The Group Rep takes us back to Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire circa 1901 for a solid if not extraordinary revival of Thornton Wilder’s classic bit of Americana, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Our Town.

The Wilder chef-d’ouevre first astonished audiences in 1938 for the innovative ways it recounted a tale as old as time itself—one of birth, and life, and love, and death.

Act One, entitled “Daily Life,” has us spending a day in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, passing most of our time at the homes of next-door neighbors the Gibbs and the Webbs.

 Act Two, “Love And Marriage,” focuses on neighboring sweethearts George Gibbs and Emily Webb, whose prickly friendship turns to love and then marriage.

“Death” is how playwright Wilder entitles Our Town’s surreal third act, with the deceased of Grover’s Corners, including a number of characters we’ve met in Acts One and Two, welcoming a character we have come to know and love to their midst.

Aside from the supernatural aspect of Act Three, Our Town might sound, at least on paper, like nothing all that out of the ordinary. But ordinary it is not, and one can only imagine how 1930s audiences must have reacted to Thornton Wilder’s then revolutionary storytelling techniques.

Taking his cue from the Ancients, Wilder has as his “Greek Chorus” a ubiquitous “Stage Manager,” who narrates Our Town while scarcely leaving the stage as he assumes several cameo roles, offers wry commentary on the action, and propels us backwards and forwards through time and space, even going so far as to inform us from the get-go how and when a number of play’s major characters will meet their end.

The playwright also specifies an almost total lack of scenic design, with only a few tables and chairs “for those who think they have to have scenery,” and virtually no props, Wilder having his actors mime everyday tasks.

Director/set designer Mareli Mitchel-Shields does all this right (the Group Rep stage has never looked as expansive as it does here stripped bare of everything but some chairs, tables, and a pair of movable staircases and letting our imaginations do the rest), and the actors do a credible job of performing household tasks minus props. (I also appreciated the seamlessness the director gives the transition from Act Two’s joy to Act’s Three’s sorrow.)

Noemi Barrera’s lighting design is effective and so is designer Ramona Reeves’ decision to keep the costumes decade-neutral, and having the cast occasionally create Foley-style sound effects takes the place of a traditional sound design.

The role of Our Town’s all-seeing, all-knowing Stage Manager is a perfect fit for the Group Rep treasure Lloyd Pedersen, and he plays the role with a combination of folksy charm and warmth.

Kathi Chaplar (Mrs. Gibbs) and Christina Conte (Mrs. Webb) are particularly good as two very different mothers, the former dreaming of traveling to distant lands, the latter perfectly content to stay put where she is.

Larry Toffler is terrific too as the salt-of-the-earth Dr. Gibbs, and Todd Andrew Ball deserves major snaps for stepping into the role of Mr. Webb at only a few hours’ notice, script in hand.

Casey Alcoser, irresistibly aristocratic in this past fall’s My Sprits Soar, is less well-suited for boy-next-door George, though he gives the role his peppy all.

The incandescent Faye Reynolds, on the other hand, could not be more perfectly cast as Emily, investing the role with intelligence, sensitivity, and pluck (and not a hint of the actress’s Welsh accent).

Tom Allen, Jeff Dinnell, Noah Dittmer, Cynthia Payo, Steve Rozic, Rob Schaumann, Lew Snow, Daisy Staedler, Cathy Diane Tomlin,and Dianne Travis complete the hard-working cast in multiple cameo roles, occasionally blending voices to sing church hymns and other tunes under Chaplar’s able music direction.

Our Town is produced for the Group Rep by Payo and Tamir Yardenne. Bojana Jelovac is assistant to the director. Alex Salkin is stage manager. Nora Feldman is publicist.

Given Our Town’s status as one of the greatest American plays ever written, it might come as a surprise how few productions I’ve seen of it, so simply getting the chance to revisit Grover’s Corners feels like a gift.

Though I can’t help wishing the Group Rep had done more to distinguish their take on the Wilder masterpiece from the tens of thousands that have come before, I ended up once again leaving Grover’s Corners feeling lucky to be alive.

The Group Rep Theatre, 10900 Burbank Boulevard, North Hollywood.
www.thegrouprep.com

–Steven Stanley
November 28, 2025
Photos: Doug Engalla

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Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, The Group Rep, Thornton Wilder