Los Angeles Times
- Recommended
"...But perhaps the biggest shocker of this "Our Town" is its refusal to bask in amber glows, wallow in folksy sentiments or indulge in shopworn sermonizing. Admittedly, the production's power would be greater in a more intimate space. Still, this is a stunning theatrical achievement. Cromer throws dazzlingly harsh light on the truth that's been there all along yet is always such a challenge to see."
LA Weekly
- Recommended
"...For reasons to be elaborated on in next week's stage feature, I found the production beautifully rendered and very moving, like a church service in a community hall. Helen Hunt, as the Stage Manager, orchestrated events with wry detachment and an unspoken compassion."
Backstage
- Recommended
"...In its L.A. premiere, director David Cromer's immensely entertaining and deeply affecting revival is vibrantly fresh yet faithful to the playwright's enduring vision."
LAist
- Recommended
"...The new presentation at the Broad Stage, however, gives this classic its due with a smart and heartfelt production."
The Hollywood Reporter
- Not Recommended
"...Everything about this show is professional and brisk, yet the effect is so bald that the richness of the material is barely plumbed. Acting styles jar incommodiously with the text. Its ideas still get across, they just don't work nearly as well with this overcompensating contemporary sensibility."
LA Splash
- Recommended
"...If you go to see "Our Town," and I recommend that you do, your best seats will be on the floor of the playing area, close to the action where you can feel the full force of Helen Hunt's presence and become the "scene partner" that director David Cromer intended."
Stage Scene LA
- Recommended
"...Helen Hunt up close and personal in Our Town gives this Broad Stage production Special Event status, but David Cromer's stunning re-imagining of Thornton Wilder's greatest play stands on its own, star leading lady or not."
StageHappenings.com
- Not Recommended
"...What didn't work for me is that there seemed no apparent reason that she had to tell the story and bury the play along with the bible in the new bank's cornerstone. Without a compelling reason, the play lacks a certain punch and the audience is left to fend for themselves but perhaps this is Cromer's intention. In any case go see Our Town for yourself."
Examiner
- Recommended
"...Despite the problems with staging and the tendency for the high ceilings to swallow up the dialogue (other patrons complained although I heard everything well enough myself), this Los Angeles premiere of Cromer's production of this Pulitzer Prize-winning play, is worth seeing."
Buzzine
- Recommended
"...This is an Our Town for our times."
ArtsBeatLA
- Recommended
"...I was rewarded by a superlative production of a superb and classic drama."
Socal
- Recommended
"...It is a well-rounded production and worth a night out in Santa Monica where one has a slew of choices of restaurants and cafes for after-performance discussions and conversation."
LA Stage Times
- Recommended
"...In other words, there are literally a few people from our town in this Our Town. And if you add the audience members, who are a more essential part of this production than they are in most, quite a few more Angelenos are on stage. This is an Our Town for both our town and for the world at large."
Musicals In LA
- Recommended
"...Though not a musical, I highly recommend David Cromer's Our Town, starring Helen Hunt as stage manager, currently running at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica."
Compositions on Theatre
- Recommended
"...Peeling back the layers, David Cromer's production of Our Town embodied the complicated and contradictory relationship that arises at the intersection of where I grew up and where I live now, who I was and who I am becoming. For a moment on Sunday, I think I realized life. And that is a rare gift."
Opening the Curtain
- Recommended
"...In Our Town actor Jennifer Grace's Emily Webb looks back longingly on her life. Again, we see through Emily's eyes but they become a window to our own lives, our own mortality. We are awakened not to the lost details of her life but to the moments we are all missing."
Culture Vulture
- Recommended
"...This is an "Our Town" for our times; there is no escaping its essential truth: you are born, you live, you die. One moral might be, "make the most of it.""
Total Theater
- Somewhat Recommended
"...I have always disliked Our Town, going back to when I first saw a production of it in high school. Its folksy, idealized portrait of small-town life made me think, sourly, of Norman Rockwell or the Andy Hardy movies. Seeing subsequent productions did not make me change my mind about Thornton Wilder's 1938, Pulitzer Prize-winning play–and that holds true for the production under review."
Grigware Blogspot
- Recommended
"...And what's arrived at The Broad is sensational and profoundly moving."
Huffington Post
- Recommended
"...This is a magnificent production that captures the spirit of the Wilder classic and yet reinvents the staging in a way that is both contemporary and accessible."
OutWestArts
- Recommended
"...And what's arrived at The Broad is sensational and profoundly moving."
