JANUARY 8, 2011 FRONT PAGE POLITICS BUSINESS MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT COMEDY SPORTS STYLE WORLD GREEN FOOD TRAVEL TECH LIVING HEALTH DIVORCE ARTS BOOKS RELIGION IMPACT EDUCATION COLLEGE NY LA CHICAGO DENVER BLOGS Michael Giltz Freelance writer and raconteur Posted: July 14, 2010 03:33 PM BIO Become a Fan Get Email Alerts Bloggers' Index 5 6 views 0 2Inspiring Funny Hot Scary Outrageous Amazing Weird CrazyTheater Review: "Our Town" With Helen Hunt Still Shines What's Your Reaction: Read More: David Cromer , Helen Hunt , Off Broadway , Our Town , Theater , Thornton Wilder , Yank! A WWII Love Story , Entertainment News The new production of Our Town currently Off Broadway at Barrow Street Theatre might just become the new millennium's Fantasticks -- a show of such solid, enduring values that it can run and run and run.</p><p> Before I tell you that Helen Hunt is very good, let me tell you that this show doesn't need star casting to draw in audiences.</p><p> It opened in February 2009 to rave reviews, thanks to the pitch-perfect cast and director David Cromer's insightful touches.</p><p> After 17 months, the show is still ingood form, despite cast changes and a revolving door of talent like Michael Shannon stepping into the role of the Stage Manager for weeks at a time. (Cromer, who is helming the highly anticipated Yank! A WWII Love Story on Broadway this season, originally played that role.) MOST POPULAR ON HUFFPOST 1 of 2 BIG NEWS: Celebrity Skin | Jersey Shore | Ellen Degeneres | Celebrity Body | Energy Debates | More...</p><p> More Dead Birds, Fish Found Across The World Camille Grammer's Porn Past Comes Back To Haunt Her Elizabeth Edwards' Will Revealed Intestinal Parasites May Be Causing Your Energy Slump Rudeness Is A Neurotoxin Should The Leader Of The Free World Dress Like THIS? BECK IN TROUBLE? Dropped From New York Radio Station, TV Ratings Fall Thousands Of Birds Found Dead In Italy John Edwards Spokesman Denies Rumored ProposalLOG IN | SIGN UP SHARE THIS STORY Get Entertainment Alerts Email Comments 2 Recommend 66K Like 719 Recommend 544 Like 587 Like 7K Like 520 Like 6K Recommend The story is deceptively simple: it's a snapshot of small town life, with a bare-bones set, seemingly casual asides like a "lecture" from a professor about the location's history and a close-up on two young people falling in love and getting married.</p><p> It's a very easy show to do, but not an easy show to do well.</p><p> For mostof its history, Our Town has relied on whimsy and charm and gentleness in countless high school andcommunity theater productions.</p><p> In fact, the play is surprisingly tough-minded and about as sentimental as a slap in the face.</p><p> From the very beginning we're told when this character dies, how that character attended college but died in WWI and all that education went to waste.</p><p> The world? It's been around a lot longer than humans.</p><p> The universe? We're alone in it.</p><p> After a wedding scene that emphasizes the panic of the bride and groom (toooften played for easy laughs), you spend the third act in the graveyard.</p><p> How could anyone think Our Town is sweet? Oscar and Emmy winner Helen Hunt fits in perfectly, her no-nonsense demeanor just right for the StageManager.</p><p> She's matter of fact at first, but allows just enough wryness to leaven the play's brutal attitude, allows just enough emotion to color the edges of her lines to soften the blow of the finale.</p><p> Unlike mostproductions of Our Town, this one comes much closer to the heart of Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize- winning masterpiece.</p><p> The adults are good, with the always wonderful Daniel Marcus in a smaller role as the Professor.</p><p> But it's the two lovers who have the heaviest burden.</p><p> James McMenamin is in the shadow of Eric Stoltz's career- making performance in the starry Lincoln Center production from 1989, but does very well as the gangly, uncertain George.