David Bianculli

She's terrific, funny, touching, totally natural.

And when she takes the stage as Emily in Our Town, she's heart-wrenching.

The playwright Thornton Wilder is served magnificently here.

And so is the playwright William Shakespeare, whose works and words Kevin Kline gets to tackle in more than one inspirational scene in this series.

I don't want to reveal too much about the conflicts and surprises in American Classic, but please trust me, the more episodes you watch, the better it gets.

The characters evolve and go in unexpected directions and pairings.

Klein's Richard starts out thinking only about himself, but ends up just the opposite.

And if, as Shakespeare wrote, the play's the thing, the thing here is, the plays we see and the soliloquies we hear are spellbinding.

And there's plenty of fun to be had outside the classics in American Classic.

The table reads are the most delightful since the ones in Only Murders in the Building.

The dinner table arguments are the most explosive since the ones in The Bear.

Some scenes are take-your-breath-away dramatic, others are infectiously silly, as when Richard worked with a cast member forced upon him by the angel of this new Our Town production.

She's Nadia, the angel's Russian girlfriend, and Richard tries to loosen her up with an improv session.

Elise Kilbur plays Nadia, and for her too, this should be a breakout role.

Take the effort to find and watch American classic.

It'll remind you why, when it's this good, it's easy to love the theater and television.

On the web at theschmidt.org.

This is Fresh Air.

I'm David Bianculli.

Neil Sadaka, the singer and songwriter whose recording and performing career stretched from the 1950s to the current decade, died last week.