Almost, Maine
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Portland, Maine
| Almost, Maine | |
|---|---|
 Logo | |
| Written by | John Cariani |
| Date premiered | 2004 |
| Place premiered | Portland Stage Company Portland, Maine |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Romantic Comedy |
| [www | |
Almost, Maine is a 2004 American play written by John Cariani, comprising nine short plays that explore love and loss in a remote, mythical almost-town called Almost, Maine. It premiered at the Portland Stage Company in Portland, Maine, in 2004, where it broke box office records and garnered critical acclaim.[1] The play was published by Dramatists Play Service in 2007 [2] and has since become one of the most popular plays in the United States with nearly 100 professional productions and over 5000 community, university, and high school productions to date.[3] It has become one of the most frequently produced plays in North American high schools.[4][1] It has also received over twenty international productions and has been translated into over a dozen languages.[citation needed]
Almost, Maine was developed at the Cape Cod Theatre Project in 2002.[5]
It premiered at Portland Stage Company (in Portland, Maine) in 2004.[6]
Almost, Maine opened Off-Broadway at the Daryl Roth Theatre on 12 January 2006 and closed on 12 February 2006.[7] Directed by Gabriel Barre, the cast included Todd Cerveris, Justin Hagan, Miriam Shor, and Finnerty Steeves.[8] Though this run was brief, the play is featured in Smith and Kraus' New Playwrights: Best Plays of 2006 and was published by Dramatists Play Service in 2007.[2]
It is the most produced play in North American high schools over the past decade.[9]
Almost, Maine is now a novel, published by Macmillan.[10]
Reviews
The New York Times review of the play in 2006 was mixed: “A comedy comprising almost a dozen two-character vignettes exploring the sudden thunderclap of love and the scorched earth that sometimes follows, John Cariani’s play will evoke either awww-s or ick-s, depending on your affection for its whimsical approach to the joys and perils of romance.”[11]
The New York Times review of another production at TheatreWorks in Hartford in 2013 was positive: “John Cariani’s Almost, Maine is a series of nine amiably absurdist vignettes about love, with a touch of good-natured magic realism ... This is a beautifully structured play, with nifty surprise endings (most but not all of them happy) and passing references to characters from other vignettes, which slyly tell us more about them. Mr. Cariani describes the play’s subject as ‘falling in and out of love’. It is just as much about pain.” [12]
Reviews for Transport Group’s 2014 revival of the play were very favorable. The New York Post said: “Mega-hit ALMOST, MAINE lands somewhere between Norman Rockwell and ‘Our Town.’ Unabashedly unhip. There is no pretense of an edge here — the show offers a sweetness and decency that’s become rare at the theater. At this point, it’s a welcome breath of fresh air.”[13]
The New York Daily News said: “Almost, Maine’s charm is real. [It] packs wit, earns its laughs, and, like love, surprises you.”[14]
Awards and achievements
Featured in The Wall Street Journal’s regional roundup of must-see theater in 2004.[1]
Selected by the American National Theatre as one of the most outstanding regional theatre productions of the 2004-2005 season.[15]
![](#/media/File:Two_actors_rehearse_a_scene_from_"Almost,_Maine".jpg)
Featured in Smith and Kraus' New Playwrights: Best Plays of 2006.[16]
In 2014, Transport Group revived Almost, Maine Off-Broadway. Lincoln Center recorded the production for its Theatre on Film and Tape Archive.[1]
Dramatists Play Service recently published its 80th Anniversary Edition, a boxed set of 8 definitive titles representing each decade of the Play Service’s history. Almost, Maine was selected to represent DPS’ eighth decade.[17]
Almost, Maine was the fourteenth most streamed play of the Covid-19 pandemic.[18]