"Our Town" - by Thornton Wilder - Lyric Stage Company (Boston, MA.) - REVIEW
(Cover Photo: The CAST of Thornton Wilder's "OUR TOWN," now playing at Lyric Stage Company in Boston, MA. until October 19, 2025. Photo Credit: Nile Hawver)
By Kevin T. Baldwin
METRMAG Reviewer
# 774-242-6724
“We all know that something is eternal...There's something way down deep that's eternal about every human being."
- ("Stage Manager") / Thornton Wilder
Lyric Stage Company
Presents Thornton Wilder's
"OUR TOWN"
Written by Thornton Wilder
Directed by Courtney O’Connor
Cast Includes: Thomika Marie Bridwell* as “Mrs. Gibb,” Amanda Collins* as “Mrs. Webb,” Josephine Moshiri Elwood* as “ Emily Webb,” Dan Garcia as “George Gibbs,” Jesse Garlick as “Howie Newsome/Joe Stoddard/Mr. Carter/Man From Among the Dead,” De’Lon Grant* as “Editor Webb,” John Kuntz* as “Professor Willard/Simon Stimson,” Jacob Thomas Less as “Joe Crowell, Jr./Si Crowell/Sam Craig,” Will McGarrahan* as “Stage Manager,” Robert Najarian* as “Doc Gibbs,” Darren Paul as “Constable Warren/Wally,” Kathy St. George* as “Rebecca/Mrs. Soames/Woman in Balcony/Woman From Among the Dead.”
Additional Creative Team:
Scenic Design- Shelley Barish; Costume Design- Rachel Padula-Shufelt; Lighting Design- Deb Sullivan**; Sound Designer- Andrew Duncan Will; Props Artisan- Lauren Corcuera; Production Stage Manager- Nerys Powell*; Assistant Stage Manager- Lucas Bryce Dixon*; Assistant to the Director - Billy Bollbach; Wardrobe Supervisor - Morgan Bailie; Audio Supervisor - Denzil Kakol; Head Electrician - Gabriel Goldman.
* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States
** Represented by United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829 of the IATSE
Performances:
September 19, 2025 through October 19, 2025
(Contact Box Office for Exact Times)
All performances to be held at LYRIC STAGE OF BOSTON, 140 Clarendon Street, Boston, MA. 02116
TICKETS:
Contact the Box Office at # 617-585-5678 or go to lyricstage.com
BUY TICKETS
COVID 19 PROTOCOLS
Contact Venue for Most Updated COVID-19 Safety Protocols and Information.
(Warning: The following review may contain spoilers)
Lyric Stage Company breathes new life into the literary masterpiece that is Thornton Wilder’s "OUR TOWN" and it is a production that reminds us of what theatre ought to be.
Now, to begin with, this is going to feel less of a review and more of a “thank you” note because, dammit, THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! to the entire Lyric Stage cast and creative team behind this inventive staging of "OUR TOWN" to help reaffirm why it remains the quintessential American play.
"OUR TOWN" is a three-act play (presented by the Lyric, again thankfully, as two) written by Wilder in 1938.
It was once described by acclaimed playwright and author Edward Albee ("Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf") as "the greatest American play ever written" and he wasn’t wrong.
The story of "OUR TOWN" revolves around the fictional American town of Grover’s Corners between 1901 and 1913 through the everyday lives of its citizens.
Act One is a typical day in the life of those in the town, the second act is three years later and focuses on the wedding of two residents of the town, and the final act is appropriately titled as it is nine years later and looks at mortality and immortality through the eyes (both open and closed) of the characters.
Each member of this 12-actor Lyric Stage Company ensemble shines in their individual and collective moments elevated by the formidable approach taken by director Courtney O’Connor.
(Photo: The CAST of Thornton Wilder's "OUR TOWN," now playing at Lyric Stage Company in Boston, MA. until October 19, 2025. Photo Credit: Nile Hawver)
I have a long, personal history with this play as it was the first play I was ever in and it instantly ignited a passion in me for theatre.
So, "OUR TOWN" automatically exists in a very special place in my heart and I am thankful that there is not one but two Massachusetts stagings occuring over the next few months - this one now happening at the Lyric Stage Company in Boston and one happening later in December over in Worcester by WCLOC (catch both, if you are able).
And, quite honestly, I could give a damn about where the story of "OUR TOWN" takes place – uh....no offense intended to our NH brethren up in Peterborough just over the Massachusetts border.
But I have seen many variations of the show – multiple productions that either do capture the spirit of the text or completely miss the point by instead focusing on miniscule details such as “nailing” the stereotypical New Hampshire accent.
In fact, for decades, this show was a staple production performed at many schools across the country with "OUR TOWN" considered a young actor’s “rite of passage” (that is, of course, before “Legally Blonde the Musical” ultimately replaced it, he joked).
In this latest staging by the Lyric team, though, the focus of "OUR TOWN" is less on how these NH residents speak and instead is more upon what these folks are saying, maintaining its relevancy after nearly nine decades.
After its initial 1938 Broadway premiere, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, "OUR TOWN" has since been revived seven times on Broadway, Off-Broadway and in the West End.
The 1989 revival won both the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival and Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play.
(Photo: John Kuntz as "Professor Willard" speaks as Will McGarrahan as the "Stage Manager" listens in a scene from Thornton Wilder's "OUR TOWN," now playing at Lyric Stage Company in Boston, MA. until October 19, 2025. Photo Credit: Nile Hawver)
The role of the “Stage Manager,” our guide through the story, has become a kind of "blueprint" for most narrators in plays that have come since, the role having been cemented in portrayals by such legendary actors as Hal Holbrook, Henry Fonda, Alan Alda, Paul Newman and was performed in the most recent rival by “Big Bang Theory” actor Jim Parsons.
