version the biggest part of the set is a group of lanterns hanging above the stage. Minimalism has always been front and center in the play, and director Kenny Leon has trimmed down everything from the sets to the show’s running length. Our Town is a three-act play, but here it has been condensed into a brief one act that runs about 100 minutes. Since there is no intermission, one of the Stage Manager’s classic lines at the end of Act I—“That’s the end of Act I, folks. You can go and smoke, now. Those that smoke”—has, of course, been cut.

Act I focuses on the daily life of people in Grover’s Corners. The Stage Manager talks about the mundane happenings in the town, from births, marriages, deaths, the paper boy’s route, what people eat for breakfast, folks gossiping, and so on. Our Town centers on two families: First, Mr. Webb (Richard Thomas), the local newspaper editor, and Mrs. Webb (Katie Holmes). They have a young son, Wally (Hagan Oliveras) and daughter, Emily (Zoey Deutch). The second family in focus are the Gibbs, including Dr. Gibbs (Billy Eugene Jones) and Mrs. Gibbs (Michelle Williams). The Gibbs also have a son, George (Ephraim Sykes) and daughter, Rebecca (Safiya Kaijya Harris). Emily and George soon develop a budding romance.

Other townsfolk include the gossipy Mrs. Soames (Julie Halston) and choir director Simon Stimson (Donald Webber, Jr.), a man who is also the notorious local alcoholic. In addition, the dairyman Howie Newsome (John McGinty) is deaf, and characters use sign language to communicate with him.

In Act II, it is three years later, and Emily and George are planning to get married. George decides against leaving town to attend college and decides to stay in Grovers Corners to marry Emily. Despite some hesitation, the two eventually wed.

Act III is set nine years later and takes place in a cemetery outside town. Without giving too much away, many townsfolk have died. One died of pneumonia, one of a burst appendix, and another died by suicide. We meet the local undertaker Joe Stoddard (Anthony Michael Lopez) and Sam Craig (Doron Jepaul), a man who has returned to Grover’s Corners for a cousin’s funeral. We soon realize the deceased cousin is one of the play’s main characters. The Stage Manager talks in detail about death and the probability of an afterlife, but without any religious interpretation.

Overall, director Kenny Leon has added many nice touches, such as the smell of bacon wafting out into the audience when Mrs. Webb is cooking breakfast.  Mr. Leon gets primarily effective performances from the cast.  Mr. Parsons is outstanding as the Stage Manager. Mr. Thomas and Ms. Holmes portray a great married couple as Mr. and Mrs. Webb, and the same holds true for Mr. Jones and Ms. Williams as the Gibbs. Ms. Halston is often hilarious as the town busybody Mrs. Soames. Mr. Sykes is believable and often touching in his role as George Gibbs. Ms. Deutch as Emily is consistently good, but her final “good-bye” speech—one of the play’s most iconic moments—comes off somewhat strained. This is hardly the best Our Town revival, but fortunately the modern touches and tweaks do not diminish the timeless story of community and life’s ups and downs in small-town America.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published October 18, 2024
Reviewed at October 15, 2024 press performance

‘OUR TOWN’: (left to right) Anthony Michael Lopez, Safiya Kaijya Harris, Shyla Lefner, Billy Eugene Jones, Michelle Wilson, Jim Parsons & Katie Holmes. Photo: Daniel Rader.

‘OUR TOWN’: Billy Eugene Jones & Michelle Wilson. Photo: Daniel Rader.

‘OUR TOWN’: Ephraim Sykes, Katie Holmes & Richard Thomas. Photo: Daniel Rader.

‘OUR TOWN’: The cast. Photo: Daniel Rader.

‘OUR TOWN’: (left to right) Ephie Aardema Sarnak, Julie Halston, Richard Thomas & Hagan Oliveras. Photo: Daniel Rader.

‘OUR TOWN’: Zoey Deutch. Photo: Daniel Rader.

