Our Town 1989 Great Performances

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  • Опубліковано 23 сер 2024
  • Broadcast November 3, 1989.
    Filmed at the historic Lyceum Theatre in New York, this is a filmed version of Gregory Mosher's 1988 Broadway production of Thornton Wilder's classic "Our Town."
    Cast:
    Stage Manager: Spalding Gray
    Dr. Gibbs: James Rebhorn
    Joe Crowell/Si Crowell: Atticus Brady
    Howie Newsome: John Griesemer
    Mrs. Gibbs: Frances Conroy
    Mrs. Webb: Roberta Maxwell
    George Gibbs: Eric Stoltz
    Rebecca Gibbs: Lydia Kelly
    Wally Webb: Shane Culkin
    Emily Webb: Penelope Ann Miller
    Prof. Willard: Bill Alton
    Mr. Webb: Peter Maloney
    Belligerent Man: Steven Goldstein
    Simon Stimson: Jeff Weiss
    Mrs. Soames: Marcell Rosenblatt
    Const. Warren: Tom Brennan
    Mrs. Ferguson: Marilyn Hamlin
    Organist: Richard Cordova
    Mrs. Newsome: Amanda Green
    Baseball Players: Neil Pepe, Jordan Lage
    Sam Craig: Rod McLachlan
    Joe Stoddard: William Duell
    Woman in Graveyard: Joan MacIntosh
    Farmer McCarthy: Ron Parady
    Mr. Carter: Thomas Kopache

КОМЕНТАРІ • 93

  • @bookofdust
    @bookofdust Рік тому +164

    Who’s here after reading Patchett’s Tom Lake? I was lucky enough to see this on Broadway. I had no idea who Frances Conroy was at that time.

    • @lifeinjville
      @lifeinjville 11 місяців тому +11

      Me!! I've never seen this play so here I am.

    • @SallyBosco
      @SallyBosco 11 місяців тому +11

      Me too! I love the book Tom Lake, so I wanted to look up the references. I've never seen Our Town before either, but I love Spaulding Gray's one-man shows.

    • @jeantate8442
      @jeantate8442 11 місяців тому +13

      Me. Never seen it or read it. After Tom Lake, who could not feel like they had to see it.

    • @nancynz1
      @nancynz1 11 місяців тому +12

      I've finished the audiobook of Tom Lake read by Meryl Strep. It was wonderful. it led me to read the play and then to search out the production. I watched the 2003 Broadway production with Paul Newman as the Stage Manager and now this 1989 production. The George and Emily in this is so much better. I think I shall have to watch the 1940 film version with William Holden and perhaps go down The Cherry Orchard rabbit hole.

    • @bookofdust
      @bookofdust 11 місяців тому +9

      @@nancynz1 There’s a 70s production shown on PBS with Robby Benson and Glynis O’Connor flipping their trajectories from Ode to Billy Joe and Sadie Thompson as Mrs. Gibbs that’s remarkable too.

  • @user-ie8hy7tc2d
    @user-ie8hy7tc2d 7 місяців тому +16

    I was the Production Electrician on this show, and remember audience members leaving the theatre weeping. Kirk Browning, the director, who was in the TV truck on 45th Street, came into the theatre after recording the performance, speechless with emotion.
    I spent 40 years working on Broadway and Penelope Ann Miller's performance was one of the most moving things I ever saw.
    Amusingly, Don Ameche took over the SM role later on and could never remember his lines. Sometimes he'd ask the prompter in the wings for his line, and then couldn't hear the response!

    • @pattymelt-go3fv
      @pattymelt-go3fv 6 місяців тому

      @user-ie8hy7tc2d
      Thanks this is what is so great about UA-cam, the comments!

    • @CliftonBowers-pc2xu
      @CliftonBowers-pc2xu 2 місяці тому

      Thank you ....was in the one with Paul Newman sometimes on PBS..enjoyed doing the play ..😮

    • @Coco-vx2nr
      @Coco-vx2nr 6 днів тому +1

      What an amazing look behind the scenes! Thank you for sharing!!!! I’ll be facilitating a discussion of this play next month!

  • @jamescorley1899
    @jamescorley1899 Рік тому +16

    After I got older and seen family , friends, class mates and neighbors die I come to understand this movie and wish I appreciate the people who have passed better when they were alive !

  • @laureenhurt4095
    @laureenhurt4095 5 місяців тому +7

    I just finished Tom Lake! So now I MUST see this play.

