After a spate of recent productions of Thornton Wilder's classic Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, it's a pleasure to witness one that adheres honestly to the text. Two of those less pleasing productions had female Stage Managers, one in an up-to-date woman's business suit—though the play takes place in 1901-'14—indicating an odd directorial choice. Another was the dismally dull Broadway revival with Spaulding Gray as the Stage Manager with equally miscast support. It is, after all, the Stage Manager's play. He sets the tone, the rhythms, and the aura of the period.
Interact's charming, wistful, and totally honest production sticks very closely to the author's intent, maintaining the flavor of the piece's three time periods and the simplicity and naïveté of its dialogue, and it says everything Wilder had to say about his subject. James Greene as the Stage Manager (alternating with Dave Florek) couldn't be more on-target. His no-nonsense delivery bears the indelible stamp of the period, and his subtle sense of humor creates a marvelous framework for the action, in great detail and color.
The tale the Stage Manager tells mainly concerns two next-door families in Grover's Corners, N.H., as insular as every small American town at the time. Dr. and Mrs. Gibbs (Gregory White, Amanda Carlin, alternating with Liz Herron) and Mr. and Mrs. Webb (Lance Davis, Susan Hull) are also beautifully rendered. Doc Gibbs has a down-home feeling as he joshes with his wife and gently chides their son, George (David Drew Gallagher), for leaving the wood-chopping for his mother to do. Next door, at editor Webb's home, daughter Emily (Emily Deschanel, alternating with Kelly Lohman) is struggling with the difficulties of growing up independent while wanting the life her mother leads.
It is George and Emily around whom the tale revolves, and their charm here, especially in the drugstore scene, when George and Emily suddenly discover they are meant for each other, is true and honest. Deschanel is particularly effective in the last act, after she has died during childbirth and wonders what it's all about, returning to her 12th birthday only to find out how sad it all is. In the large superior cast, with a number of other alternates, there are some standouts, all looking part of the period, under Mariclare Costello's insightful and astute direction. Of special note are Steven Hack's milkman Howie Newsom, Sandy Kenyon's drunken organist Simon Stimson, and Ralph Drischell's very friendly Constable Warren. Once again it's our town, and not an ill-fitting directorial concept.
"Our Town," presented by and at Interact Theatre Company, 5215 Bakman Ave., N. Hollywood. Thurs.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. Mar. 8-Apr. 6. $25. (818) 765-8732, ext. 23.