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‘THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH’: (left to right) Julian Robertson, Roslyn Ruff & Paige Gilbert. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH
Written by Thornton Wilder
With additional material by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz
Through May 29, 2022
Lincoln Center Theater at the Vivian Beaumont
150 West 65th Street
(800)331-0472, https://www.lct.org/

By Scott Harrah

Thornton Wilder’s 1942 Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Skin of Our Teeth was last revived on Broadway in 1955. It has not been produced in 67 years for numerous reasons. The epic is not nearly as accessible or universal as Our Town and is thorny and awkward in nature.  The story is a three-act saga of the ultimate survival of humanity and the Androbus family, married for 5,000 years and living in Excelsior, New Jersey. The story takes us from the Ice Age to Atlantic City in the 1920s to the end of an unspecified war and is convoluted indeed. It touches on everything from the Bible to technology to natural disasters and the environment.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has updated the story with new material since this production features a multi-ethnic cast, with the help of director Lileana Blain-Cruz. For example, sassy maid Sabina (Gabby Beans)—in a role originated by the late Tallulah Bankhead in 1942—starts out the show by breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the audience, but she talks about how she’s been in several August Wilson plays.

In Act One, a composite of the early 20^th century, Mrs. Antrobus (Roslyn Ruff) is in her New Jersey home with her children, Gladys (Paige Gilbert) and Henry (Julian Robertson). It is August but the entire Northeast of the USA is contending with a wall of ice that is moving south from Canada. Mr. Antrobus (James Vincent Meredith) is the inventor of everything from the lever, the wheel, multiplication tables and the alphabet. Refugees start arriving at the Antrobus home, all wanting food.  Some of the arriving refugees include Moses, the prophet Homer and Greek Muses. We also see one of the play’s highlights: Huge animated puppets of a dinosaur and a woolly mammoth that will remind many of the gorgeous horse puppets in a far superior Lincoln Center show a decade ago, War Horse.

Act Two takes place in 1920s Atlantic City, depicting a convention as well as a seaside carnival midway on the famous Boardwalk. Mr. Antrobus is being sworn in as president of “the Ancient and Honorable Order of Mammals, Subdivision Humans.”  Sabina appears as a conniving beauty pageant queen, trying to steal Mr. Antrobus away from his wife and family.  A gypsy fortune teller (Broadway veteran Priscilla Lopez) warns everyone about a storm about to hit the shoreline. Her prophecy comes true as a hurricane arrives, the story takes a biblical turn and family members start taking pairs of animals onto a large ship reminiscent of Noah’s Ark, indicating the world is ending.

Act Three is the play’s most confusing section.  We are back at the Antrobus home in New Jersey, but everything has been decimated by an unspecified war. The two Antrobus women have survived by hiding in a cellar and Gladys now has a baby. George Antrobus has been away fighting the war. Henry returns as a general, having fought on the opposite side.

All three acts are introduced with a “News of the World” newsreel, a clever touch by projectionist Hannah Wasileski.

Perhaps Thornton Wilder’s themes are meant to show us the resilience of humans through natural and man-made disasters. However,  what is presented here, with all the tweaks by director Lileana Blain-Cruz and playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, is all ultimately a more confusing night of theater.  While it was ambitious even attempting to update this monster of a play, the end result is a slog to sit through for most audiences. There are some occasionally funny moments and two noteworthy standouts. Newcomer Gabby Beans is a spunky delight as maid Sabina, and Priscilla Lopez shines as the fortune teller, with her lively performance.  The dinosaur and woolly mammoth puppets steal the show in Act One, and Adam Rigg’s sets are consistently impressive, but this production of The Skin of Our Teeth is too long and lugubrious to be palatable in the 21^st century.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published May 3, 2022
Reviewed at May 1, 2022 press performance.

‘THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH’: (left to right) Roslyn Ruff, Julian Robertson, Paige Gilbert & James Vincent Meredith. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH’: The cast. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH’: Priscilla Lopez. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH’: The cast. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH’: James Vincent Meredith & cast. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH’: Gabby Beans. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

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