A Landmark’s Bumpy Road to Success

“Our Town’ was Thornton Wilder’s first full-length play. Unusual for its time, even considered experimental, the original production had a tryout performance on Jan. 22, 1938, at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, N.J.

The next morning, the company left for a two-week run in Boston, where the critics hated it. One wrote: “When we arrived the curtain was up and there was no scenery on the stage. We wondered if there was going to be a play. After watching for two hours, we still wonder.”

Martha Scott, who played Emily Webb, a principal role, recalls: “It wasn’t a big draw. There wasn’t much of an audience. And when people did come, they were confused. They’d get up and start to leave because the stage was empty. They thought there was a strike.”

Stunned by the low attendance, producer-director Jed Harris, who was regarded as a theatrical wizard, got two New York critics, Alexander Woolcott and Brooks Atkinson, to come see the Boston production. Deeply moved, they told him to cancel the second week and rush it to Broadway. Guaranteed that he’d be pleased by their notices, Harris canceled the second week.

Because of the terrible Boston reviews, however, the Shuberts, Broadway’s leading producers and theater owners, wouldn’t give him any of their New York houses. He found an interim booking for three weeks at the Henry Miller’s Theatre. It opened there Feb. 4, 1938.

The New York critics split between raves and quibbles. But, Scott recalled in an interview from her Van Nuys home, “People said, ‘Hey, we’d better get down there and see it before it closes.’ Nobody knew what was going to happen.”

Especially not when Harris--whom Laurence Olivier once called “the most evil man I’ve ever met in the theater”--had a mercurial reputation for foulmouthed rages that could turn to ice and a proven willingness to close a show abruptly if it wasn’t earning a profit. (In fact, Olivier modeled his legendary portrayal of Richard III on Harris, even making up his face to look like Harris’.)

The audiences grew. Three weeks later “Our Town” was transferred to the Morosco Theatre. “Tallulah Bankhead came and sat in the first row,” recalled Scott, who also played Emily in the 1940 “Our Town” movie. “There were lots of famous actors in the audience.

“When the stage manager [in the cast] closed the curtain at the end of the play and said, ‘Well, you can all go home now,’ nobody budged. They just sat there, bowled over.

“I could see Tallulah Bankhead take out her handkerchief and blow her nose. She was so moved. Finally, one of the ushers came down to the front of the house and told them the play really was over. It was incredible.”

“Our Town” won the 1938 Pulitzer Prize--consolation for Wilder, who did not get the New York Drama Critics prize that year.