Our Town

Director David Cromer and two dozen actors revivify Thornton Wilder’s American classic by meeting this frighteningly profound play head-on, without sentimentality or the false balm of nostalgia. A tartly ironic Stage Manager (Michael McKean) guides us through 12 years in small-town New Hampshire; along the way, Wilder pulls focus way back to reveal a cosmic dimension. This is a muscular reckoning with a great work, totally contemporary yet true to the original.—David Cote