‘Our Town’ to Close

Nothing lasts forever in Grover’s Corners — and nor does any production of “Our Town,” Thornton Wilder’s play about life and loss in that fictitious New Hampshire community. On Tuesday the producers of the critically acclaimed Off Broadway production of “Our Town” — the longest running in the play’s 72-year history — announced that the show would hold its final performance on Sept. 12, more than a year and a half after its run began at the Barrow Street Theater.

David Cromer, the director of the production, will reprise his performance as the Stage Manager for the last three weeks of the run, starting Aug. 24. Helen Hunt (“As Good as It Gets”) is playing the Stage Manager through Sunday; from Aug. 3 to Aug. 22, Michael McKean (of last season’s “Superior Donuts” on Broadway) will play the character, as he did earlier this summer.

Four other actors have also played the Stage Manager during the course of the production, which began preview performances on Feb. 17, 2009, and opened that Feb. 26.

Mr. Cromer’s “Our Town” became the longest-running production of the play with its record-breaking 337th performance on Dec. 16, 2009, at the 199-seat theater in the West Village.

via artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com