David Cromer at the KC Rep 2014-2015

As part of the Kansas City Rep’s 50th Anniversary season, artistic director Eric Rosen brought in his buddy David Cromer to stage his brilliant version of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, which ran for years off-Broadway but has also been seen in other cities like London and Boston. Cromer ended up doing double duty when Gary Griffin dropped out of directing Tony Kushner’s Angels in America because his production of the new musical version of Honeymoon in Vegas transferred to Broadway.

While Cromer’s Our Town (seen in September 2014 with a mix of KC actors and alumni from previous stagings) remains heart-breaking stuff (I’ve written about it before), his take on Angels in America was disappointing to say the least (after all, he made his name with an early production of Angels in Chicago). The cast in KC was outstanding, each and every actor, but the staging unfortunately was mostly boring and sometimes completely awkward. The set consisted of three huge "stone" steps with a backdrop of colored clouds for every act except the first act of Part 1 (why?). Each scene took place on one of the three steps with set pieces carried/rolled on/off rather slowly since each "step" wasn't that wide.

The Mormon Visitor's Center diorama scene highlighted it, but the visual effect was of each scene as its own diorama given the narrow playing space on each step. I'm not sure if that was the intention (and I think that’s making it sound better then it came off), but it wasn't the least bit theatrical. The only scene I can think of that may have benefited from this setup was when Harper crawled down from the top step to first merge her dream/hallucination with Prior's on the lower step. But, overall, the whole piece just didn't flow and many scenes felt "off." I really feel Cromer was at a disadvantage here in such a large proscenium theater as the Copaken Stage. Thankfully, the KC Rep put his Our Town AND the audience on the stage of their other, deep thrust theater (the Spencer on the campus of UMKC) with the space’s regular seating blocked off.