  • @Star_production23
    @Star_production23 Рік тому +14

    Remarkable. Seeing Spalding Gray again wakes me agaian to his genius.

    • @pattymelt-go3fv
      @pattymelt-go3fv 6 місяців тому

      Poor man after the car accident he got depressed,
      took his last ride on the SI Ferry.
      Very sad.

    • @jonahfalcon1970
      @jonahfalcon1970 Місяць тому

      Spalding Gray: All the critics agreed -- they wanted to tar and feather me and run me out of town!

  • @tpickett1381
    @tpickett1381 Рік тому +9

    Was read as a play in my high school English class. I didn't really appreciate it then .But this performance at age 70,had me in tears. Bravo, Great performance.

  • @bluebread079
    @bluebread079 2 місяці тому +5

    It’s 3:30 am and I’m watching this again.

  • @sarahfleiss
    @sarahfleiss Рік тому +14

    This is one of the best performances I’ve ever seen. Stellar all around. So glad I got to witness this

  • @glc1183
    @glc1183 2 роки тому +24

    Thank you for posting this - I was a college student in 1989 and wondered upon this as a viewer of Great Performances. It was one of the most significant things that I've had encountered in my life to that point having never read the play - It contains a very powerful message in a trenchant manner------- Thanks

  • @V-Lo78
    @V-Lo78 2 роки тому +12

    Still my favorite performance of my favorite play to this day. ❤️

  • @CubReporterK
    @CubReporterK 2 роки тому +19

    You are a hero! I've wanted to see this for ages. One of the only Spalding Gray videos I've never tracked down.

    • @jonahfalcon1970
      @jonahfalcon1970 Місяць тому

      "Spalding Gray's deportment was a blight on the town."
      I saw myself as walking Dutch Elm disease!

  • @thee_calamity
    @thee_calamity Рік тому +6

    This play affected me so deeply as a young boy. Thank you for posting it.

  • @Semiotichazey
    @Semiotichazey Рік тому +33

    I have never seen or read Our Town before now. This is...sublime. It affects me in odd ways that make me wonder why there are no productions of this now outside of high schools. In our current era (I write this in 2022), the quasi-timeless quality of this is deeply resonant. It is critical that we find and maintain connections to the past. Not to stay the same, but to discover that which endures.

    • @larryw.phillips6779
      @larryw.phillips6779 Рік тому

      Monumental.
      You hit the nail on the head C.W.

    • @anthonykortas5936
      @anthonykortas5936 Рік тому +1

      I just got back from a lovely production of this at American Player’s Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin.

  • @Wordman67
    @Wordman67 Рік тому +23

    For too long, it has been misperceived as a sentimental greeting card of a play, when actually it is as desolate and chillingly profound as any Beckett play. I don't know anyone who can get to the end without being a sobbing wreck.

    • @waynetkelley
      @waynetkelley Рік тому +1

      I saw a production today at Emory Theatre Lab in Atlanta. It was multilingual and with a multiethnic cast. I wept throughout the entire 3rd act, as I always do even when just reading the script.

    • @cliptrashbin2389
      @cliptrashbin2389 Рік тому +2

      I had to watch it in class, and these poems make me sad or unemotional, but this one got me. I had to rubber my eyes and not cry in my high school class

    • @luigimgallo
      @luigimgallo 8 місяців тому +1

      I remember watching this play in its italian version on TV more than fifty years ago. My mom saithen that the conclusion was that you are better off when you are laid at eternal rest. Last year she passed away. Maybe she was right.

    • @pattymelt-go3fv
      @pattymelt-go3fv 6 місяців тому

      @@luigimgallo
      God bless you and your mother

  • @LTMcG
    @LTMcG 10 місяців тому +10

    I just started Tom Lake and came here. Now I know why she keeps mentioning the beauty Northern Michigan and adoration of her daughters. Ann Patchett knows juxtaposition.

    • @luellajoy
      @luellajoy 4 місяці тому

      I really loved it. As an actor I really loved it.

  • @stoutmtc
    @stoutmtc 5 місяців тому +2

    My book group is doing Tom Lake in March and someone who finished the book early told us we must watch Our Town. I could swear I have seen this performed live, but it must have been when I was at college and chronically sleep deprived, because as we watched the 1940 movie I couldn't remember a thing. But I knew Thornton Wilder was disappointed in the 1940 movie - the movie script changed it so Emily is just having a dream of being dead and returns to life at the end.
    As others have said, I am older now and have lost parent and child and others to death, so was more deeply affected and expect I won't forget this time.

