In American Classic, Laura Linney Sings a Showtune and Affirms Her Love for Theatre

When Laura Linney was in college, she tried to not be an actor. “Everyone always tells you, ‘If there's anything else you can do, if you don't have to be in the theatre, go do something else,’” recalls the four-time Emmy winner. “And so I listened to that advice, and I went into areas of speech pathology and working with children with auditory issues. I loved that work. But I realized after a while that I really needed to go back to the theatre.”

Indeed, though Linney has a wide-ranging career in film and television, she always returns to the theatre—she’s even been nominated for a Tony Award five times. So it feels right, for her newest project, she’s combining her two loves. In American Classic, a new television show currently streaming on MGM+, Linney plays Kristen, a mayor of a fictional Pennsylvania town called Millersburg who also happens to run a community theatre. Things go awry when her Broadway star brother-in-law, played by Kevin Kline, returns to town. After receiving a negative review for his King Lear on Broadway, Kline’s Richard Bean has a public meltdown, goes home, and takes over his family’s theatre.

Therein lies the conflict: Kristen wants to focus on more commercially viable projects, while Richard wants to focus on the art. Hearing Linney shout to Bean, with the fullness of her vocal instrument, “Forever Plaid and Nunsense saved our ass!”—it inspired cackles in this theatre lover.

The first season of American Classic follows the Millersburg denizens as they come together to put on Our Town. The show’s filled with Broadway favorites: Tony Shalhoub plays a talent agent, Jessica Hecht plays a set designer and Richard’s ex-wife, Len Cariou plays Richard’s actor father, Jane Alexander plays Richard’s late mother Ethel, and Aaron Tveit plays a very snarky gay partner of a theatre critic.

For someone whose childhood was spent in a community theatre in New Hampshire, American Classic felt warm and familiar, says Linney: “My father [playwright Romulus Linney] would rent a house during the summers, and he was an apprentice at a small theatre called The New London Barn Playhouse, which is still going and going very strongly, from what I understand,” says Linney, smiling warmly at the memory. “And so I begged him, when I was way too young to be a part of that theatre. They let me be a technical apprentice. So I was running lights and running around backstage at a very young age. I broke every child labor law known to man, and I loved it.”

American Classic, executive produced by Linney, is created by a team of theatre devotees: Michael Hoffman (a film director who also ran the Idaho Shakespeare Festival and Boise Contemporary Theater) and Bob Martin (The Prom bookwriter who also created the theatre-themed television show Slings & Arrows). Coincidentally, Martin also co-wrote the book for last year’s Smash on Broadway, which was based on the cult favorite television show of the same name that follows the creation of a musical. You can say that theatre workplace comedies are his specialty.

Says Martin: “This is a different sort of take on the same [theme], on the role of theatre in our lives … With Slings, we were able to dig into the relevance of these characters and situations and monologues created hundreds of years ago by William Shakespeare. Here [with American Classic], we’re looking at different works in the American theatre canon and being able to say: ‘Maybe you should be listening to this material now, given the situation we are in. We are all human. We are all the same in some way.’”

Considering how short-lived both Smash and Slings & Arrows were, you’d think a theatre show would be too niche for anyone to understand. Indeed, six years ago, when Martin and Hoffman were first pitching American Classic around Hollywood, seven different networks said no. But one said yes: Michael Wright, the head of Epix (now MGM+). He used to act in community theatre productions.

That’s the key to the universality of American Classic, says Martin: “Even if they're not working in this profession, everybody has an experience either doing theatre in high school, doing community theatre, or being moved by something they saw.”

Martin and Hoffman were intent on making the show not about the glitzy world of Broadway but about something closer to home for viewers: community theatre. Right after they got the go-ahead from Wright, they approached Kevin Kline to star as Richard—Hoffman had worked on three projects with Kline. They tailored the role to him, incorporating stories from his career; the moment in episode one when Richard has to be physically pushed onto the stage for King Lear—that happened to Kline. Notes Hoffman, with affection, “Kevin always is funny when he's playing high status and it's being taken apart and chipped away at. Being a star coming into town and seeing all of his foibles and all his arrogance—Kevin can do that and remain really charming.”

