The lights are shining a bit brighter right now off-Broadway. I have been posting a lot in the last month about a modern renaissance in the arts and the great number of high quality of shows in New York. However on Thursday, I was elated to hear that Our Town was extending into January of 2010. I consider this to be a signal that commercial off-Broadway is getting some of its mojo back!
I know we are far from the days when you couldn’t find an empty theater off-Broadway. I most certainly congratulate all of the New York non-profits theaters who have produced amazing wonderful work over the last 10 years or so. Several of those successful shows had healthy extensions and a handful moved into short-lived commercial productions. Without the great work of theatres like the Atlantic, MCC, Signature, Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage, New York Theatre Workshop and others off-Broadway would have been basically dark with only a handful of shows being produced commercially – and almost none of those shows being straight plays and many being more “event” theatre than traditional scripted dramas or book musicals. Of course in strict union definitions most of those nonprofits aren’t even off-Broadway producers (but since the New York Times and audiences don’t differentiate – I won’t either).
Commercial off-Broadway was on the brink of extinction as recently as last year. We all have debated the reasons – bad financial models, rising costs, pressure for increased production values to compete with Broadway spectacle – and that is certainly a whole other blog post, but whatever the reasons it can’t be denied that that the “golden period of the 90s” was over and commercial off-Broadway had lost its shine.
But then a small glow started…ironically it was again the nonprofit theater that lit the first spark – not the New York nonprofits this time, but the wonderful theatres of Chicago. First there was the the Chicago festival at 59E59 which imported shows from great companies like Writers’ Theatre’s Crime and Punishment. This was followed by a hearty New York welcome for The Adding Machine helmed by David Cromer. But it was the import of The Hypocrites’ Our Town directed by David Cromer that has lit a fire off-Broadway.
So is commercial off-Broadway back – not yet, but it could be well on the road to recovery. Especially if we can continue to use it to allow larger audiences to discover great artists like Cromer.
Our Town is a living, breathing example of the definition of artist’s vision. I have only seen two shows in my lifetime that I would say were amazing plays produced to perfection – the original New York production of Wit and Cromer’s Our Town.
I have seen several incarnations of Our Town, but Cromer has stripped the play to its essence. The house lights never go out; the actors are in everyday contemporary clothing; and the audience is literally enveloped in the action of the play. Even if you wanted one there is no escape. The tale of Grovers Corners is brought to life elegantly by the 22 actors and the text. And at the very end, just when you think your heart might burst and you are on the edge of your seat, Cromer brings the play home with an artistic choice that is so majestic that I can’t imagine wanting to see the play ever performed again because no production will compare. Edward Albee was right when he called the production “a true, tough, unsentimental, serious production of this great play.” I was in such awe of the work I had seen, I forgot to rise for a standing ovation of the actors wonderful work (for this I apologize I was truly awestruck).
Of course it is a great play. I think the brilliance of Thorton Wilder’s work has been lost for some reason or at least underappreciated by many for some reason. The validity and timeless tale has for some reason lost some of the “seriousness” Albee referred to. Paul Newman summed up the plays simple beauty best when discussing the Broadway production in which he played the Stage Manager in 2002 “The play questions what we do with our time, how we use it, the things that we ought to be looking at that we forget to look at. How gloriously special getting through the day ought to be.”
The daily trials of life are trumped by hope in Our Town, so what a fitting play to bring hope back to commercial off-Broadway. The production proves if the work is good, people will come.
Congratulations to the Scott Morfee, Jean Doumanian, Tom Wirtshafter, Ted Snowdon, Eagle Productions LLC, Dena Hammerstein/Pam Pariseau, the Weinstein Company and Burnt Umber Productions who made a bold move for off-Broadway by bringing the play to New York.
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