The Cast of “Our Town” with gentle lights by Deb Sullivan. Photo by Nile Hawver.
Presented by Lyric Stage of Boston
By Thornton Wilder
Directed by Courtney O’Connor
Sept. 19 – Oct. 19, 2025
Lyric Stage Theater
140 Clarendon St,
Boston, MA 02116
Critique by Kitty Drexel
2 hours and 10 minutes, including intermission
EMILY: “Does anyone ever realize life while they live it…every, every minute?”
STAGE MANAGER: “No. Saints and poets maybe… They do some.”
― Thornton Wilder, Our Town (1938)
BOSTON — Lyric Stage Boston presents Thornton Wilder’s Our Town at its theatre in downtown Boston now through Oct. 19. A theatre classic, Our Town came back into public eye when it was revived for Broadway again in 2024. It played 117 performances on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre until it closed on January 19 of this year. Its star-studded cast included Jim Parsons as the Stage Manager, Katie Holmes as Mrs. Webb, Zoey Deutch as Emily and Ephraim Sykes as George. Kenny Leon directed. While the Lyric can’t compete with Dawson’s Creek or The Big Bang Theory fame, its Boston cast infuses Wilder’s timeless story of smalltown simplicity with awe and undeniable charm.
Our Town begins with the birth of twins. On the wooden set of benches and slats by Shelley Barish, an ensemble of actors is lead through a mundane day in the life of the citizens of Grover’s Corners by the Stage Manager (Will McGarrahan, playing with effortless appeal Thornton Wilder, an invested anthropology professor, and an impartial but merciful Shepard watching over his flock all at once). Via the Stage Manager’s 4th wall busting monologues, we learn quaint facts about Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire in 1901. It’s a town like anywhere; Good, old-fashioned people are doing their best to live decently in accordance with their values.
In three acts, we meet two neighboring families: Mrs. Webb (Amanda Collins) and Editor Webb (De’Lon Grant), Mrs. Gibbs (Thomika Marie Bridwell) and Doc Gibbs (Robert Najarian). The couples’ two children Emily Webb (Josephine Moshiri Elwood) and George Gibbs (Dan Garcia) grow up together, sharing math homework hints and a walk home from school. All around them a community of townsfolk support their growth from teenagers to grown adults. Jesse Garlick, John Kuntz, Jacob Thomas Less, and Darren Paul play the ensemble. Kathy St. George enchants as George’s nosey sister Rebecca and other amusing characters.
The cast; photo by Nile Hawver.
From its simple costuming by Rachel Padula-Shufelt to its sound design by Andrew Duncan Will, Courtney O’Connor directs an arrestingly earnest production. There isn’t an ounce of snark or sarcasm. The production is free of distracting bells or whistles. O’Connor accomplishes exactly what Wilder set out to do: tell the forthright story about a small town so audiences remember why small-town living is not only important but beautiful. O’Connor’s cast gives sincere performances that culminated in tears across the audience as Elwood delivered Emily’s heartbreaking last lines (see the show to find out what they are!). It’s honest theatre played honestly.
At first, it’s easy to distance ourselves from the production as fancy city folk from the coming and going of Grover’s Corners. But, as the story unfolds, audience members recognize themselves in the characters onstage. Grover’s Corners is paced more slowly and farther apart than Boston, but its people have the same needs and dreams as anyone, anywhere. At this time of unrestricted fascism and unscientific CDC dictates, it’s important to treat kindly the friends and family who matter most to us. Don’t let fear prevent you from giving and receiving love or the simple pleasure of a bright moon in the clear night sky.
Like anywhere in the U.S., we come to find that life in Grover’s Corners has its simple pleasures: a cup of strong coffee, a homecooked meal, the smell of blooming flowers, church choir rehearsal, and a brief walk with someone you love at the end of the day. Our Town shows us how life ends for the small community of Grover’s Corners: over a book in the parlor, or up on a quiet knoll near a church where this community buries its dead. This play reminds us that there is great beauty and wonder in everyday living (and great importance in comprehensive sex ed and couple’s therapy). It is up to us to appreciate it before it and we are gone.
Did you know that there’s a bilingual edition of Our Town with Spanish translations by Michel Hausmann? It available to license now through North American Professional Theatres. Find it HERE.