Jon Tenney, who plays Jon Bean and Kristen’s husband, and Laura Linney signed on soon after. They became the three main anchors of the show, and it helped that they were friends prior: Linney and Tenney both went to Juilliard, while Linney met Kline when she played a bit part in his 1993 comedy film Dave.

“I actually got to work with him as someone freshly out of school, and he was so kind to me,” remembers Linney. “And you don't forget that when you're just starting out … I was so happy to get the time with him that I did [on American Classic]. He's remarkable. There's no one in the world like Kevin, and he is so good in the show.”

Granted, despite the yeses from its leading players, it still took years for American Classic to make it to the screen. The COVID-19 pandemic, the 2023 SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild Strike, and Epix's rebrand to MGM+ delayed things for years; American Classic didn’t start shooting until summer 2025 in New Jersey. The Art Center in Maplewood became the Millersburg Festival Theater.

But during the shoot, misfortune threatened to derail the show further.

On the first day, Harris Yulin—who had been cast as Richard’s father—had a heart attack; he died days later. So as shooting began, Hoffman and Martin also worked with casting directors Bernie Telsey and Kristian Charbonier to find a replacement for Yulin. 

Tony winner Len Cariou quickly said yes to the role of Linus Bean, patriarch and founder of the Millersburg Festival Theater who comes out as gay late in his life. “A lot of things were written out—we did a lot of improv in the early workshop, and Harris had a real gift and real connections with Kevin,” says Hoffman, emotion in his voice. “So the fact that Len could come in and so successfully take that over has been one of the miracles and blessings of the process.”

So there were admittedly tough days during the shoot. But there are fun days, too, whether it was getting to witness Kline deliver a monologue from The Tempest, or seeing Kline and Tenney sing "The Impossible Dream" a cappella. 

One memorable scene in episode four requires Linney herself to sing “Hey Big Spender" to a set full of people. As someone who has never dreamt of musical theatre stardom, Linney admitted she “tried to get out of it a few times,” she chuckles, “and they wouldn't let me. It's really not about [Kristen] being a great singer. It's just about her being put in an awkward situation. And does she sink or swim? So she sort of doggy paddles.” Though when viewers see Linney do it on screen, she commits so completely that the moment comes off as charming instead of cringe. Raves Hoffman, “She does a good job.” Though Linney is more humble, saying, “I was very relieved when it was over.”

American Classic is about theatre, but its 30-minute running time per episode is a fraction of the length of a typical play. That means that every episode of the eight-part first season goes down very easily (this writer finished season one in one evening). That’s by design, says the creators. While Smash was associated with the term “hate watch” to describe its “so bad it’s good” quality, the team at American Classic wants their show to be a comfort watch.

As one character, a teenager named Miranda (played by newcomer Nell Verlaque) bemoans to Richard: “Democracy is dying. People hate each other. The world is just falling apart.”

So how do we process a nonsensical and cruel world? Through art, which reminds all of us of the beauty that humans are capable of. Says executive producer Ellen Fairey: “A lot of people came up to me at the premiere and said, ‘This is the show we need right now. This is what the world needs.’ It's not cynical. It's hopeful, it's very funny, but it's also moving and smart … It's very comforting, and I think we're all craving that.”

The climax of the season is when the theatre—despite financial setbacks, interpersonal drama, and last-minute cast replacements—puts on Our Town. A group of people that were previously disconnected from each other become a community. American Classic is an ode not just to the art form of theatre, but also its power to bring people together.

If they get renewed, Hoffman and Martin want future seasons of American Classic to follow a different production (they can see one season being devoted to Death of a Salesman). 

And in the process, perhaps this television show made with immense love can remind everyone of the importance of the arts: as economic engines for small communities, as the birthplace of creativity for future artists, as an antidote in today’s divided times.

Muses Hoffman: “I grew up in this Evangelical Christian family, which I intuited from pretty early on was not where I was going to find my bliss. So I and the theatre became this alternative family. Theatre and family and theatre and community have always meant the same thing to me. A community of people telling stories to each other is so central to what the human experience has been [for] forever. I can imagine a theatre [television] show would feel niche, but when you're going back and talking about reclaiming the soul of a community through art, which may seem like the most absurd thing in the world.... I guess I'm naive enough to really believe in the possibility.” As theatre fans, don’t we all?

The first season of American Classic is streaming weekly on MGM+, with the finale episode releasing April 12.