Kenny Leon’s starry revival of Thornton Wilder’s classic 1938 portrait of everyday life, Our Town, features a diverse, multiethnic cast, but doesn’t hit you over the head with a message of inclusion or “wokeness.” Susan Miller took on that theme with her own adaptation of the play, called It’s Our Town, Too which incorporates gay couples into Wilder’s Grovers’ Corners. Leon adds a few 2024 touches such as opening the play with the company taking selfies, listening to a cacophony of music of different faiths (Justin Ellington did the masterful sound design and Abraham Jam wrote the song that incorporates the various prayers). There is a Jewish star and a Moslem moon among the gravestones in the final act which deals with death. But otherwise, the in-demand Tony winning director presents Wilder’s tribute to family and community largely intact and without heavy-handed directorial frills.

His staging is straightforward, stressing the touching love story between George Gibbs and Emily Webb which encapsulates Wilder’s eternal tale of birth, love and passing on. While this production does not achieve the devastating impact of David Cromer’s 2009 Off-Broadway production which made the final act into a hyper-realistic recreation of Emily’s childhood, Leon’s staging stands with previous memorable Broadway revivals in 1988 (with Spalding Gray) and 2003 (starring Paul Newman in his final stage role) in its beautiful simplicity.

Jim Parsons of The Big Bang Theory fame enacts the Stage Manager, the play’s narrator, with little inflection or characterization. He indulges himself with a sly twinkle in his eye and an ironic reading of a line or two which may be considered outdated, but his Stage Manager is mostly an observer of the small town. He allows the audience to draw its own conclusions on the universality of Wilder’s theme—that human beings are the same everywhere and at every time. The focus is on George and Emily, played with depth and feeling by Ephraim Sykes and Zoey Deutch.

The couple make the journey from first love to last rites, detailing all the significant stops along the way. Skyes, who was the stand-out in Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, proves he is equally strong with dramatic material as he is in musicals. He’s convincing and touching as a rowdy teenager whose main interest is baseball, a young man developing a sense of responsibility, and finally a shattered husband suffering the loss of his wife. Deutch is equally layered, especially as she re-experiences Emily’s twelfth birthday in the climactic final act.

Billy Eugene Jones, Michelle Wilson, Richard Thomas and Katie Holmes bring warmth and humor to George and Emily’s parents. Donald Webber Jr. imparts reams of subtext as the troubled, drunken choirmaster Simon Stimson. Reliable Julie Halston makes the most of Mrs. Soames, who enjoys weddings to the point of near hysteria.

Beowulf Boritt’s rustic, rough-hewn set incorporates audience members seated in pews onstage, evoking churches and town halls. Dede Ayite’s contemporary costumes place us in the present though the residents all look as if they’re attending a picnic at a summer resort. Allen Lee Hughes’ atmospheric lighting creates the perfect homey glow for this heart-warming Our Town.

James Ijames’ Good Bones at the Public Theater also takes on the importance of community and largely succeeds in exploring the conflict between gentrification and besieged minorty neighborhoods. His basic concept is sound, with several fiery clashes between his quartet of characters, representing different interests as the forces of change and social inequity threaten an African-American urban district. Ijames’ previous work at the Public, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Fat Ham which later transferred to Broadway, was an innovative metatheatrical flight of imagination, parodying Hamlet and skewering toxic masculinity and sexual stereotypes. Good Bones is strictly representational—Maruti Evans’ gorgeous set includes a literal kitchen sink. The playwright also introduces supernatural elements, but barely develops them. His plot also feels somewhat sketchy so that Good Bones seems like a rough draft rather than a completed project.

Upwardly mobile African-American couple Aisha, a marketing exec, and Travis, a chef, have moved back to Aisha’s old neighborhood with dreams of renovation and renewal. Their contractor Earl also grew up in the same area which was rife with crime, but also full of connected, caring neighbors. The hood is currently undergoing a transition, a condition Earl fears and resents. When it’s revealed Aisha is on the team to bring a gigantic sports arena (nicknamed the Death Star) to the environs, Earl tries to make her see she is betraying her roots and destroying a vibrant network of families. Earl’s sister Carmen, an ambitious college student, enters late in the play, bringing her own concerns and conflicts.

The climactic confrontation between the quartet at a dinner party to celebrate the completion of Earl’s work is a scintillating, pitched battle with each side armed with valid arguments and passions. Aisha has strong points to make about her horrifying experiences in the projects, countered by Earl’s pleas for understanding and how African-Americans constantly get the short end of the stick. This final extended scene is intense and riveting but the hour leading up to it lacks drama and spark. The author interjects the idea of ghosts, but does not explain sufficiently who is haunting the house and what their objectives would be.

Saheem Ali delivers a proficient job of staging, building tension to the explosive dinner party. I enjoyed his gradual revealing of Evans’ magnificent kitchen design by having the characters take down a few tarps and plastic curtains at a time.

Susan Kelchi Watson as Aisha, Mamoudou Athie as Travis, Khris Davis as Earl and Tea Guarino as Carmen each detail the internal struggles of their roles with subtlety and depth, but Good Bones feels like it needs further renovation.

Our Town: Oct. 10—Jan. 19, 2025. Barrymore Theater, 243 W. 47th St., NYC. Running time: 100 mins. with no intermission. telecharge.com.

Good Bones: Oct. 1—27. Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., NYC. Running time: 90 mins. with no intermission. publictheater.org.