OUR TOWN Previews- Page 3

[Dreamboy3]

Posted: 9/29/24 at 8:48am

Sauja said: "I'm sad to say that I didn't love this one. It might be that I was so beyond enchanted with the Cromer production downtown a few year ago, but this lacked some emotional heft for me. I was puzzled by the costuming--why are the children in contemporary clothes but most adults in more period wear? But beyond that, it felt a bit rushed. I don't know that it's a matter of there not being intermissions, but I did feel like we were chugging through quickly in moments that might have hit harder with more room to breathe. It's not a bad production, but nothing about it felt special. My seat neighbors must have felt the same way as one of them somewhat loudly said, "That's it?" as the lights dimmed after the final line."

“Rushed” seems to be Leon’s go to directing style. Characters speak so quickly that they are hard to understand and dramatic moments are lost. 

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 9/29/24 at 9:04am

you are talking about the play. No one needs to see the production to disagree with you on the actual play 

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 9/29/24 at 9:21am

iluvtheatertrash said: "you are talking about the play. No one needs to see the production to disagree with you on the actual play"

sure, everyone can/should disagree ("no it isnt"--quite the argument) but telling me i wasnt bored out of my mind when i was bored out of my mind is the height of stupidity. 

[kevinr]

Posted: 9/29/24 at 3:33pm

Did anyone go to the Stage Door after a performance.....just wondering what it was like. Thanks in advance for any news.....thinking of seeing this in November.

[KJisgroovy]

Posted: 9/29/24 at 5:34pm

"but telling me i wasnt bored out of my mind when i was bored out of my mind is the height of stupidity"

That's not what I said. In fact, based on the cast and director I'm sure you were.

I was trying to articulate that the play itself is not any of those things you said. You said what you said with such surety that I was trying to mirror your energy. Everything you articulated is actually what is often wrong with productions of Our Town and what has ruined Our Town for many a theater patron. There should be quite a bit of bite in Our Town, it's there in the script. I was so very disappointed when this production was announced with Jim Parsons and Kenny Leon... both of which I admire but both of which are completely wrong for the tone that is necessary to put Our Town over effectively.

 

[Tom-497]

Posted: 9/29/24 at 7:24pm

I saw today's performance and mostly liked the first two acts. However, I sat through the third totally dry-eyed. I felt so removed from the usually heartbreaking conclusion that I actually wondered if this production is trying to make the audience experience the same lack of involvement as the dispassionate long-dead. That would be in keeping with the onstage seating, which is quite similar to the seating used by the dead characters.

Probably, though, I just didn't care for the key performance in the third act. And I was definitely annoyed by the cliched use of a constant low hum to create a would-be "ominous" or "otherworldly" feel.

I noticed in this thread that a couple of people have mentioned David Cromer's production of Our Town; so I'd just mention that the current Cromer-directed "The Counter" arguably takes a single line from George in Our Town (about friends telling each other what they need to be told) and turns it into the basis of an entire play (with several other similarities to Our Town). And, to my taste, The Counter is a much more successful, and moving, production.

[Melissa25]

Posted: 9/29/24 at 7:40pm

Tom-497: ...so I'd just mention that the current Cromer-directed "The Counter" arguably takes a single line from George in Our Town (about friends telling each other what they need to be told) and turns it into the basis of an entire play (with several other similarities to Our Town). And, to my taste, The Counter is a much more successful, and moving, production.

Oh good. So glad to hear this since I have tickets for Tuesday and I am looking forward to it.

[345mb345]

Posted: 10/1/24 at 12:48pm

I saw the show during the first week of previews and really enjoyed it. I liked how the production was updated to feel timeless - I think it makes the production more vibrant for more people to be able to see themselves reflected in the experiences of Emily and George. The production certainly felt subtle, but that also drew me in and reinforced how the script showcases the beauty in the simple moments. 

[DCDrama2]

Posted: 10/1/24 at 12:52pm

Melissa25 said: "Tom-497: ...so I'd just mention that the current Cromer-directed "The Counter" arguably takes a single line from George in Our Town (about friends telling each other what they need to be told) and turns it into the basis of an entire play (with several other similarities to Our Town). And, to my taste, The Counter is a much more successful, and moving, production.

Oh good. So glad to hear this since I have tickets for Tuesday and I am looking forward to it."

I'll be there tonight as well! David Cromer became can't-miss for me ever since The Band's Visit.

[Melissa25]

Posted: 10/1/24 at 1:31pm

DCDrama2: I'll be there tonight as well! David Cromer became can't-miss for me ever since The Band's Visit.

Agree completely about The Band’s Visit.  His touches to Hunter’s A Case for the Existence of God still haunt me. The overwhelming joy from Dead Outlaw still make me smile and I cannot wait for the Broadway transfer.

