“You know how it is. You’re 21 or 22 and you make some decisions and then WHISSSH — you’re 70.” — Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town”
What a pure joy it is to witness the estimable Kevin Kline so beautifully playing a beloved actor not unlike Kevin Kline in the sweet-natured, nourishing MGM+ series “American Classic.” This is curl-up-on-the-sofa comfort viewing at its finest, a “Forced Fresh Start” redemption arc story in the tradition of “Northern Exposure,” “Hart of Dixie,” “Schitt’s Creek,” and “Ted Lasso.”
We know the formula, and it works quite well here: An unexpected event sends our lead character(s) to a seemingly idyllic locale, where they reunite and/or meet a colorful cast of characters whose lives turn out to be more complex and layered than one might initially surmise. Cue the hijinks and the misunderstandings, the setbacks and the disappointments, the laughter and the tears. “American Classic” hits all those notes and sometimes falls into predictable patterns; we can see one major plot twist coming right down Main Street USA. Still, it works marvelously as a testimonial to small-town life with all its triumphs and struggles, and a love letter to every local theater company that stages production after production out of sheer love for the theater, with no thoughts of fame or glory or financial bounty.
Kline is enormously appealing, affecting a whisper of a 1930s Mid-Atlantic thespian’s accent as the acclaimed film and theater actor Richard Bean. The full-of-himself Bean is starring in “King Lear” on Broadway, but has lost much of his zest for the work, as evidenced by the earpiece he relies on to receive his lines. At the show’s after-party, Richard gets sloshed and confronts the New York Times chief theater critic, Xander Young, who hasn’t given him a positive review in a decade, and Xander’s husband, Troy, and things get so ugly that the moment goes viral, resulting in Richard getting booted from the play. (In a nice touch, Xander is played by Stephen Spinella, who won consecutive Tonys for the “Angels in America” duology, while Troy is played by Aaron Tveit, Tony winner for “Moulin Rouge!”)
Laura Linney in “American Classic.” (MGM+)Next comes the phone call from Richard’s brother, Jon (a wonderful Jon Tenney), informing Richard that their mother, Ethel (the great Jane Alexander), has passed away. For the first time in three years, Richard makes his way home to the tree-lined and comfortable (and fictional) town of Millersburg, where the Bean family has owned and operated the Millersburg Festival Theater (MFT) for decades. Richard soon learns things have changed in good ol’ Bedford Falls, er, I mean Millersburg. Some of the townsfolk are struggling to make ends meet, the MFT has resorted to staging dinner theater productions such as “Nunsense” and “Forever Plaid” to keep the doors open, and a Potteresque developer named Connor Boyle (Billy Carter) wants to open a garish casino entertainment complex that will practically swallow the town whole.
Brainstorm time! At his mother’s funeral, Richard declares that he will stage a production of the American classic “Our Town” to restore the MFT to its glory days—but instead of following Thornton Wilder’s time-honored, high school-budget friendly stage directions of “No curtain, no scenery,” this version will include a horse, and a field, and a soda fountain…and, and, RAIN!
What could possibly go right?
Tony Shalhoub in “American Classic.” (MGM+)The ensemble in “American Classic” is spectacularly good, led by the always masterful Laura Linney as Jon’s wife Kristen, who is now the mayor of Millersburg; the Broadway icon and virtuoso character Len Cariou as Richard and Jon’s father, Linus, who is in the early stages of dementia but is still capable of dispensing timely wisdom; and Nell Verlaque in a star turn as Richard’s niece, Miranda, who will soon be heading off to college, but has dreams of following in her uncle’s footsteps and becoming an actor in New York.
As the episodes roll on and auditions and rehearsals begin, with Richard relying on local amateur actors as his cast, the series cleverly draws parallels between many of the residents of this town and the roles they’re playing in “Our Town.” Along the way, we get some gentle but whip-smart social commentary comedy, as when the teenage Miranda tells Uncle Richard, “The world is…falling apart. It’s different from when you guys were young,” and Richard deftly replies, “We had the Cold War, we had the bomb, we had race riots, we had Richard Nixon, we had the Vietnam War.”
There’s also this: we are treated to Kline performing Shakespeare here and there, e.g., a monologue from “Hamlet” when he tries to secure a loan from the bank, and a pivotal moment when Richard is addressing the cast during a particularly challenging time and says, “This reminds me of ‘Henry V,’ the Battle of Agincourt, and he launches into a brilliant performance of the famous St. Crispin’s Day speech (“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers…”)
Yes, it can be a bit contrived, and we can feel the tug at our heartstrings—but it’s a sentimentality well-earned. If the fictional town of Millersburg were to suddenly spring up in real life, I would quickly be planning a summer trip there to take in the next play on the bill at the fabled MFT.
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