'The Emporium' Off-Broadway review — Thornton Wilder’s unfinished play opens for business in NYC

Read our review of The Emporium off Broadway, Kirk Lynn's newly completed version of Thornton Wilder's final unfinished play at Classic Stage Company.

Summary

• The Emporium is an unfinished Thornton Wilder play (newly completed by Kirk Lynn) about a man who dreams of working at an elusive department store
• The show features a strong ensemble cast and also invites light audience participation
• The show is recommended for Thornton Wilder fans and people who like shows without an easy-to-define meaning

Thornton Wilder is easily one of the most recognizable names in American theatre history. He wrote three full-length plays, two of which (Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth) won Pultitzer Prizes, with the other (The Matchmaker) later adapted into the hugely popular musical Hello, Dolly! But even after such success, Wilder spent the last decades of his life working on just one more full-length play that was never to come to fruition — at least, not by his hands. That play is The Emporium, now in its NYC debut 50 years after Wilder’s death.

It’s thanks to playwright Kirk Lynn that The Emporium has come to light after all these years. Through Wilder’s journals, drafts, and letters (and the permission of the Wilder family), Lynn pieced together a full-length version of The Emporium. And while Lynn's script strives to honor what he thought to be Wilder’s original vision, it also intentionally bears the evidence of having been so long unfinished, like a sock that’s been darned over and over again. It’s clear by the text, and its delivery by the cast, that this entire production is an act of love.

Directed by Rob Melrose, The Emporium carries many of the folksy American references that fans of Our Town might look for: a humble protagonist named John (Joe Tapper), charmingly mid-century costumes (Alejo Vietti), a farm in “Middle of Nowhere, America,” and constant allusions to a “storm of the century” that is always just about to happen. Also adding to the folksy feel, audience interaction is a large part of the flow of the show. Depending on the scene, the audience represents kids in an orphanage, sheep on a farm, the coworkers at a company party, or even the stars in the sky. The participation is light — a sheep’s baa on command, a phone flashlight turned on at the right moment — but the fourth-wall-breaking is not, and the actors work to make it feel like every person in the room is a part of the show in some way.

The cast is a strong ensemble who play on each other’s strengths. Candy Buckley was an audience favorite on my night in every role she plays, from the scenery-chewing Mrs. Foster to the landlady methodically poisoning pieces of cheese and lobbing them at the feet of the audience to rid her boarding house of rats. Cassia Thompson is an ethereal presence as Laurencia, an employee at the elusive Emporium who falls for John despite having everything he can’t figure out how to attain.

The plot is barely there, looping back on itself with the barest concept of linear time, but the metaphor of the Emporium itself looms large — figuratively and also literally, in this case, in bright lights that take up most of the back wall. It’s up to audiences to figure out what the dream of the Emporium represents for John, Laurencia, and the rest of the Emporium employees, and that's all what Wilder apparently hoped for. Whether or not this show is for you may depend on your devotion to Thornton Wilder, your love of metaphor, or “a third thing” — that is to say, the undefined secret John searches for his entire life.

The Emporium summary

When he was an infant, John was dropped off on the steps of the Emporium, “the world’s most famous department store.” Sent off to an orphanage and adopted by a farming couple, John has always felt drawn to the allure of the Emporium. He runs away to the big city to chase his dreams, but when he arrives, he finds The Emporium — and the people in it — are far more elusive than he could have imagined.

Will he give up his dreams and go to work for Craigie’s Department Store, a place of pure practicality and steady wages, or will he stay true to his dreams and seek out the Emporium, where nothing is reliable but everything is exciting?

What to expect at The Emporium

Classic Stage Company is right by Union Square, offering theatregoers a relatively relaxed setting. The theatre’s front of house includes a fully equipped coffee shop, and audience members who arrive early can enjoy a beverage at one of the cafe tables while waiting for the house to open. The coffee shop also provides a nice setting for intermission, with people animatedly discussing the first half of the play over an espresso on the night I attended.

In Wilder’s many notes about The Emporium, Lynn discovered that the late playwright was toying with the unconventional idea of having a prologue after the intermission. It would be a cheeky way to reveal the metaphor of what the audience had already seen in the first act and may not have fully understood. In Lynn’s adaptation, each audience gets a choice: Do they want to hear the prologue or not? My audience voted to see the prologue, so before our second act, we were treated to a full explanation of the metaphor that is the Emporium, as best described by Lynn (since Wilder himself never actually wrote the prologue he imagined).

What audiences are saying about The Emporium

Audiences have been taking to theatre forums like Mezzanine and Reddit to praise The Emporium’s metaphorical story and the strength of the cast.

• “The story is more meandering and open to opinion but I found it magical and beautiful.” - Mezzanine user Claire Davies
• “The acting performances were uniformly strong…My audience voted not to see the prologue, and I’m so curious as to what it was!” - Reddit user u/2460OneDayMore
• “Lovely. Great performances by the cast. Whimsical.” - Mezzanine user DT

Who should see The Emporium

• Playwright Kirk Lynn says it in the script: The Emporium is for anyone who wants to read everything Thornton Wilder ever wrote, and the NYC debut of Wilder’s unfinished play is the perfect opportunity for it.
• Audiences who love Kafkaesque puzzles will enjoy parsing the meaning of the title department store and its mysterious employees... and why they all seem to hate Craigie’s Department Store so much.
• Theatregoers who prefer smaller theatres, removed from the bustle of the Broadway scene, will enjoy the cozy experience of seeing a show at Classic Stage Company.

Learn more about The Emporium off Broadway

The Emporium is a folksy, dreamlike metaphor that asks audiences to tease it out. It’s perfect for fans of Thornton Wilder to finally see the play he never finished.

Learn more and get The Emporium tickets on New York Theatre Guide. The Emporium is at Classic Stage Company through June 7.

Photo credit: The Emporium off Broadway. (Photos by Marc J. Franklin)