</p><p> And surely Emily is one of the most difficult female roles in the canon.</p><p> Jennifer Graceis good in this balancing act between tentative young adulthood and terror, though still not quite the Emily of my dreams.</p><p> As mentioned, the show overall is perhaps not quite as tight as it was a year and a half ago, with the comic relief at the wedding (especially from an hysterical citizen) too broad by half.</p><p> But what a punch it still packs.</p><p> Hunt (who played Emily during that Lincoln Center run back in 1989) keeps the audience on its toes, not allowing anyone to settle back in anticipation of homespun wisdom.And as the lights dim for the third act, everyone is drawn in completely.</p><p> As usual, the set is bare-bones.</p><p> But the theatrical coup of presenting Emily's flashback in a realistic set hidden behind a curtain is breathtakingly effective, especially in the small confines of Barrow Street Theatre where the room is sosmall it almost seems like magic.</p><p> If Cromer drops in every once in a while to keep the performances in line and they continue casting Stage Managers as acutely sensitive to the text and the tone of the piece as Hunt, this Our Town can be strongly recommended for a long time to come. ***** Thanks for reading.</p><p> Michael Giltz is the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinionmakers as guests.</p><p> It's available free on iTunes.</p><p> Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.</p><p> Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.</p><p> Link to him on Netflix and gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews.</p><p> NOTE: I was given two tickets to the current run of Our Town with the understanding that I would be writing a review. 1 of 5 Dylan Ratigan Free Market Fraud Sen.</p><p> Jon Tester Tester Pushes to Reform Senate Rules With Greater Transparency, EfficiencyDON'T MISS HUFFPOST BLOGGERS HOT TRENDS camille grammer lady gaga natalie portman pregnant raven- symone snooki naked To Rielle Hunter More Celebrity News at People.com Like 4K History Channel Won't Show Katie Holmes Miniseries The Kennedys READ MORE Nick Lachey and Vanessa Minnillo to Guest Star on Hawaii Five-0 READ MORE Lindsay Lohan's Post- Rehab Gift: a $25,000 Necklace READ MORE Lea Michele's Diva Behavior Strikes Again Petra Nemcova Engaged to British Actor Camille Grammer's Porn Past Comes Back To...</p><p> Olivia Wilde Dons See-Through Bikini (PHOTOS) Raven-Symone Shows Off Dramatic Weight Loss, Talks...</p><p> Natalie Portman: I Was 'Barely Eating' During...</p><p> Comments 2 Pending Comments 0View FAQ 537 Fans 6 FansFollow Michael Giltz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/michaelgiltz More in Entertainment...</p><p> Giltzly pleasure.</p><p> The 1989 version of Our Town where Helen played Emily had Spaulding Gray as the Stage manager.</p><p> As the least sentimenta l actor of his generation , he would have taught a lot to Hunt.TOP VIDEO PICKS Kourtney K.'s Stunning Bikini Bod Jane Krakowski RevealsBaby Bump Bristol Palin's New RadioGig? 1 of 8 MOST DISCUSSED RIGHT NOW HOT ON FACEBOOK HOT ON TWITTER Death & Dying CPAC Katie Holmes HUFFPOST'S BIG NEWS PAGESRecency | Popularity DustinTime 04:06 PM on 7/15/2010 Permalink | Share it NorthSide 03:03 PM on 7/15/2010 Permalink | Share it More Celebrity News at Popeater.com Natalie Portman: I Was 'Barely Eating' During 'Black Swan' 381 Comments PHOTOS: Ellen DeGeneres & Portia de Rossi's Exotic Vacation 189 Comments PHOTOS: Raven- Symone's Dramatic Weight Loss 479 Comments Camille Grammer's Porn Past Comes Back To Haunt Her 938 Comments Beastie Boys Rapper Beats Cancer 83 Comments Ashton Kutcher: Training, Paranoid About Real Life 'End Of Days' 903 CommentsComments are closed for this entry View All Stephanie Seymour CaughtKissing Her Son? 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