OUR TOWN Previews

#1OUR TOWN Previews

Welcome back to Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire.

A fifth Broadway revival of Our Town — and the first since 2002 — takes up residence at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, with previews beginning tomorrow (September 17) before an official opening on October 10. The classic work by Thornton Wilder about appreciating the beauty of everyday life is led by Jim Parsons as the fourth wall-breaking Stage Manager; also part of the 28-person cast are Zoey Deutch, Katie Holmes, Billy Eugene Jones, Ephraim Sykes, Richard Thomas, Michelle Wilson, Julie Halston, and Donald Webber, Jr. Kenny Leon directs; Our Town runs through January 19.

A select few will get the chance to immerse themselves in the world of the town and its characters, as 30 onstage seats will be sold at each performance.

“In Wilder’s timeless tale of a small town, a stage manager narrates the daily lives of its locals, depicts a childhood friendship turn into marriage, and sets the stage for magnificent truths of what it means to be alive.”

Who’s making the trip into town?

#3OUR TOWN Previews

Anyone here going tonight to first preview?

Telecharge lists a 1:50 runtime, no intermission. 

#5OUR TOWN Previews

EDSOSLO858 said: "Telecharge lists a 1:50 runtime, no intermission."

Has the Wilder estate previously authorized a shortened version?

I had it in my mind that a typical OUR TOWN runs between 2:30 and 3 hours, but now I see that the David Cromer production and the Regent's Park Open Air production both advertised runtimes of about 2 hours, and the Paul Newman filmed stage production on YouTube is 2 exactly (sans intermissions).

I've seen highly effective productions with two intermissions and the actors speaking slowly (which is, I recall, Wilder's intention). These are smalltown people who move at their own pace.

#7OUR TOWN Previews

EDSOSLO858 said: "Anyone here going tonight to first preview?

Telecharge lists a 1:50 runtime, no intermission."

Oh Jesus Christ. This is beyond absurdity. 

#9OUR TOWN Previews

Jordan Catalano said: "What’s beyond absurdity? The run time? Thats pretty much what the show usually runs at."

This play is specifically supposed to have three acts - Daily Life, Love and Marriage, and Death. It works very well in the three act format in which it was written. Leave it to modern producers and directors to think they know better than the author and smoosh everything together into an overlong, intermissionless experience. 

#11OUR TOWN Previews

Matt Rogers said: "This play is specifically supposed to have three acts - Daily Life, Love and Marriage, and Death. It works very well in the three act format in which it was written. Leave it to modern producers and directors to think they know better than the author and smoosh everything together into an overlong, intermissionless experience."

Maybe this will be bad (assuming it occurs as described).

Maybe it will surprise people and work.

Maybe they try it and put intermissions back in.

It's not unheard of for intermissions do be added, removed, or moved around during previews even though doing so here is more unprecedented.

#13OUR TOWN Previews

I’m going to give it a couple weeks to get settled before I go see this, but can’t wait. “Our Town” is the best American play ever written and even with a bad or mediocre production, I can find something to appreciate just hearing the words. 

#15OUR TOWN Previews

tacotheatrelover said: "i kinda wanna shell out the 223$ for onstage seating
it's like half my budget for nyc but i wanna do it!!"

MEEEEE TOOOOOO!!!!!!

#17OUR TOWN Previews

Matt Rogers said: "Jordan Catalano said: "What’s beyond absurdity? The run time? Thats pretty much what the show usually runs at."

This play is specifically supposed to have three acts - Daily Life, Love and Marriage, and Death. It works very well in the three act format in which it was written. Leave it to modern producers and directors to think they know better than the author and smoosh everything together into an overlong, intermissionless experience."


I’m pretty sure that Wilder never imagined his play would be done with real bacon frying on stage —yet it was, and it worked beautifully—and the world didn’t end.  There’s more than one way to put on a play.  
 

As for you having to sit for 1h 50mins —have you considered Depends? 

#19OUR TOWN Previews

Matt Rogers said: "Jordan Catalano said: "What’s beyond absurdity? The run time? Thats pretty much what the show usually runs at."

This play is specifically supposed to have three acts - Daily Life, Love and Marriage, and Death. It works very well in the three act format in which it was written. Leave it to modern producers and directors to think they know better than the author and smoosh everything together into an overlong, intermissionless experience."

Whether the show has two intermissions or not, it still has three acts. While itermissions tend to go at the end of acts, wheter a play has a two-act, three-act, or five-act structure has nothing to do with the number of intermissions a play has. 

Most movies are written in a three-act structure; you don't stop the movie for two intermissions, but the acts are still there. Shakespeare's plays are five acts; I have never been to a Shakespeare play that has four intermissions, and I can only think of one or two that I have attended that had two intermissions. 

Whether Our Town has zero, one, or two intermissions,  the three-act structure is still present.

 

#21OUR TOWN Previews

I’m totally stoked! Wilder’s play is a must-see, and I can’t wait to see Parsons as the Stage Manager. I might even try to get a seat onstage *-*.

#23OUR TOWN Previews

From Wikipedia:

""What About Us" is a song recorded by the American singer-songwriter Pink for her seventh studio album Beautiful Trauma (2017). ....

Pink, who was inspired by the politics of the time, composed it as a political protest song with poetic and inclusive lyrics. The song's lyrics explore Pink's belief that the United States' government had failed its people and sent a message about those who feel unheard or forgotten."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_About_Us_(Pink_song)

I'm pretty sure if he was alive today you would find Wilder drunk & hitting on twinks at some bar while a drag queen lipsynched to Pink on stage.   There would be whole data lounge threads trying to figure out who he was balling.

#25OUR TOWN Previews

Can't quite get over the hand-wringing above about the removed intermissions. The play was written when the three act form was routine in modern drama, a strictly if not universally observed structural conceit in a world with a different attention span, a different expectation of audience behavior/needs, and different ideas as to how theatrical storytelling best serves a venue and captive witnesses. The play is in three distinct and labeled movements, to be sure, but directors have long found ways to replace the intermission's interrupting role via a sleight of hand, some lighting or other device that places the same set of periods on finished sections of dramatic action. The idea that spectators must rise, exit to a lobby, and return for the shape of the play to work has long been banished.