Video: Jim Parsons Talks Building Community With OUR TOWN Cast

Jim Parsons, star of the new Broadway revival of Our Town, says he knew right away that he wanted to do the show.

"This is one of those opportunities when somebody comes and asks you to do it, you just do it and hope for the best," the actor explained on a recent visit to the Today Show. Parsons plays the Stage Manager in the show, a character that serves as a commentator, existing largely on the outskirts of the drama. Parsons said that, upon being asked to play the role, it was an immediate "yes."

"It has been the most incredible experience so far. I've never worked on a more beautiful play in my entire life," he shared. He also explained how director Kenny Leon would open up the floor during the rehearsal process to allow for the sharing of new ideas and observations about life.

"It was a twofold thing...Keep your eyes open and observe the 'towns' that you're coming from...and [it was] for all of us to communicate with each other and become our own community." Parsons likened it to hypnotism, adding that the cast has become a "tight, loving group of people that feels like a real community."

Our Town is currently in previews at the Barrymore Theatre and will officially open on October 10, 2024. Watch the full interview now!

About Our Town

The new Broadway production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town directed by Tony Award-winner Kenny Leon, features 28 actors led by Emmy, Golden Globe & Screen Actors Guild Award-winner Jim Parsons as “Stage Manager”, Zoey Deutch as “Emily Webb”, Katie Holmes as “Mrs. Webb”, Obie & Audelco Award-winner and Drama Desk-nominee Billy Eugene Jones as “Dr. Gibbs”, Tony & Grammy Award-nominee Ephraim Sykes as “George Gibbs”, Tony & Drama Desk Award-nominee and Emmy-Award-winner Richard Thomas as “Mr. Webb”, Tony & Drama Desk-nominee Michelle Wilson as “Mrs. Gibbs”, 2021 Special Tony Award-winner and Drama Desk-nominee Julie Halston as “Mrs. Soames”, Donald Webber Jr. as “Simon Stimpson”, as well as Ephie Aardema, Heather Ayers, Willa Bost, Bobby Daye, Safiya Kaijya Harris, Doron JéPaul, Shyla Lefner, Anthony Michael Lopez, John McGinty, Bryonha Marie, Kevyn Morrow, Hagan Oliveras, Noah Pyzik, Sky Smith, Bill Timoney, Matthew Elijah Webb and Nimene Sierra Wureh.

The design team for Our Town includes scenic design by Tony Award-winner Beowulf Boritt (New York, New York; Act One,), costume design by Tony Award-nominee and Drama Desk Award winner Dede Ayite (Jaja’s African Hair Braiding; Topdog/Underdog), lighting design by Tony  Award-nominee Allen Lee Hughes (Topdog/Underdog; A Soldier’s Play), sound design by Tony  Award-nominee Justin Ellington (Ohio State Murders; for colored girls…) and the dialect coach  will be Kate Wilson (The Shark is Broken, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window). 

Our Town, the timeless drama of life in the mythical village of Grover’s Corners, New  Hampshire, has become an American classic with universal appeal. Thornton Wilder’s most frequently performed play, Our Town appeared on Broadway in 1938 to wide acclaim, and won the Pulitzer Prize. From the very beginning, Our Town has been produced throughout the world. 

Our Town explores the relationship between two young Grover’s Corners neighbors, George  Gibbs and Emily Webb, whose childhood friendship blossoms into romance, and then culminates in marriage. When Emily loses her life in childbirth, the circle of life portrayed in each of the three acts of Our Town–growing up, adulthood, and death–is fully realized. Wilder offers a couple of chairs on a bare stage as the backdrop for an exploration of the universal human experience. The simple story of a love affair is constantly rediscovered because it asks timeless questions about the meaning of love, life, and death. In the final moments of the play,  the recently deceased Emily is granted the opportunity to revisit one day in her life, only to discover that she never fully appreciated all she possessed until she lost it. “Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you,” she says as she takes her place among the dead.