Review: OUR TOWN at Hale Centre Theatre is a Quiet Little Miracle
OUR TOWN plays through October 19, 2026.
OUR TOWN on Hale Centre Theatre’s new Miller Family Beehive Stage has a gentle dignity that tugs at your attention and your heart strings, keeping you intensely interested in the everyday lives of ordinary people and immensely invested in their happiness.
OUR TOWN by Thornton Wilder is a classic Pultzer Prize-winning drama that premiered in 1938 and was most recently revived on Broadway in 2024. Set at the turn of the 20th century in the small village of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, it chronicles love and loss through the commonplace moments in the lives of its citizens, and especially the adolescent George Gibbs and Emily Webb and their families.
This production is a quiet little miracle with wistful direction by Dave Tinney, elegiac scenic design by Jenn Taylor and projections by Madeline Ashton, and evocative costuming by Kim Wright and lighting by Jaron Kent Hermansen. The contemplative performances carry you along with them across the minutes and years.
Michael Hohl as the Stage Manager (double cast with Josh Richardson) guides the proceedings with a firm hand and gentle heart, elucidating facts and feelings with equal gravitas.
Timothy Quesenberry as George Gibbs reflects both the joy of youth and the hopelessness of uncertainty. Becca Ashton as Emily Webb is both grounded and filled with wonder. (Both are single cast.)
Other strong performances include Cecily Ellis-Bills as Mrs. Gibbs (double cast with Eden Benson), Sanford Porter as Dr. Gibbs (double cast with David W. Eggers), Becca Ingram as Mrs. Webb (double cast with Shawnda Moss), Ben Parkes as Mr. Webb (double cast with Bradley Moss), Jayne Luke as Mrs. Soames (double cast with Keri Vance), Jared Stewart as Simon Stimson (double cast with Jason Andrew Hackney), and Davey Morrison as Professor Willard (double cast with Brett Myers).
Just like life itself, OUR TOWN will make you think and laugh and weep, and it cannot come more highly recommended.
OUR TOWN plays through October 19, 2026. For tickets, call the box office at 801-984-9000 or visit www.hct.org.
Photo Credit: Hale Centre Theatre.
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