Updated On: 10/1/24 at 01:31 PM

[northlandfan]

Posted: 10/5/24 at 6:31pm

Hi there
Saw the play third week in September. Did the stage door and Jim Parsons came out very fast and was gracious enough (as always - a real class act!) to say hello and sign our playbills and then quickly went into the SUV waiting for him.
Zoe and Katie did not come out that evening nor we were told they ever ever come out. I guess they are delicate geniuses😂. As a bonus, Kenny Leon came out, asked us what we thought of the play and graciously signed our play built as well.

[catherinep]

Posted: 10/6/24 at 7:27pm

I agree with this! I loved the play growing up. To see a modern take on this classic play was wonderful. I thought the cast was great & pulled me in from the start. The modern take for me did its job to carry timeless messages. 

[MichelleCraig]

Posted: 10/7/24 at 12:55am

I am a member of "Generation Jones" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones

I grew up in a suburb of Boston as did my parents (the same suburb). It was not Grover's Corners; well, maybe it was...a little bit. My grandmothers both grew up in Grover's Corners-like towns. Both of my grandfathers passed away before I was born. Growing up, I heard story after story about what it was like for my grandmothers growing up; especially my paternal grandmother. That grandmother was about 10 years old when Halley's Comet made it's 1910 appearance. Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain was born during the comet's 1835 appearance and correctly predicted he would die upon it's return in 1910. My grandmother remembered watching it from her backyard in Massachusetts and told the story often. When Halley's Comet made it's next appearance, in February of 1986, I couldn't wait for it to show up in the night sky. Honestly though, it was kind of a bust. What they call "light pollution" in the city sky made the comet almost impossible to see without sophisticated equipment, etc. Yet my grandmother and her family saw it with unaided eyes from the backyard of their house in 1910. I remember asking my grandmother, who passed away in 1988, if she *really* did see the comet in 1910. She most certainly did remember it.

I saw my first production of OUR TOWN when it was presented by the senior class in my high school. I was a high school junior at the time. I knew the student playing Emily, but I had never seen her act in a play. For me (and I had seen a number of Broadway productions, musicals and plays, by this time...in Boston and on Broadway), this was the most profoundly moving experience I'd ever had watching a live production. I was only 16 years old. From stories I'd grown up with from my grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc., I felt like I knew these characters. My parents, who were raised by people who had grown up at the turn of the 20th Century, were one generation closer to it than I was...but I did hear and learn about it from people who were there. Their experiences were always in my head when I read books and took classes to learn more about those times that were so fascinating to me.

In 2003 I saw Paul Newman as the stage manager in a revival at the Booth Theatre. I was bracing for the emotional whammy of Act 3, but it didn't happen. I really enjoyed the production, but after 9/11 only several years earlier and all of the other world events and changes I'd lived through since first having my mind literally blown away after seeing OUR TOWN at the impressionable age of 16, it didn't move me.

When I read some of the negative comments about this new production, I think I understand. So much of today's audience for OUR TOWN has no actual connection to the time it was written OR the time that it was written about. Again, I understand. I'm sure there are and will be works now and to come that will really engage audiences that have a direct connection to the premise of the productions. Also, there will be brilliant artists who will be able to take materials out of dusty history books and infuse them with a foundation that relates to today, or the time of their future creation.

I guess there's an argument to be made that OUR TOWN is a product of its time. Some friends of mine who saw the high school production I saw, could not understand why I was so moved by it. Others got it.

This post only reflects my opinion. If you've made it this far, give yourself a virtual gold star for your forehead; Generation Jones kids will get that.

[BJR]

Posted: 10/7/24 at 11:30am

I dont think the piece is necessarily only of its time, but I do think far too many productions take the stage directions of it looking like a rehearsal not literally. Instead, they copy the original production. And then, pour buckets of sugar over the raisin bran, sentimentalizing it from the beginning.

Put me in the camp of thinking Cromer's production was near perfect. And for me, solely because it was cleverly designed like a modern day rehearsal and the character were full of ego, disappointment, and impatience. Not til Act 3 do you even get was Wilder wanted you to see about life.

Most play the end at the beginning.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/8/24 at 10:50pm

Saw this tonight and oh my God, did I hate it. I've seen so so many productions of this play over the years and some have obviously been better than others but I don't think I've ever seen one where I felt the production fundamentally didn't understand what this play is. VERY few performances were worthy of Wilder's words here and even the ones I did like had points that made me turn on them (except Richard Thomas, he came away the best, I felt).
I came home and took ibuprofen, my head hurt so much from that.  

11 o'clock in New York City.  You get a good rest, too. 

Goodnight.

[Cowboysfan84]

Posted: 10/10/24 at 10:35am

Hello! I know opening night is tonight, but I have a question. Is the full cast usually in the night after opening night? I won the lottery for tomorrow night and just wanted to make sure Jim Parsons is scheduled to be in tomorrow night. Sorry if this is a silly question. Thank you in advance.