The Skin of Our Teeth (Broadway Theatre Archive)

Today Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) is likely best known as the author of OUR TOWN, a play so remarkably powerful and popular that statisticians declare it is performed some where in the world at least once a day. But Wilder wrote quite a bit more than OUR TOWN and indeed won two other Pulitizers: one for the novel THE BRIDGE OVER SAN LUIS REY and one for the play THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH.Written during the early 1940s, the THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH opened in New York in 1942--a point during World War II in which Japan so dominated the Pacific and Germany so dominated Europe that it seemed possible Allied forces might not win the day. Then as now, it was a very strange play: highly theatrical, highly mannered, and it broke new theatrical ground for American audiences in more ways than one could count. Most critics liked the play a great deal; so too did most audiences. But the ones who did not like the play were very emphatic about it, and to this day it is part of Broadway folklore that a taxi driver in need of a fare had only to drive to the Plymoth Theatre, where he could easily pick up somebody storming out early on the show.The play is not easily described. Characters speak directly to the audience; actors break character and argue among themselves; and although in some respects they seem to be living in modern America in other respects they seem unstuck in time, shifting from one historical epoch to another. In Act One the characters face encroaching glaciers of the ice age. In Act Two they are confronted with a flood of truly Biblical proportions. Act Three finds them digging out from the aftermath of a great war. In each instance they have escaped extinction "by the skin our teeth"--and so the play is not so much about the disasters mankind has faced but about mankind's strength, durability, spirit, and hope.The 1970s and 1980s saw a major upswing of interest in Wilder's works, and this 1983 production of TEETH was at the crest of the wave. Over the years the play has attracted such talents as Tallulah Bankhead, Frederick March, Mary Martin, Montgomery Clift, and Helen Hayes; the cast of this production, which was broadcast live, is no less fine and includes Blair Brown, Harold Gould, and Sada Thompson. And it is a rarity, for it actually manages to capture the feel of a live stage performance. The players are memorable, Wilde's lines are given maximum reign, and everything unfolds with a sweep and pagentry that is both grandiose and niave. Even so, the play is flawed in two significant ways.Rue McClanahan is truly a gifted actress, but the role of The Fortune Teller in Act Two is hardly her shining hour. She plays as a cross between Mae West, a classic New Jersey girl, and a casino floozie. The role is pivitol to both Act Two and the overall play, and while McClanahan performs full force and with tremendous energy she actually has the effect of derailing the significance of the role and creating a speed bump in the play's path. Even more unfortunate, however, is the extraordinarily dark way in which Act Three has been interpreted. Granted, Wilder's script is indeed a dark comedy with act three the darkest point, but director Jack O'Brien has pushed the darkness to such an extent that it is not so much comic as profoundly depressing--and it effectively destroys the ultimate point of Wilder's script. It is an instance in which the director has imposed a meaning upon the play that does not exist in the play itself.Even so, given the performers, the designs, and the script itself, this is one show that fans of Wilder in general and the play in particular cannot afford to miss. Recommended with the noted reservations.GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Far more experimental, and much less popular than "Our Town," Thornton Wilder's "The Skin of Our Teeth" (1942) Has long been a subject of debate among critics. Was Wilder realizing his fertile imagination over the breadth of the development of the human race, was he showing off in spite of himself and his own worries over the play, or did his reach simply exceed his grasp? This version, produced by Broadway Theater Archive won't answer any of those questions, but it will give you a faithful presentation of something probably very close to Wilder's vision. Performed before a live audience, the cast is uniformly excellent: Harold Gould as Domestic Everyman, Sada Thompson as Domestic Everywoman, Rue McClanahan (who eventually found fame as one of "The Golden Girls"), and, in an early, head-turning performance, Blair Brown. For an evening of provocative, emotionally uneven, but well-executed theater, this may be your cup of tea.

This is one of those productions where the director and actors dislike the play. They insert self-indulgent scenes where they explain why they don't like it. They make clear that they're sorry they came and make the audience feel the same way. People unfamiliar with the play might conclude that it is not very good. "The Skin of Our Teeth" is actually a wonderful play. It shows Wilder's free-flowing imagination and ability to see through convention and express the essential. If you do buy this DVD, save yourself some frustration and skip the extra scenes inserted at the beginning of acts one and three. What remains is really quite good.

reading group; big success

WARNING: This play will stick in your mind! Its message is particularly apt now that the world family of Antrobus has experienced the Covid pandemic.

Our play-reading group recently finished doing this play so I bought this video to show the group.I've previewed it and think it's a great job and gives the feel of watching an actual theater performance.(The original "TSoOT" play, produced in the early 1940s when news was disseminated through earlier means, has been nicely, unobtrusively revised to be more up-to-date with people getting news from TV rather than the then current radio -- and movie newsreels such as "March of Time" shorts.)I'll update this with our group's reaction after they see it next month.

I'm not a huge fan of this play. I have seen 2 different live productions and would give each one a 3 star rating. But this archive presentation is by far a wonderful journey. I am a huge fan of Rue McClanahan and Harold Gould and this production shows them at their best. Very well done.

An outstanding production of this play. I suspect Wilder would have been thrilled.

This is a good buy for anyone who remembers Blair Brown as the attractive red headed forty something in "The days and nights of Molly Dodd". Obviously an accomplished actress , the short skirts and at times flirty behaviour of Brown offer a reminder of why she was called "The thinking man's bombshell".This is a stage play recorded live and the aditional interaction with the audience at times during the play gives a sense of experimentation and risk taking that takes some getting used to for someone like myself who is not a regular theatre attender.The play title refers to the ability of the human race to survive everything from ice ages , recessions and wars and as such as an optimistic aura that perhaps doen't sit well in our more cynical times.Nevertheless it is worth buying to see actors acting on a stage in front of an audience playing roles they clearly relish.