September 6, 2026: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler

It’s not often that film can offer what theatre does: the feeling of something live and in the moment. And when the subject matter is the theatre itself and the do-or-die spirit that goes along with those who embrace it as their profession, the chance to get it right in television or on film is rare (though last year’s Hamnet, with its magnificent finale, scored a direct hit). Appropriately, when something like Hamnet succeeds, cheering from the rooftops is the proper response. So, here I am, roaring at the top of my lungs to tell you about the glorious American Classic, a new TV series starring such theatrical royalty as Kevin Kline, Laura Linney, and Len Cariou.

Premiering six months ago on the MGM + streaming service, it has a current 94% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Excellent, but with that percentage coming from only 18 posted reviews, it’s obvious that it isn’t being watched by many people. Hopefully, there may be a change in the wind as Amazon, parent company to MGM +, has recently made it available to all paying members of its widely subscribed Prime service, which is how I found it. Note: if you’re not an Amazon Prime subscriber, the entire eight-episode, half-hour series can be purchased for $19.98 or, for one penny more, on Apple TV for $19.99. Literally—it's worth every penny.

In the wrong hands, the premise of American Classic could have come across like a passable Hallmark TV-movie. Its plot? An out-of-touch egotist fucks up and gets themselves canceled, leading them to their hometown and a reawakening of their principles and purpose. The keen advantage here are co-creators, Bob Martin and Michael Hoffman, both with roots in the theatre (Martin is a double Tony Award winner for co-authoring the book score to 2006’s The Drowsy Chaperone). They are just the right pair to come up with a show that harkens back to Martin’s sterling work on Slings and Arrows (2003-06), the Canadian series he co-created about a small troupe of Shakespearean players, which introduced the world to Rachel McAdams. Hoffman, classically trained and who founded a Shakespeare company in his youth, is a film director capable of both the high drama of The Last Station (2009), about the last days of Leo Tolstoy—landing Oscar nominations for Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren—to the lowbrow Soapdish (1991), with Sally Field, Robert Downey Jr. and Whoopi Goldberg. Also in that screwball comedy was Kevin Kline, hilarious as an actor very much in line with American Classic’s thespian par excellence, Richard Bean.

This marks the fourth time Hoffman and Kline have collaborated. As Nick Bottom, Kline led an all-star cast in 1999’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with Hoffman both adapting the text and directing. Three years later, Hoffman directed The Emperor’s Club (2002), a prep school drama in which Kline played teacher to Emile Hirsch. In Soapdish, his and Hoffman’s first time working together, Kline’s character is so down on his luck as an actor that he is forced to play Willy Loman in a dinner theatre production of Death of a Salesman. With American Classic—in yet another example of how the mighty can fall—Kline is a Shakespearean actor who goes from his opening night on Broadway in King Lear to directing a community theatre production of Our Town.

Due to his outsized ego and tendency to alienate even his friends, Bean is a rather lonely figure in whom Kline explores every facet of his nobility as well as his thin skin. After a video goes viral of him accosting a theatre critic while drunk at the opening night party of his Lear, the actor is forced to lay low. Timing makes the decision on where to hide an easy one; his mother dies suddenly the following morning (“Did she see read the review?” he asks). Returning home for the funeral to the fictional Millersburgh, Pennsylvania, an inevitable series of events demand that this man-baby attempt to save the failing theatre founded by his parents, where he once learned his craft at their feet. His father Linus (Len Cariou), is in the throes of dementia and kept by the family from the news of his wife’s death, while his brother Jon (Jon Tenney) is desperately trying to keep the theatre afloat with spit and sealing wax, in tandem with his wife Kristen (Laura Linney), who was once the love of Richard’s life before marrying his brother. Add to that Jon and Kristen’s teenage daughter Miranda (Nell Verlaque), a budding actress with talent to burn and more than a few minor things in common with her theatrical uncle.

Naturally, they must put on a show to save the day (again, in the wrong hands, this could have been beyond precious). Here is where the title comes into play since the choice of what to produce is Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, considered by many (me included) the greatest of American classics. Wilder’s unadorned theatricality in the piece serves as a simple metaphor for how we strive to achieve balance in our brief time on this planet. It remains deeply profound and, in tribute to the writing, the series concerns itself with the multitudes of feeling that bubble freely to the surface among its amateur players as they delve into their parts. Serious questions about the past, present, and future result in confrontations that sing so strongly that the series might have even worked as a musical. Smartly, by its utilization of Our Town, Hoffman and Martin bring out the very best in Wilder, which makes for a sincere pleasure, especially after a misguided 2024 Broadway revival which regrettably did not trust the minimalism required. I can’t tell you how good it feels to return to Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, even on the small screen.

As an example, just watch this short scene and savor it. No intro necessary.

It’s been no secret for the past fifty years that Kevin Kline is one of our finest actors. Renowned for playing Hamlet, Richard III, and even Falstaff, Kline not only excels at Shakespeare, but at Shaw, Coward, and Chekhov (all of which I have been fortunate to see him play on Broadway). His talents in the musical theatre know no bounds as well; his Pirate King in Pirates of Penzance in the early 80s was a truly extraordinary performance of highly skilled athleticism and silent-screen comedy. Trained in the first acting class at Juilliard (Group 1), he hit it big with his scene-stealing supporting turn in the musical On the 20th Century (1978), which won him the first of his three Tony Awards. On screen, he is one of the few actors to win an Oscar for a broadly comic performance (A Fish Called Wanda), light years from his first role on screen, the schizophrenic Nathan Landau in Sophie’s Choice. In American Classic, Kline is clearly in his element spouting Shakespeare and assimilating the panache of Cyrano de Bergerac, another of his classical triumphs onstage.

Kline is ably joined by fellow Juilliard grads Laura Linney and Jon Tenney (both class of 1990), who have each done exemplary stage work over the years. As Kristen, Linney brings her A-game to the fore (has she ever given a bad performance?). If nothing else, tune in to see her do a mean rendition of “Hey, Big Spender” (is there anything she can’t do?). Tenney, a severely underrated actor, is gifted with a terrific role here, creating a warm, yet damaged guy, who loves his family with all his heart. Len Cariou, eighty-seven years old at the end of the month, imbues the role of Linus with enormous dignity and charm. It matters little that in real life, he’s a mere 8 years older than Kline (I, for one, refuse to believe that Kline is going to be seventy-nine next month). Their real-life ages do nothing to make you believe anything other than they are father and son.

All the supporting players are first rate, especially Nell Verlaque, a very special young actress who stood out in last year’s breakout comedy TV-series Overcompensating, also on Amazon Prime. Not only does she act the hell out of young Miranda, but she also sings and portrays Our Town’s Emily in such a heart-breaking fashion that you will wish to see her perform the entire play. New York theatre veterans Jessica Hecht, Matt McGrath, Joseph Morales, Stephen Spinella, Aaron Tveit, and, in a brief cameo, the forever transcendent Jane Alexander, are on hand to power out the company. Also, who doesn’t love a little Tony Shalhoub for some extra spice?

American Classic serves up a delicious reminder of the transformative nature of the theatre and its ability to heal. I binged it in four hours straight and it made me feel like I’d been paid a visit by the angels. And if my stating that does nothing to improve the number of people watching, I may have to start ringing doorbells.

Ron Fassler is the author of The Show Goes On: Broadway Hirings, Firings and Replacements. For news and “Theatre Yesterday and Today” columns when they break, please subscribe.