Our Town

I first read "Our Town" in tenth grade. I knew there was something amazing about it, but I couldn't understand, see, or find it. I made it my mission to find out.

Over the years, I have seen literally hundreds of productions of "Our Town," always in hopes of discovering the beauty that it possesses...somewhere.

And here it is. Finally.

This very contemporary, very recent production of "Our Town" is a stunning revisualization of this, Thornton Wilder's greatest work.

The thematic material of "Our Town" is often misunderstood as a look at the ordinariness of daily life and how tedious the mundane is, but this is a short-sighted claim to Wilder's writing, as he provides much more depth and texture than that.

It is biting yet sweet. It is sarcastic yet humbly honest. It is contemporary yet nostalgiac. In "Our Town," life is beautifully tragic, woefully joyous, and endearingly boring.

The acting here is top-notch, as the starring roles are filled by such seasoned veterans as Paul Newman, Jayne Atkinson, and more. Newman especially shines as one who is amused, terrified, and bored with this small provincial place over which he seems to be a kind of non-active deity. Emily's final farewell to Grover's Corners is especially beautiful.

The real wonder of this production is that it is apparent that the production team pulled together to create a solid, collaberative, cohesive piece of theatre that would reach people of all ages, colors, and creeds. All aspects of the production have come together beautifully to create this amazingly convincing work of theatre.

Furthermore, this televised version is a wonderfully rendering of the original stage production. The camera never feels obtrusive, it never feels out of place or foreign. We feel like the audience, not like the camera. We are being led on a tour.

Perhaps it is Thornton's (and the Stage Manager's) brilliant tour-guide-like presentation that makes this work so superbly on camera as well as stage.

All in all, this mounting of "Our Town" surely does Thornton Wilder justice, as it brilliantly achieves what all great theatre should aspire to do: it emotes; it teaches; it explains; it examines; and it humanizes. Do not miss this for anything.

I've seen and read "Our Town" so many times that I thought to myself, "Why bother with this one?" It turned out that this is by far the best version of "Our Town" I've ever seen. Paul Newman was a magnificent stage manager. Maggie Lacey and Ben Fox were superb as Emily and George; I doubt that anyone's ever played them better. The ending was so movingly staged and acted that I was reduced to a blubbering idiot with tears rolling down my face. This is as good as it gets for "Our Town," and at last I understand why it's a classic.

A solid production of this chestnut. Nothing radical or edgy, but for a play like this, who wants edgy? The storyline accounts for 90% of the plays value, so the acting and production values shouldn't be over-analyzed.

This is one of my all-time favorite plays, and I found this production more than satisfactory.

There are only three other versions of "Our Town" available on VHS/DVD, and all have drawbacks (the 1940 version is fuzzy, the 1989 version is overpriced, and the 1977 version is ho-hum). Given the dearth of copies available on VHS or DVD, this new version is a welcome addition to "Our Town" fans.

Paul Newmann gives a _great_ performance as the narrator, and the rest of the cast is fine, too. I would have cast younger actors for Emily and George.

This is a filmed version of the stage play, on stage. There is no audience, and the camera work is fantastic: this was produced by Exxon/Mobile for Masterpiece Theater, and they spared no expense.

I highly recommend it!

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?