The Broadway Revival of Our Town Has a Diverse Cast, and a Message For Our Time

Our Town, as described by its playwright Thornton Wilder, was an attempt to capture the way things were “in the provinces north of New York at the beginning of the 20th century.�� If we’re to take that at face value, does the Pulitzer-winning classic have anything to say to us in 2024?

“He didn’t want this to be a play about nostalgia,�� says Katie Holmes, just one of a bevy of luminaries starring in a new revival of the work, directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon and currently running at Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre. Opening night is October 10. “He wanted this to be a play about village life set against the stars, against humanity.��

That might sound a little poetic, but then, so is Our Town. Originally produced in 1938, the work is commonly seen as an ode to a simpler time, where small town values meant knowing the milkman who comes to your front door each morning, or regularly visiting a neighbor to help prep the vegetables for that night’s dinner as you catch up on the latest happenings.

But Wilder works hard to make sure you know it’s not just that. The first act ends with a little wide-eyed girl telling her brother, as they look out the window at the star-filled sky, about a letter one of her school chums received, made out to her address in Grover’s Corners (the name of Wilder’s fictional town): “New Hampshire, United States of America, Continent of North America, Western Hemisphere, the Earth, the Solar System, the Universe, the Mind of God.�� Wilder wrote his characters to look out at the vast, night sky and see something bigger than their unremarkable little town, because he wants us as the audience to see the same thing.

“It’s about time—that’s what we keep talking about,�� says Holmes, who is playing Mrs. Webb, one of Grover’s Corners�� matriarchs. “We have to be present in our lives, and that’s a beautiful statement to make, especially coming out of COVID.�� After a couple years of almost total indoor solitude, it’s maybe not so surprising, as Holmes points out, that Wilder’s play about seeing and appreciating all the things around you is back on Broadway for the first time in two decades.

That's not to say having Our Town on Broadway, or any stage, is especially notable. This current production is the sixth time the play has been on the Main Stem since its 1938 premiere—two of those productions have been filmed and shown on TV, too. And beyond Broadway, the play is one of the most produced titles in the canon, at both professional houses, and schools and amateur groups. It is nearly impossible to grow up in this country without encountering the work in some form or fashion, even if you're not a big theatre fan.

And that's maybe why director Leon (a Tony winner for his 2014 revival of another seminal work, Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun) is working to keep his production from becoming just another Our Town in a long list of Our Towns. Wilder was unusually specific in his stage directions, specifying that his work should be performed with only the sparest of sets. A chair can be a front porch, a kitchen stool can be a grave, a ladder can be a second-story bedroom. As a result, the vast majority of Our Towns have looked nearly indistinguishable in terms of their set and staging, for better or worse. Leon's production pays homage to that simplicity, though his take (as designed by two-time Tony-winning scenic designer Beowulf Boritt) mixes things up with actual window portals instead of the iconic ladders, and a set of floating lanterns that look like a something of a homemade galaxy in the night sky.

PHOTOS: Look at More Than 60 Years of Our Town On Broadway

But the physical design is not really where Leon is making his mark on the classic play. Most Our Towns have something else in common, too. On Broadway, and in many (if not most) major productions of the play elsewhere, Grover’s Corners tends to be completely white—as perhaps it would have been in 1901 New Hampshire.

Leon's company—a starry bunch that, along with Holmes, includes Jim Parsons, Billy Eugene Jones, Ephraim Sykes, Richard Thomas, Michelle Wilson, Julie Halston, Zoey Deutch, and Donald Webber Jr.—is very much not all white. The deceptively simple story of Our Town follows two young lovers and their families, from getting engaged as high school sweethearts to a wedding and even all the way to the graveyard on the outskirts of town. In Leon’s staging, the girl, Emily, and her family are white; and the boy, George, and his family are Black.

“It’s deepening in me on a daily basis, what it means to be able to tell this story with my perspective, our perspective in the Black community,�� says Sykes, this revival’s George. “Kenny has been encouraging us to lean into who we are as people and let that drive the intention of this powerful piece that has been a classic for so long.��

Wilson, playing George’s mother Mrs. Gibbs, says the play is ripe for a re-imagining because Wilder’s original words are steeped in truths that go deeper than race. “There’s a delicacy to Our Town,�� she says, “but it’s also incredibly sturdy. As white as this play has been, it taps in deeply to the human connection.��

Parsons, leading the production as the narrating Stage Manager, says the play’s themes resonate deeper when you broaden your perception of the small-town community of Grover’s Corners. In most Our Towns, that small town becomes as idyllic as a Norman Rockwell painting. For Parsons, there’s echoes from his college days in the definitely-not-small-town Houston, Texas. “I was going out to the gay bar scene after I came out,�� he remembers. “They were all these tiny little spaces. And you saw the same people, and there was a real feeling of being comfortable, safe—in a small-town way. You felt a part of a community, protected by and protective of that community.��

But it’s maybe too difficult to fully divorce the small-town ethos and imagery of Our Town with the realities of actual small towns, more so as you travel back in history. There’s lots of places where gay people, Black people—anyone who doesn’t fit into dominant society—have not historically been welcomed with open arms. Factor in the scale of a small, close-knit town, and that segregation only magnifies, sometimes with horrific consequences.

Wilder doesn’t delve much into race or class in Our Town, but the play does make pointed mention of the Polish community that is just over the railroad tracks, along with the Catholic Church. They don’t figure much into the story, but Wilder’s repeated mention of both had to have been purposeful, especially given how concise and focused the play is in Wilder’s hands. Parson’s Stage Manager often steps in to abruptly halt scenes mid-thought. “He has the Stage Manager interrupt these scenes once the vital information has gotten across,�� Parsons explains. “There’s no need to continue the conversation. We’re not doing it for the characters, we’re doing it for the audience. And as the play says several times, our time is limited here.��

Jim Parsons and company of *Our Town* Daniel Rader

But, Sykes says, to focus on that small town stereotype, even if it’s born of lived experience, is to miss the point when it comes to Our Town. We’re told we’re watching a typical small town in the provinces north of New York in the early 20th century, but just like that universe-addressed letter, Wilder’s message is a lot bigger than the literal image one might be tempted to assign to Grover’s Corners.

“We’re envisioning our town as not the towns that we actually come from or have experienced, but the town that we want it to be,�� Sykes shares. “What do we want our town, our world to look like? We have to let that exist in our minds and our imaginations, and let that imagination become real. Our Town is about imagination, not recreation.��

“It feels like the era and geography of the place is almost meaningless,�� adds Parsons. “[Wilder] had to pick a place and a time in order to talk about these elemental, essential parts of what it is to be a human being in our time on Earth. But it could have been any time. You don’t have to change a word in order to open this up to literally anyone.��

For Wilson, it’s not just about giving actors of color the opportunity to play these roles—that element of this Our Town only makes Wilder’s ultimate message stronger.

“There’s room for us all,�� says Wilson. “We have this one brief life, and these folks have chosen to come to the theatre on a certain night and sit in the dark with strangers and neighbors, and we’re going to share just a slice of this beautiful, small, delightful life—together.��