Will McGarrahan as the Lyric's “Stage Manager” is no less outstanding in the role, comfortable while directly addressing the audience, communicating in a frank, compelling way the heartfelt, occasionally intimate nature of the story without becoming overly (or overtly) sentimental.
His character exists only to relay the events of what we are about to witness, not to tell us how we should feel about those events.
Part of the appeal of the Lyric Stage Company show is in the bare bones approach taken to tell the story of Grover’s Corners, which is less about geographical location but more about interpersonal human relationships and existence itself (more on that later).
There is little adorning the Lyric stage space at all, allowing the concentration of storytelling to be executed solely by the actors.
Even the very subtle way this ensemble of actors enters onto the stage is a highly appropriate way to begin this kind of show.
For the Lyric's inventive staging, there is a set looking much like a large circular wooden puzzle, with pieces being moved around to form varied configurations, denoting different locations within Grover’s Corners.
(Photo: The CAST of Thornton Wilder's "OUR TOWN," now playing at Lyric Stage Company in Boston, MA. until October 19, 2025. Photo Credit: Nile Hawver)
Wilder incorporated the use of theatrical devices allowing the actors to interact with the audience not only as themselves but as their characters at pinpointed times in the script.
During their scenes, the actors in the Lyric Stage Company production use virtually no props, instead using mime or pantomime to denote the actions being performed.
When the Lyric actors are not performing, they do not simply exit the stage – they sit in the audience with us, either in seats or in the aisles, all of them enjoying observing the events of play as they unfold along with the rest of us, which is a nice feeling.
During Act One (which is entitled “Daily Life”) we are not only introduced to the characters by the Stage Manager, but also to the actual actors portraying those characters - a novel approach to any play and one that is still virtually unpracticed.
(Photo: Dan Garcia sits with Josephine Moshiri Elwood as "Emily Webb" in a scene from Thornton Wilder's "OUR TOWN," now playing at Lyric Stage Company in Boston, MA. until October 19, 2025. Photo Credit: Nile Hawver)
Among the Grover’s Corners residents we meet are the Gibbs and Webb families.
For the former Gibbs family we meet Doc Gibbs (Robert Najarian) and his wife, Julia (Thomika Marie Bridwell), along with their two children, George (Dan Garcia) and Rebecca (Kathy St. George, portraying multiple roles).
In the latter Webb family, there is Charles Webb (De’Lon Grant), editor of the local newspaper, and his wife, Myrtle (Amanda Collins), daughter Emily (Josephine Moshiri Elwood) and son, Wally (Darren Paul, who also portrays local cop, Constable Warren).
A seemingly normal, relatively mundane day-to-day existence takes place throughout the Lyric Stage Company show’s first act.
We also learn more about the town as the Stage Manager introduces us directly to both Editor Webb and also Professor Willard (John Kuntz, who also plays troubled choir director Simon Stimson), each of whom informs us as to the history of the town and “field questions from the audience” (wink-wink).
As the first act ends and second act (entitled “Love and Marriage”) unfolds, it quickly becomes apparent that much of the focus rests upon the two “lovers” of the story – George and Emily in some of the most delightful moments of the story thanks in part to the chemistry and performances by Garcia and Elwood.
With George and Emily about to be married, the relationships between their respective parents and how they married get explored, allowing for more character revelations resulting from exemplary performances by actors Najarian, Bridwell, Grant and Collins as the parents.
(Photo: The CAST of Thornton Wilder's "OUR TOWN," now playing at Lyric Stage Company in Boston, MA. until October 19, 2025. Photo Credit: Nile Hawver)
The final act follows immediately after Act Two and is entitled “Death and Eternity” - focusing on the death of a pivotal character nine years after George and Emily’s wedding and taking place at the cemetery outside of town.
Some of the residents we met in Acts One and Two are also present, either still living or (spoiler alert) deceased. Elwood, as Emily, dominates much of this “final” act and keeps us riveted to our seats throughout the final moments of the play.
This act is where Wilder gets to explore higher more existential themes such as life, death, existence and even non-existence - whether any of those great things we leave behind are really any more important than those little things - like how we lived our own mundane day-to-day existence while we were here.
"OUR TOWN" continues at Lyric Stage Company until October 19th, 2025 and is one place worth visiting multiple times.
Up next at Lyric Stage Company will be Mark Shanahan's “A SHERLOCK CAROL” beginning November 1st, 2025 and running through December 21st, 2025.
For more information and tickets, contact the Lyric Stage Company Box Office at # 617-585-5678 or go to lyricstage.com.
BUY TICKETS
Approximately two hours, 10 minutes with one intermission.
Kevin T. Baldwin is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA)
@MetrmagReviews
@Theatre_Critics
ABOUT THE SHOW
Every minute is a gift.
An American classic for our time.
The day starts and ends pretty much the same way in Grover’s Corner.
Beyond the humdrum of daily life, glimmers of joy, flickers of melancholy, and secret desires are hidden away in the mundane.
It’s in the eyes of young lovers, the silence of a lonely townie’s room, and the hearts of the wild and restless.
Stars shine over this sleepy New England town, but are dimmed when compared with the wonderment tucked away within the seemingly ordinary moments of this place so many call “home.”
Even in the smallest of moments, beauty is there.
The secret is to stop and take notice.
ABOUT THE LYRIC STAGE OF BOSTON
Founded in 1974 and in residence at 140 Clarendon Street since 1991, THE LYRIC STAGE OF BOSTON is Boston’s oldest resident theatre company. Our mission is to produce and present live theatre in Greater Boston with an intimate approach that promotes inclusivity and connection. THE LYRIC STAGE leads an effort to integrate live theater and theater education into the lives of all residents of greater Boston.
140 Clarendon Street
Boston, MA. 02116
# 617-585-5678