  • @DavidN369
    @DavidN369 Місяць тому +1

    Even with textual cuts, this is definitive. Have never understood the critical antipathy to Spalding Grey. Frances Conroy, Roberta Maxwell, James Rebhorn, Peter Maloney, and certainly Eric Stoltz are stellar, their colleagues are dead-on, and Penelope Ann Miller is the best Emily since Martha Scott, period. With "Long Day's Journey into Night," "A Streetcar Named Desire," "Death of a Salesman," "A Raisin in the Sun" and "Angels in America," THE great American play. Timeless, ever trenchant and immortal. Thank you VERY much.

    • @jonahfalcon1970
      @jonahfalcon1970 Місяць тому +1

      Ever watch Monster in a Box?

    • @DavidN369
      @DavidN369 Місяць тому

      @@jonahfalcon1970 Yes. Brilliant.

    • @erikvonriese
      @erikvonriese 17 днів тому +1

      I agree about Spalding Grey. He's not the usual, folksy Stage Manager we're accustomed to, but he feels much closer to the matter-of-fact, otherworldly character that Wilder intended.

    • @DavidN369
      @DavidN369 16 днів тому

      @@erikvonriese Precisely

  • @chrishampton3649
    @chrishampton3649 Рік тому +5

    Seein for the 3rd or 4th or however many times, enjoy it each time Penelope Ann Miller was my main interest in it ❤ed her in it but still a good play, I don't watch plays but this is an exception the last act is touchin, it's touchin seein her 😢 cause you know those are real tears, think that's part of what makes her a real good actress & she's very talented, her & James Rebhorn were in Carlito's Way, loved her Escape to paradise scene in there, The Shadow, Kindergarten Cop, Gun in Betty Lou's 👜, Other People's 💵, Adventures in Babysitting etc are my some of my Penelope movies, wanna meet her someday.

  • @a_d_a_m
    @a_d_a_m Рік тому +5

    i had never heard of this play but randy rainbow and sarah silverman sent me :) they mentioned the line about the saints and poets and it sounded so brilliant i had to check it out. thanks for posting it!

  • @Gwailo54
    @Gwailo54 5 місяців тому +1

    I was aware of the play but knew precious little about it. Then finally I saw it in the West End with Alan Alda. This play should be performed more often. Anything other than another musical.

  • @neurogence
    @neurogence Рік тому +2

    Absolutely Awesome loved it

  • @neurogence
    @neurogence Місяць тому

    Loved it

  • @Erin.56
    @Erin.56 Рік тому +9

    This play is so amazing. I practically know all the words by heart I’ve seen it so many times. To me it must be seen on the stage. Not in a movie.

  • @Erin.56
    @Erin.56 Рік тому +7

    The play is so much better than the movie…. It is meant for the stage. I haven’t watched this play or read this book since highschool ,now over 30 years ago. Love this play so much. This was so well done this 1989 version.

  • @elainehoward9449
    @elainehoward9449 8 місяців тому +1

    Me!! I'm not to excited about reading Tom Lake, so I'm watching this!!

  • @not_an_animal
    @not_an_animal Рік тому +3

    This deserves more attention...like y'all

  • @theunitedsamilyofamerica8183
    @theunitedsamilyofamerica8183 Місяць тому

    Tysm for sharing

  • @lalithamariaperez2937
    @lalithamariaperez2937 Рік тому +1

    Thank you!

  • @kavyazworld730
    @kavyazworld730 9 місяців тому +4

    This is literally a play I’m doing at my school. This is technically my homework😭🤚
    Update: the play is tomorrow😬😬

  • @tomshea8382
    @tomshea8382 Рік тому +5

    Giving competitive awards for artistic achievement is so dumb; look at the work Penelope Ann Miller is doing here and now imagine giving or not giving her a prize for it compared to the work the great Christine Baranski did the same season in an Uptown Neil Simon farce.

  • @jonahfalcon1970
    @jonahfalcon1970 Місяць тому

    "Nice town, know what I mean?"
    Frank Rich might have been right about that line delivery.

  • @sanclementekid
    @sanclementekid 10 місяців тому +1

    At least no one from Grover's Corners died on the Titanic. George the peeper.

    • @pattymelt-go3fv
      @pattymelt-go3fv 6 місяців тому

      @sanclementekid
      I always think about my grandmother being born 6 weeks later.
      She was always terrified of water.

