This year is Madison's sesquicentennial, and last week the Madison Repertory Theatre got the party started. They opened their new playhouse at the Overture Center with a production of Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece 'Our Town.'
'Our Town,' a staple of community and high school theatre, depicts everyday life in early 20th century New England, specifically in the rural town of Grovers Corners, N.H. This is what the stage manager (Andr?? De Shields) explains to us at the beginning of the play, and right there we can tell this is not going to be your standard hackneyed production.
Thornton Wilder's script is all there, but director Richard Corley is not giving us a portrayal of a small town in rural New England; he is giving us a town that looks a lot like Madison. For instance, the stage manager is not an old white-haired man in a gray suit with a pocket watch, but rather a black man wearing an immaculate white suit that one would never find in rustic New England.
This is what Richard Corley and the Madison Repertory Theatre give us'a reflection of ourselves. The Gibbs family is multiracial, with a black Dr. Gibbs (Patrick Sims), a Hispanic Mrs. Gibbs (Sandra Marquez), a Hispanic George Gibbs (Joe Minoso) and a black Rebecca Gibbs (Sarah Branch). The rest of the community is also cast to echo the demographics of Madison, which gives the play a modern, fresh feel. Howie Newsome, the Milkman, played superbly by Joe Stauffer, could be fresh off the farm in Fence, Wis.
Quite a cast has been assembled for this production, drawing on talent from New York to Milwaukee, from the University's faculty to its students and from Madison's middle schools (Spring Harbor, Cherokee Heights, Akiri Toki) to its elementary schools (Shorewood Hills, Falk). It is such a big, diverse cast that you see why you need a stage manager'particularly one like De Shields'manning the helm.
The play takes place in the Overture's gorgeous new playhouse, which fits the play perfectly. The stage is kept relatively bare except for a few tables, chairs and benches. There is no real backdrop to the stage except for a few family portraits and no real special effects except for a few horse noises. This Spartan set helps to emphasize the theater's deep proscenium and comfortable, well-spaced seats.
Aside from being more diverse and relevant than usual productions of 'Our Town,' the cast is exceptionally strong. Patrick Sims played Gibbs full of more compassion and humor, while his wife played against him in perfect balance and synch. Tony Simotes and Patricia Boyette were not to be outdone, as both gave markedly strong performances with their portrayals of Mr. and Mrs. Webb. Carrie Coons, a UW-Madison student, steals a scene in which her character argues with her mother about what to wear to school.
To go on listing all of the other notable performances (of which there are the better part of a dozen) would simply run too long. But the man in the immaculate white suit is not to be neglected. De Shields is a two-time Tony nominee, a successful Broadway actor and a UW-Madison alum. He is also a remarkable stage manager who emanates charisma and always found a way to infuse life into the play just as you feared a dead moment.
The play ends in death, but everyone in the audience seemed to leave feeling more alive. The Madison Repertory Theatre has put together an incredible production of what may have otherwise seemed a dated classic. The parameters of 'Our Town' have been rethought, re-examined, re-evaluated and put back together. It is something that should not be missed.
