Wilder’s Unfinished ‘The Emporium’ Opens at Classic Stage Company to Skeptical Reviews

Overview

• Classic Stage Company is presenting Kirk Lynn’s adaptation, now running through June 7 after a 2024 world premiere at Houston’s Alley Theatre.
• Reviewers say the script feels rambling and unresolved, though they credit director Rob Melrose’s careful staging and Walt Spangler’s bold set of giant THE EMPORIUM letters.
• Performances draw consistent praise, with Joe Tapper in the lead and veterans Candy Buckley and Derek Smith singled out for standout character work.
• The production invites audience participation, including a lobby vote on whether to hear a conceived-but-unwritten prologue, group bleating, and cellphone “astroclating.”
• Critics report a two-hour-and-15-minute running time and frame the effort as a thoughtful but bumpy excavation of Wilder’s Kafka-inspired, long-abandoned project preserved at Yale’s Beinecke Library.