  • @kendallgaskin6436
    @kendallgaskin6436 8 місяців тому

    macaulay culkin’s brother, shane culkin, is in this play btw

  • @laura_brand
    @laura_brand 2 роки тому +5

    58:26

  • @hellbooks3024
    @hellbooks3024 9 місяців тому

    Ron Parady was a great actor.

  • @jackryan4862
    @jackryan4862 Рік тому +2

    Act 3 1:13:54

  • @anragukonis1292
    @anragukonis1292 6 місяців тому +1

    Required reading in high school nearly 50 years ago. Didn’t get it. Didn’t like it. Just finished Tom Lake and now I want to see it performed live.

  • @harryloomus7486
    @harryloomus7486 2 місяці тому

    3Kuula
    Apostli soovist külastada Tessaloonikat uuesti
    1 Seepärast meie, kui me enam ei läbenud kannatada, arvasime heaks
    jääda Ateenasse
    2 ja läkitasime Timoteose, oma venna ja Jumala kaastöölise Kristuse
    evangeeliumi kuulutamises, kinnitama ja julgustama teid teie usus,
    3 et ükski ei lööks kõikuma nendes viletsustes. Te ju teate, et me
    oleme nendesse pandud.
    4 Sest juba siis, kui me olime teie juures, ütlesime teile ette, et
    meid hakatakse taga kiusama, nagu see on ka sündinud ja on teile teada.
    5 Seepärast ka mina, maldamata enam, saatsingi tema, et teada
    saada teie usku, kas vahest kiusaja pole teid kiusanud ning
    meie vaevanägemist tühjaks teinud.
    6 Aga kui nüüd Timoteos tuli teie juurest tagasi ning tõi meile
    häid sõnumeid teie usust ja teie armastusest ning et teie meid alati
    heaga mäletate, igatsedes meid näha saada, nii nagu meie teidki,
    7 siis saime julgustatud teie kaudu, vennad, kogu oma kitsikuses ja
    ahistuses teie usu läbi,
    8 sest nüüd me võime elada, kui teie püsite Issandas.
    9 Mis tänu me võiksime küll Jumalale anda teie pärast kogu
    selle rõõmu eest, millega me rõõmustame teie üle oma
    Jumala palge ees?
    10 Me anume ööd ja päevad üliväga, et saada näha teie palet ja
    parandada seda, mis on veel puudulik teie usus.
    11 Aga tema, meie Jumal ja Isa, ning meie Issand Jeesus Kristus
    tasandagu meie tee teie juurde!
    12 Ning Issand kasvatagu teie armastust ja tehku see rohkeks
    üksteise ja kõikide vastu, nii nagu see meilgi on teie vastu,
    13 et kinnitada teie südameid olema pühaduses laitmatud Jumala ja meie
    Isa palge ees, kui meie Issand Jeesus tuleb kõigi oma pühadega. [Aamen.]
    4Kuula
    Jumalale meelepärasest elust
    1 Viimaks nüüd veel, vennad, me palume ja keelitame teid Issandas
    Jeesuses, et nagu te olete meilt saanud teada, kuidas teil tuleb elada
    ja Jumalale meeldida - nõnda te ju elategi -, et te selles veelgi
    enam edeneksite.
    2 Te ju teate, millised korraldused me teile oleme Issandas Jeesuses
    andnud.
    3 Jah, see on Jumala tahtmine: teie pühitsus, et te hoiduksite
    hooruse eest,
    4 et igaüks teie seast oskaks pidada oma astjat pühitsuses ja aus,
    5 mitte himude kires, nõnda nagu paganad, kes ei tea midagi Jumalast,
    6 et ükski ei oleks üleastuja ega petaks oma venda
    asjaajamises, sest Issand maksab kõige säärase eest kätte, nii nagu me oleme
    seda teile ka enne ütelnud ja tunnistanud.
    7 Jumal ei ole meid ju kutsunud rüvedusele, vaid pühitsusele.
    8 Seepärast siis, kes on selle suhtes hoolimatu, see on
    hoolimatu mitte inimese, vaid Jumala vastu, kes oma Püha Vaimu teisse annab.
    9 Aga vennaarmastusest ei ole vaja teile kirjutada, sest Jumal on
    teid endid õpetanud armastama üksteist,
    10 ja seda teie osutategi kõigile vendadele terves Makedoonias.
    Meie aga manitseme teid, vennad, et te veelgi edeneksite.
    11 Ja arvake auks elada vaikselt, ajada oma asju ning teha tööd oma
    kätega, nagu meie teid oleme käskinud,
    12 nii et te elaksite kombekalt nende ees, kes on väljaspool, ega
    oleks teil kelleltki midagi vaja.
    Surnute olukorrast
    13 Meie ei taha aga, vennad, et teil jääks teadmata nende järg, kes
    on läinud magama, et teie ei oleks kurvad nagu need teised, kellel
    ei ole lootust.
    14 Sest kui me usume, et Jeesus on surnud ja üles tõusnud, siis
    usume ka, et Jumal äratab Jeesuse kaudu üles need, kes koos temaga on
    läinud magama.
    15 Jah, seda me ütleme teile Issanda sõnana, et meie, kes me
    üle jääme elama Issanda tulekuni, ei jõua ette magamaläinutest,
    16 sest Issand ise tuleb sõjahüüu, peaingli hääle ja Jumala pasuna
    saatel alla taevast ning esmalt tõusevad üles surnud, kes on läinud magama
    Kristuses,
    17 pärast kistakse meid, kes me oleme üle jäänud elama, ühtviisi koos
    nendega pilvedes üles õhku Issandale vastu, ja nõnda me saame alati
    olla koos Issandaga.
    18 Julgustage siis üksteist nende sõnadega!

