Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Season 1 finale of American Classic
Goodbye Millersberg, goodbye Richard Bean and goodbye American Classic — for now, at least. The acclaimed MGM+ comedy wrapped up its freshman season with a finale that offered a coup de théâtre… and a coup de television.
The eighth and final episode found Richard (Kevin Kline) following through on his promise to gift his hometown with an Our Town production for the ages. And the vain Broadway refugee honored that commitment by filling the cast with members of the local Millersburg community, including his brother Jon (Jon Tenney), his sister-in-law — and former lover and co-star — Kristen (Laura Linney) and his niece Miranda (Nell Verlaque).
As the play unfolds, the action onstage speaks directly to the concerns facing the citizens of the economically challenged town, not to mention those performing in the show as well. That mirroring of life and art will be instantly familiar to anyone who watched the late, great Canadian series, Slings & Arrows, which hailed from American Classic co-creator, Bob Martin.
But this Our Town ends on a cliffanger that’s not in the Wilder version. In the penultimate episode, Kristen revealed — in the most dramatic way possible, natch — that Miranda may, in fact, be Richard’s daughter thanks to a fling they enjoyed after her wedding to his brother. That revelation carries over into the finale with Miranda discovering the secret for herself even as Jon remains blissfully in the dark. But that changes in the closing moments when elderly Bean patriarch Linus (Len Cariou) belts it out for everyone to hear and the finale freeze-frames on their shocked faces.
“The episode always ended right there,” Linney reveals to Gold Derby, adding that she has yet to be informed how the opening moments of a potential Season 2 might play out as MGM+ weighs a renewal announcement. “If you hear anything, let me know,” she jokes.
But if and when American Classic returns, Linney has an idea for how to continue that paternity-related story thread. “When someone has kept a secret for such a long time, they’ve also made a decision to compartmentalize something,” the Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning star of John Adams and The Big C notes. “That affects the way they live their lives as well. That [secret] is one of many reasons why she has real issues with Richard at the beginning of the show.”
While we wait to see whether those issues will be resolved, Linney filled us in on Karen’s role in the Bean family dynamic and why we won’t be seeing a full version of American Classic’s take on Our Town.
Gold Derby: American Classic has been a reunion with you and Kevin three decades after you both shared the screen in Dave. What was the experience like coming back together again?
Laura Linney: Kevin is remarkable, and he’s always been a huge inspiration for me, even before I knew him. He’s a fellow Julliard alum and was so kind to me when we made Dave, which was one of my first [movie] experiences. We’ve run into each other throughout the years, and he’s always been very supportive and kind, so to be able to work with him on a daily basis over a long period of time was thrilling. He’s an acting titan at this point, as far as I’m concerned.
Richard Bean is an outsized character, and Kevin makes some big choices in the part. How did you modulate your own performance in response?
You do all your nerdy acting homework and just respond and react accordingly. [Laughs] My approach is to respond to what you see in the manner in which you think makes sense for the work and for the preparation you’ve done. And for the stuff that doesn’t work, you just throw it out the window. But Kevin’s choice all made complete sense to me, so there was nothing startling about it. It was invigorating and fun to try and keep up with him. His imagination is delicious. The other wonderful thing for me was working with Jon, who was a classmate of mine at Julliard. There’s something about the theater that inherently leads you back to family.
The central conflict between Richard and Kristen across the series seemed to be that he was the idealist and she was the pragmatist. Is that how you approached it?
Kristen is someone who sacrificed and is not always comfortable with what she gave up. And when you love someone, you always love someone. It changes over time, but you’re always haunted by those feelings a little bit, particularly with a big first love. She doesn’t want to be married to anyone else than who she’s married to, but that there’s a type of bond you have with a first love that doesn’t just go away. It ebbs and flows.
We learned midway through the series that Kristen made the decision to leave New York after Richard’s star grew and her own career stalled, and that’s another source of tension between them.
It’s very difficult to be an actor and deal with rejection. And being an up-and-coming actor in New York City is not an easy road. Kristen gave up, and Richard accuses her of abandoning them — and there’s some truth to that. The most difficult choice for any young artist to make is when to distance themselves from the things they love the most. That decision does inform the rest of her life.
I know what would have happened to me if I had made that choice — or, at least, I have a suspicion. And it’s not that her life was wasted by any means! She took what she knew from acting, and she turned it into a life of good work in local politics and community-based organizing, which is what the theater is to begin with. She gave up performing part of it, but certainly not the underpinnings of what’s important about public service and the arts.
Our Town provides the thematic spine of American Classic’s first season. What’s your own history with that play?
I have a very strong connection to that play. My grandmother played Mrs. Webb, and it was one of my father’s favorite plays. I also stage managed my high school production — I should specify that I didn’t play the Stage Manager, just stage managed the show. [Laughs] But I adore Our Town. It’s very easy to gloss over the depth of that play and what’s it’s saying in terms of all the complex psychological dynamics going on there. It’s a classic for a reason, and I love revisiting it because the play hits you differently at different phases of your life. And that’s the definition of a classic show; you can see it eight different times in eight different decades and it will hit you differently and powerfully every single time.
Did the cast film a full production of Our Town for the finale or just bits and pieces?
Just bits and pieces. We would’ve loved to have done the whole thing! The truth about Our Town is that even if the rest of the production isn’t so great, the last scene always wallops you. It rings a bell of truth in a way that’s undeniable and deeply moving.
We’ll have to wait and see how Miranda, Kristen and Richard restore their relationship in Season 2. But what was your experience working with Nell on crafting that mother-daughter relationship?
Nell is extraordinary and it was very, very easy to develop a wonderful relationship with her. There’s nothing that makes me happier than working with an incredibly talented younger person. It just fills you with just faith and makes you feel like life is going to be good.
