'Our Town' remembers Paul Newman

Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman speak to the press about the Westport Country Playhouse production of 'Our Town' in May 2002. (file photo)

The last role which Paul Newman played on Broadway was one in which he chose to speak to us more about ourselves than about Paul Newman.

It was a gift to the community he loved - Connecticut, New England, America - in a time of mourning: the aftermath of 9/11. Like an old friend, the actor - who died in September - knew that the only words that matter are those that allow us to remember, each of us in our own way, not only what we have lost but what we still have. Next weekend, the community will gather once more to feel his consoling touch as the film made from the 2002 Westport Country Playhouse production of "Our Town" will be screened at a series of special events celebrating Newman's life.

Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" is probably the most beloved of American plays - and has been since it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1938. Legend has it that there is a production somewhere in the world every night. There is a reason it survives: At the heart of the small-town lives of Grover's Corners, N.H., is a longing so fierce that no human being is ever safe from it. Life is short; why don't we appreciate each moment?

"The play questions what we do with our time, how we use it, the things that we ought to be looking at that we forget to look at. How gloriously special getting through the day ought to be," Newman told a New York Times reporter in 2002.

After 9/11, Newman's wife, Westport Country Playhouse Artistic Director Joanne Woodward, searched for a play that could help people make sense of things. She had always wanted to do "Our Town" and long wanted to get her husband back on stage. Newman agreed to play the Stage Manager, a role Wilder had played at the Playhouse in 1946. She called friend and director James Naughton and asked if he would do it. According to a PBS interview, Naughton joked: " 'Our Town'? Paul Newman? I'll have to call you back."

The Stage Manager tenderly comments on our visit to Grover's Corners, taking us into tiny, yet key moments of the lives of its inhabitants, particularly Emily Webb and George Gibbs who meet as children, fall in love and marry. When Emily dies in childbirth, we follow her not only into the afterlife, but as she gets her wish to revisit one ordinary day of her life, her 11th birthday. The simple looks of joy and pride on her parents' faces sear into her heart and ours - it is impossible not to remember a similar moment in your own life, and wish you could hold on to it forever.
There is another such glance in this production, near the end, Newman's unforgettable blue eyes looking directly into the camera as he says: "Everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings."

After the Westport run, Newman insisted the show move to Broadway - it was his first time back on the Broadway stage in 38 years and it would be his last. Luckily the production was filmed for television, so that we'll have more than the memory.

Community gatherings are scheduled on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Nov. 19, 20 and 21, at 7 p.m., with the screening of "Our Town" at 8 p.m.; and Saturday, Nov. 22, 1 and 6 p.m., with screenings at 2 and 7 p.m., respectively. Tickets are free and although the events are sold out, a wait list will be available during each of the pre-film gatherings, one hour prior to the screening time. People must be present at the Playhouse to place their name on the wait list. At screening time, unclaimed tickets will be issued to those on the wait list, subject to availability.