‘Our Town’ reviews: Kenny Leon directs ‘enticing’ revival led by Jim Parsons
The Broadway revival of Thornton Wilder‘s “Our Town” opened Oct. 10 to rave reviews. This imaginative restaging of this American classic by Tony-winning director Kenny Leon (“A Raisin in the Sun”) is sure to be a strong contender at the Tony Awards next June. The 1988 remounting of this Pulitzer Prize winner won Best Revival while the 2002 version earned Paul Newman his only Tony nomination,
Newman was the Stage Manager, the narrator of this tale of small-town folk at the turn of the 20th century, played in this production by four-time Emmy champ Jim Parsons (“The Big Bang Theory”). Parsons was a Tony contender last season for his featured turn in Paula Vogel‘s “Mother Play.” He was singled out by many critics for his role as ringmaster. And many of the reviews made special mention of the set design by two-time Tony winner Beowulf Boritt (“Act One,” “New York, New York”) and lighting by four-time Tony nominee Allen Lee Hughes.
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Below a sampling of the reviews.
Jesse Green (New York Times) noted, “though some of the effectiveness of the revival is clearly the result of Kenny Leon’s swift and unsentimental direction, and of a fine cast led by the mercilessly acute Jim Parsons as the Stage Manager, we must begin with wonder and admiration for the play itself.” He singled Parson out for particular praise: “With his light touch and cynical sang-froid, and the comic timing he has honed for years on television, he makes an ideally shrewd and withholding Stage Manager, placing you just where he wants you during the banter to achieve the greatest vulnerability to the blows.” And he lauded the efforts of the craftspeople too. “Beowulf Boritt’s set, as Wilder requires, is minimal — mostly weather-beaten siding — but also features a nebula of lanterns that extends into the orchestra. The spectral lighting is by Allen Lee Hughes.”
Naveen Kumar (Washington Post) lauded the players. “Led by Parsons’s slightly cheeky but mostly matter-of-fact narrator, the cast strikes a delicate balance, lending a lived-in quality to characters who sometimes speak in golly-gee tones.” He too praised the look of the production: “The wow factor comes from Allen Lee Hughes’s lighting, which includes a swirl of lanterns suspended from the soaring ceiling like a procession of ascending souls. The gray-washed wood of Beowulf Boritt’s set evokes a weathered durability, in reference both to Wilder’s play and the human condition.”
Aramide Tinubu (Variety) was equally impressed: “It takes a great deal of work to make the ordinary enticing, but that’s precisely what director Kenny Leon does …. Its outstanding performances and minimalistic set design by Beowulf Boritt highlight the brevity and magic of being alive.”
For Shania Russell (Entertainment Weekly): “The most winning aspect of Wilder’s play is its warmth. Leon preserves this, as do his actors … It’s Parsons who is our constant, yet his performance is the most difficult to parse: his Stage Manager strikes the Wilder balance of dry yet sincere, but feels rather distanced. He leaves us wanting in some moments — for comfort, sentimentality, or perhaps just clarity — but when the time comes for his critical third act monologue, he has just the right words, just the right tone.”
Greg Evans (Deadline) observed: “The final section of Wilder’s play – the three acts are performed without an intermission in this production, with Parson’s Stage Manager having some fun explaining away any confusion – is one of American drama’s most foolproof scenes, and Leon and his cast pull it off nicely.”
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