  • @dearthunderstorm4062
    @dearthunderstorm4062 9 місяців тому

    26:27

  • @harryloomus7486
    @harryloomus7486 2 місяці тому

    5Kuula
    Issanda päevaks valmistumisest
    1 Aegade ja tundide kohta, vennad, ei ole aga vaja teile kirjutada,
    2 sest te teate täpselt, et Issanda päev tuleb just nii nagu varas
    öösel.
    3 Kui öeldakse: „Nüüd on rahu ja kindel olek”, siis langeb äkiline
    hukatus nende peale nagu sünnitusvalud lapseootel naise peale, ja nad ei
    pääse pakku.
    4 Teie aga, vennad, ei ole pimeduses, nii et see päev saaks
    teid tabada nagu varas.
    5 Teie kõik olete ju valguse lapsed ja päeva lapsed. Meie ei ole öö
    ega pimeduse lapsed.
    6 Niisiis, ärgem magagem nagu teised, vaid olgem ärkvel ja kained,
    7 sest magajad magavad öösel ja joomarid on joobnud öösel.
    8 Aga meie, kes me oleme päeva lapsed, olgem kained, rõivastatud usu
    ja armastuse kaitserüüga ning päästelootuse kiivriga,
    9 sest Jumal ei ole meid asetanud viha alla, vaid pääste
    saamiseks meie Issanda Jeesuse Kristuse läbi,
    10 kes meie eest on surnud, et meie, kas me oleme ärkvel või
    magame, üheskoos temaga elaksime.
    11 Seepärast julgustage üksteist ja igaüks kosutagu teist, nagu te
    seda teetegi!
    Nõuandeid koguduse eluks
    12 Ent me palume teid, vennad, tunnustada neid, kes teie seas
    tööd teevad ja teid Issandas juhatavad ning noomivad,
    13 ja pidada neist armastuses üliväga lugu nende töö pärast. Hoidke
    omavahel rahu!
    14 Meie aga manitseme teid, vennad: noomige korratuid, julgustage
    pelglikke, aidake nõrku, olge pika meelega kõikide vastu!
    15 Vaadake, et keegi teisele kurja ei tasuks kurjaga, vaid taotlege
    alati head üksteisele ja kõikidele!
    16 Rõõmustage alati,
    17 palvetage lakkamatult,
    18 tänage kõige eest - sest see on, mida Jumal teilt tahab Jeesuses
    Kristuses!
    19 Ärge kustutage Vaimu,
    20 ärge põlastage prohvetiandi,
    21 katsuge läbi kõik, pidage kinni heast,
    22 hoiduge igasuguse kurja eest!
    Lõputervitused
    23 Aga rahu Jumal ise pühitsegu teid läbinisti ning teie vaim ja
    hing ja ihu olgu tervikuna hoitud laitmatuna meie Issanda Jeesuse
    Kristuse tulemiseks!
    24 Ustav on see, kes teid kutsub; küll tema teebki seda.
    25 Vennad, palvetage meie eest!
    26 Tervitage kõiki vendi püha suudlusega!
    27 Ma vannutan teid Issanda nimel, et see kiri loetaks ette
    kõikidele vendadele!
    28 Meie Issanda Jeesuse Kristuse arm olgu teiega!

  • @CliftonBowers-pc2xu
    @CliftonBowers-pc2xu 3 місяці тому

    Thank you...😮