Thornton Wilder’s The Emporium has been reconstructed at Classic Stage (photo by Marc J. Franklin)
THORNTON WILDER’S THE EMPORIUM
Classic Stage Company, Lynn F. Angelson Theater
136 East 13th St. between Third & Fourth Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through June 7, $46-$116
www.classicstage.org
In his Pulitzer Prize–winning plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, Thornton Wilder offers his unique perspective on America and the human condition, two lasting works that are revived and reinterpreted regularly. So when playwright Kirk Lynn began doing extensive research on Wilder after seeing David Cromer’s revelatory 2008 version of Our Town at Barrow St. and discovered an unfinished play, called The Emporium, he knew he had to complete it. And with the permission of the Wilder estate, he did just that.
After opening in Houston in 2024, the production moved this spring to Classic Stage, another exploration of the American dream that could be told only by Wilder — and Lynn, who fills the play with self-referential meta-commentary that can be both fun and confusing.
“‘Terrible news. It’s cancelled. Go home.’” Those are the first lines of this play. It’s called: The Emporium. It was written by Thornton Wilder. I want you to know the first lines, so you’ll know when it begins,” John (Joe Tapper) says at the start. “This is a preface. Like the front of book.” He gives a short biography of Wilder, followed by a summary of Lynn’s discovery of the long-lost work, which had twice been announced that it was going to Broadway with Montgomery Clift.
Lynn and director Rob Melrose’s adaptation shifts unevenly between the fictional setting of the play, about John, an orphan boy raised in the country who is trying to make it in the big city, represented by two competing department stores, and the making of the play itself. Early on there are tables filled with what represent Thornton’s pages, reminding us how Lynn had to construct the narrative. John reaches into one of the boxes and lifts out a baby. “So playful and strange. It’s definitely Wilder’s. How could he abandon it?” he asks.
The story then kicks off, the tale of that infant, who works on a farm and then heads out in search of his dream, deciding whether to work at the Emporium, a classy if stuffy story that believes in quality and history and cares about its customers, or Craigie’s, a more populist company that has parties all the time and demands little from its employees or consumers. The Emporium’s color is blue, while Craigie’s is green, the latter more interested in money than people. “You want regular, go work at Craigie’s Departmental. Nothing to distract you and everything’s perfectly clear,” Mrs. Graham (Candy Buckley), the farmer who raised him with her husband, tells John. “At five o’clock you can go home. Yes, sir, you can work at Craigie’s fifty years and any night you like, you can go home and hang yourself.”
A talented cast and cool mannequins breathe life into unfinished Thornton Wilder play (photo by Marc J. Franklin)
Things get complicated when John falls for Emporium counter girl Laurencia (Cassia Thompson), who needs to find out what the word astroclated means so she can understand a note she got from the firm’s mysterious directors, Mr. Gillespie and Mrs. Schwingemeister. Meanwhile, Mrs. Frisbee (Mahira Kakkar), Miss Coley (Eva Kaminsky), and Mr. Benjamin (Patrick Kerr) from the Retreat for Retired Department Store Workers have arrived to see the play and offer their thoughts, seated on the stage. “You don’t belong here!” orphanage superintendent Mrs. Foster (Buckley) declares. “We won’t be in the way,” Mr. Benjamin promises, coughing. Mr. Foster (Derek Smith) then asserts, “Enough! We’ll try to do something with you at intermission. Until then, put your chairs against the wall and show me you can act like an audience. It’s hard enough to get the attention of these juvenile pre-incarcerates —” referring to the regular audience.
A bottle of tincture serves as varying kinds of liquids. Characters discuss the differences between immediate pleasure, delayed gratification, and a third thing. Audience members are asked to bleat like sheep and are yelled at. A complaints/donation box is passed around. A vote about what happens next in the play is taken during intermission. More is learned about Thornton Wilder. And the future of the Emporium — the store and the play — is in jeopardy.
The Emporium is a bouncy, jubilant, and confounding show. Walt Spangler’s set is anchored by a large neon-style sign of the logo of the title store, Alejo Vietti’s costumes have a timeless quality, and the cast has a ball, particularly Tony nominee Smith (The Green Bird, The Lion King) and Drama Desk nominee Buckley (The Petrified Prince, Thoroughly Modern Millie), who plays multiple roles with comic delight.
Lynn and Melrose (The Servant of Two Masters, Born with Teeth) keep the audience involved throughout this absurdist satire of life in America centered around business in the big city. It’s not going to win a Pulitzer, and it’s not all Wilder, but it’s a charming piece of theater, whether you’re looking for delayed gratification, immediate pleasure, or whatever that third thing may be.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]