Is "Our Town" the most boring play?

[Phan#24601]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 9:00pm

Does anyone honestly like this play anymore? I find it quite a snore-fest.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 9:06pm

It's an exquisite play that is all too often treated as a museum piece, so it seems boring.

I hope you get to see a good production or a chance to read it without the baggage of most school and community theater presentations.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 9:16pm

The most recent Off Broadway production was pretty sensational. It was a reminder of how good the show really is. David Cromer really pulled off some brilliant magic with that mounting.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 9:17pm

Words can describe how much I detest this play with every fiber of my being. It is beyond boring.

[Idiot]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 9:19pm

This play is devastating and kind of perfect. But I don't think you can appreciate it 'til you're older.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 9:23pm

It all depends on the production and perspective, I guess - I found Druid's production of Long Day's Journey Into Night with James Cromwell soooooooo long and dull when I saw it...of course I was just a kid, and now see that it is a classic.

James Cromwell is still just as dull, however.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 9:23pm

I discovered OUR TOWN when I was 15 and it completely changed the way I see the theater and the way I see the existence of human beings. I think it's the most perfect play ever written and I have never once been anything but enthralled with it. Even the most horrifically bastardized version done by a community theater or high school has something in it to enjoy.

This made me put in the Hal Holbrook DVD I have since I haven't seen it in a couple of weeks. No production of the play will ever come close to this one and I honestly hope that when you get older you can appreciate the beauty and the simplicity of this story.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 9:43pm

I sat through David Cromer's exquisite production 4 times. And I would've done so 4 more times if I could have.

It is a devastatingly beautiful play.

[wonkit]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 9:46pm

I was never a fan of this play until I saw the Cromer production, which amazed and moved me. A bad production of this play can resemble purgatory (or maybe limbo).

[whatever2]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 9:48pm

> it completely changed ... the way I see the existence of human beings

that's usually how i feel each time you update your avatar. :)

[Owen22]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 9:54pm

Never thought I'd so completely agree with Jordan, but he and I seem to have had almost the same experience with this play. Its on my top Five (maybe top Three) greatest plays of all time list, and often watched the Hal Holbrook/Sada Thompson when I had a video player. Though I found Cromer's the absolute best I've seen (I recently came away feeling his "Rent" in Chicago was also the greatest of all possible "Rent"s).

Is there any one line in American theatre as immediate and sad and profound and thrilling and true as Emily's "Oh Earth, you're too wonderful to anyone to every realize you."?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 10:11pm

They don't understand, do they?

[whatever2]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 10:20pm

no. no they don't.

oh, wait -- you weren't talking to me, were you?

:)

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 10:21pm

My first and only exposure to Our Town was David Cromer's production. The play, the production, the acting, all of it has stuck with me in a deep, deep way. I hate that people think of this work as boring because I found it to be some of the most moving theater I've ever seen.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 10:26pm

I can not recommend highly enough that you watch the 1977 production. In case of a house fire it's one of the five things I'd take with me.

Updated On: 6/14/12 at 10:26 PM

[TalkinLoud]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 10:32pm

It's a fabulous play. If you hate it, I think you either have terrible taste or have never seen the right production. Cromer's version could make a believer out of anyone.

[SondheimFan5]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 10:44pm

One of the most beautiful, profound American plays ever written. Many people do not appreciate it until they grow older. Both the Paul Newman revival and the recent Cromer one off-Broadway were excellent. Certainly in the top 5 greatest American plays ever written.

[whatever2]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 10:45pm

also worth noting that ned rorem has set a libretto (sensitively) adapted by j. d. mclatchy to music ... the opera received solid reviews at its indiana premier, and subsequently in london and new york.

i saw it at juilliard in 2008 and thought both composer and librettist did a wonderful job. (during his lifetime wilder resisted efforts to adapt "our town", turning down requests from both bernstein and copland.)

Posted: 6/14/12 at 10:50pm

Our Town says more about the people watching than it does itself. As some teacher once said "It rewards close attention."

[Idiot]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 10:54pm

^ "It rewards close attention."

Beautiful. And yes, it certainly does.

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 11:03pm

I know everyone talks about the end of the third act when they talk about this play and especially Cromer's production of it, but I still remember being overcome with emotion at the end of the second act. Emily running to her father and the family and the cast....I'm welling up right now. So beautiful.

The saints and poets, maybe--they do some.

[WestCoastActor/Director]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 11:14pm

Well, chorus member yes there are a lot of people who honestly like this play. It is considered by many one of the greatest American plays ever. No it is not a musical so there are no big songs or dances. But like most any scripts it does depend on the production and the actors.

I saw Helen Hunt in the Cromer production when it played in Santa Monica this past winter. It was exciting and alive. I also recently directed this show and chorus member I did have people who came up to me and tell me that they expected it to be boring but it was anything but. I saw people leave the theatre moved to tears and people return night after night. I was helped by a very strong cast including an actor as The Stage Manager who in the words of another director who had directed this show 3 times herself said my lead made it so alive and fresh and unlike any production of it she had ever seen.

In fact, we recently won an "Outstanding Production" award for this "snore-fest".

No one is expected to like every production, as theatre is a subjective art but why would you assume that just because you don't like a show that no one else does? That boggles my mind.


Our Town named "Outstanding Production"

[Owen22]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 11:24pm

Wilder did agree to a 50's TV musical adaptation (probably because the earlier movie version screwed with the ending). Frank Sinatra was the Stage Manager and Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint as George and Emily. It even yielded a hit song, "Love and Marriage" which is also the title of the play's second act.

[jayinchelsea]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 11:43pm

Our Town is still one of the most beautiful, simple, and eloquent plays ever written. I'm in the minority on the most recent Cromer production; I found it dull and devoid of magic, and I thought the final scene, when Emily sees her home in a heightened state, was inappropriate to the play.

But the Paul Newman production from Westport was lovely, and for those who are curious about the musical version with Sinatra, Eva Marie Saint and a young Newman, you might find a copy on ioffer. It's primitive early tv (1955) but still very evocative of the piece.

[Phan#24601]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 11:52pm

Wow...I was unaware of the following this play has. I am truly sorry if I have offended anyone, but I was simply commenting on what I know of this play (which is not very much considering that I have only read the script for the 1st and 2nd acts in English class and watched the 1940 film).