Our Town

I've seen "Our Town" countless times with many excellent actors filling the role of stage manager/narrator. Paul Newman's performance easily tops them all. Although the TV version of Thornton Wilder's famous play lacks the spatial dimensions that are afforded by a stage, the story here is told in segments that are easily accommodated on a TV screen. This is Newman's "Our Town" to a degree that exceeds every other performance of the play that I've ever seen. And, since this is among the best acting jobs that Newman has ever done in his long career, that's just fine. I saw it with my wife and adult daughter (who also loved it) and commented that Newman is still a "mighty good-looking" guy.

As someone who loved the William Holden version, and I have also acted in a community theatre version of this (as the "Stage Manager" character)... so I think I can give a valid point of view on this film. It is one of the best stage versions that I have ever seen. A very interesting way to do it with minimalist props and scenery compared to the traditional "dark stage and spotlight version". I can not wait for it to be released on DVD, and since it is a Showtime Networks and PBS Masterpiece Theatre co-production, I know it is only a matter of time before it is released. This is one DVD that will have a prized position in my DVD collection.

mar this adaptation of the great Thornton Wilder play about mutability and one man (town's) place in the universe. Paul Newman, Jane Curtin, and Jayne Atkinson fare best. Jeffrey DeMunn is a little too "actorish," and the young leads lack spark and pale when compared to the luminous performance of William Holden and Martha Scott in the 1940 film. Not bad, but not great either. No two accents are alike (considering this is a turn-of-the-century New England town)---even among families. If you can't do accents, why bother?

Thankfully, Wilder's story of Our Town can even overcome out of kilter staging and unusual directing notes and even miscasting.

Paul Newman? Yes, he's alright but lacks nearly any sort of personality. The lines that could provide him with sympathy or any form of engagement with the audience are delivered very dryly, with little if any humanity.

The casting? Strange, I think. Both of Emily's parents are quite a bit older than one would expect from a teenager. Gosh, in the 1899 flashback, her father looks like some dodgy 70 year old, and even Jane Curtin is too old to be a teenager's mother.

The script? I fail to see why the producer, director, &/or actors felt compelled to change the script. No, there no major changes, but why change at all? It is certainly not needed, and rather presumptuous.

Similarly, the cemetery scene in Act III is staged rather counter to Wilder's instructions. The dead in that scene seems more like they are waiting for a train than waiting for eternity, and more like a coffee klatch than dead. And they move about quite vigorously in their chairs. I expected a better adherence to Wilder's instructions.

And, when she first appears in Act III, Emily is rather blase. A better staging would be for Emily to show a bit of sorrow, a bit of loss, and a bit of wonder. Instead, it seems to me that Emily is just joining the queue for the train, which will be along any minute now. Just another day.

No, this staging is not bad, but I would have expected much much better from a professional production like this. This production is just mediocre.

I don't think I've ever seen a production of this play that did not bring tears to my eyes in the last act. It is simply a powerful work and hard even for amateur players to fail in. This production follows true to form. Paul Newman is wonderful as the Stage Manager. He plays the part with such ease and conviction that one forgets all about the blue-eyed heartthrob he once was and concentrates solely on an actor at the top of his form.

I also think Maggie Lacey is very fine as Emily. She plays the young woman as breathless, open-eyed, innocent, and just darn good. That is the way Emily is supposed to be played, of course, but Ms. Lacey does it exceptionally well. (How stupid it is to think that goodness is dull!) The actor who plays George (Ben Fox, I believe) is less appealing, and comes across at times as a near-hayseed. Fox is successful at playing George's self-doubts, but not his strength.

I have stayed away from the Hollywood version of the play, the one starring William Holden, because I have heard that the ending in the graveyard is changed, that it is treated as a dream. It's hard to believe that anyone would touch the text of Thornton Wilder's play, but a change of that magnitude would certainly take away much of the play's power.

All in all, this is a likable production.