The Brooks Arts Center revives Thornton Wilder’s American classic.
By: Stuart Duncan
Our Town gave its first performance at McCarter Theatre in Princeton in January 1938. It wasn’t called a world premiere, since that was scheduled for New Haven, but B. Franklin Bunn, graduate treasurer of the Triangle Club, brokered a deal with the show’s producers: He would give them a week’s free rehearsal at the theater if they would play performances over the weekend. It was negotiated down to a single, Saturday-night showing.
Of course, things were very different in 1938. The theater was owned not by the university, but by the Triangle Club itself, which had built it earlier that decade to house its annual musicals. At first there were no dressing-rooms the students dressed and made up in their dormitory rooms, and then walked over to the theater. A five-story addition was constructed later, when it became apparent other troupes would use the facility.
Our Town is being revived at the Brook Arts Center in downtown Bound Brook, a town still trying to shake off the damage from Hurricane Floyd. The river overflowed its banks and many stores along Main Street still proudly show the high water marks (about nine feet plus from the sidewalk.) The Brook, led by Gerry Appel, is taking the lead in rebuilding, reconstructing the main-stage area and adding a second stage. It is hoped work will be complete by September 2004, at a cost of a bit more than $4 million.
Meanwhile, the theater is staging works in the lobby, and Our Town works just fine. Director Randall McCann has assembled a large company of good actors, and Thornton Wilder’s play is both nostalgic and timeless.
The imagination soars from the opening moments, when the Stage Manager (Dennis Farrelly) sets out the vision of Grover’s Corners, N.H., "just across the stateline from Massachusetts," on a stage bare except for a few chairs and a flowered trellis ("for those folks who need scenery").
We meet Mrs. Gibbs (Carla Phoenix), wife of the town’s doctor (Gerry Appel), and, just across the stage, we encounter Mrs. Webb (Jacqueline Master), wife of the editor of the town newspaper The Sentinel (Michael Jenkins). Then we meet some of the town’s citizens: Howie Newsome (James O’Neill), who with his faithful horse, Bessie, delivers milk door to door; Constable Warren (Harry Brown), who keeps peaceful during the day and quiet at night; and Professor Willard of the State University (Ed Spiegel), always ready to share geological or anthropological data. We also are introduced to Simon Stimson (Mitchell S. Maged), the church organist with a drinking problem, and Mrs. Soames (Samantha Tarrah Slatter), a lady who loves weddings because they give her a good cry.
But most of all we meet Jeff Price as George, the doctor’s son, and Emily (Allison Ward), daughter of the newspaper editor. We meet them as they fall in love ( "as they first knew, as the saying goes, that they were meant for each other"), as they are married (with Mrs. Soames having a real good cry), and then a few years later when sadness hits. These two will move you to tears. Classic stuff, to be sure, and done with easy style, intelligence and great honesty.
Among the youngsters who impressed are Henry Christian Coslick, Lorraine Jabonsky, Zach Orenstein and Anna Paone.
Our Town continues at the Brook Arts Center, 10 Hamilton St., Bound Brook, through May 24. Performances: Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. Tickets cost $15, $13 seniors and students. For information, call (732) 469-7700. On the Web: www.brookarts.org

