“Our Town” (for those of you who skipped your high school’s production) follows the comings and goings of the good people of Grover’s Corners, N.H., circa 1901. Thornton Wilder wrote the play in 1938, with the country in the midst of the Depression and on the brink of war, so you’d expect his themes of family, community and the need to appreciate every day to resonate now. But for a work that’s a study in quiet intensity, this “Our Town” just feels quiet. Most of the actors enunciate as if they’re in elocution class–they seem afraid to jostle a museum piece. The play’s trademark pantomime is executed with such distracting precision, it almost becomes kitsch. There’s no spark of spontaneity.
Newman first slips onstage camouflaged as a stagehand–prompting people in the audience to whisper Is that him?–and keeps underplaying to the end. It’s an admirable anti-star turn and appropriate to the play, but he works so hard that it defeats the point. You end up wanting less studied humility and more poetry. On the other hand, he’s written his own charming Playbill bio: “Paul Newman is probably best known for his spectacularly successful food conglomerate.” He might have given Broadway more to chew on.
