The world ends three different ways in “The Seat of Our Pants” and humanity survives every time

Thornton Wilder won his third Pulitzer Prize for the 1942 play The Skin of Our Teeth. A comedy about mankind’s remarkable ability to survive the worst of catastrophes, it came along just as the United States was starting to enter World War II in earnest. Its sense of absurdity, with actors stepping out of their parts to complain about the show they were in, hit the right spot to provide a sense of hope in an uncertain time.

The Skin of Our Teeth has now been adapted into The Seat of Our Pants, a musical by playwright and composer Ethan Lipton, and it is on display for a short time at off-Broadway’s Public Theater. We follow the Antrobus family — father George (Shuler Hensley), mother Maggie (Ruthie Ann Miles), son Henry (Damon Daunno), once called Cain, and daughter Gladys (Amina Faye) — as they stumble through the centuries trying to build a better world. With them on their journey is Sabina (Micaela Diamond), their maid, who frequently complains to the audience that she doesn’t like her lines and can’t understand the plot — before the show’s stage manager (Ruth E. Sternberg) wearily snaps her back into character.

The first act has the Antrobuses facing an encroaching Ice Age, with freezing temperatures, wind gusts, and walls of ice heading for the family home in Excelsior, New Jersey.  George comes home from work with food, but he’s also brought home some refugees: a doctor; old Judge Moses; storyteller Mr. Homer, and three of the Muse sisters, among others.

To provide space for and feed the family and the refugees, Maggie pushes the family animals — a dinosaur and a mammoth — outside. Henry cannot resist hurling stones at anyone who sets off his short-fused temper, while Gladys is urged to be “perfect” to keep up her father’s spirits. As the lights fail, those inside the house huddle around the fire, singing to find hope and comfort in the chilly darkness.

Act two is set at the Atlantic City Boardwalk. The annual convention of the Ancient and Honorable Order of Mammals, subdivision humans, is taking place, and each of the other orders of animals has sent pairs of delegates as observers. George has been elected president of the humans, and the fame is going to his head. Sabina is now Lilly Sabina Fairchild, a beauty contest winner aiming to better her situation by seducing George into leaving his family for her.

As Henry and Gladys have their own rebellious flings, a fortune teller (Ally Bonino) warns of an approaching, potentially deadly deluge. As the heavens open up, the Antrobus family pulls back together, herding the pairs of animals onto a large boat. Sabina begs Maggie to save her, offering to be her maid. The Antrobuses, with Sabina and the animals, sail off to an unknown destiny.

The last act finds us at the end of a seven-year war which has laid waste to nearly everyone and everything. Maggie and Gladys are living in what was the cellar of their home. George and Henry fought on opposite sides of the conflict, each one the other’s mortal enemy. Sabina appears in fatigues as a member of George’s army, although her role was unclear. Gladys is now a mother with a young baby. Henry returns to his old home, aiming to find and kill George. The two meet and fight, but the emotions of the scene have aroused old traumas in the actor playing Henry. As the stage fight is on the verge of becoming real, the stage manager breaks them up. Sabina suggests to the audience that rebuilding the world is up to us to determine.

As directed by Leigh Silverman (Yellow Face, Suffs), the cast is freed to explore the absurdities, anachronisms, fourth-wall breaking, and biblical/mythological analogies in Wilder’s original script as adapted by Ethan Lipton. Along with Hensley, Miles, and Diamond, mentioned previously, kudos go to Andy Grotelueshen as The Announcer, another constant presence in all three acts. His vocal talents are showcased in the opening number, “The World Is Ending”; the second act opener “Everybody Loves to Go to Conventions”; and the finale, “We’re a Disaster”. Ally Bonino’s fortune teller is a humorous figure of impending doom, interacting with the audience in her song “The Future”. Ruth E. Sternberg calls on her decades of experience as a real stage manager to bring out the sardonic seen-it-all-before attitude of the Stage Manager.

Lipton’s score, covering 25 songs, is generally good, although not every number is memorable. The musical standouts include Maggie’s “Stuff It Down Inside,” her song of coping with life’s setbacks; the half-anthem, half-hymn “Into the Darkness,” sung by the cast as ice walls advance; Henry’s exculpatory “Cursed with Urges,” explaining his fatal fascination with stones; Gladys’ outburst at her father, “Poisoned My World;” “Ordinary Girl,” Sabina’s siren song of seduction; “In This Bottle,” Maggie’s song of hope that someone will learn from her family’s struggles; and “The Wonderful Thing About Ice Cream,” where Sabina explains her post-war satisfaction with ordinary pleasures like movies and frozen desserts.

The efforts of scenic designer Lee Jellinek, lighting designer Lap Chi Chu, and sound designer Drew Levy create a fluid set that magically changes from act to act before one’s eyes. Starting as a suburban New Jersey home in an ice age, it becomes the Atlantic City Boardwalk threatened by rising seas in a chaotic thunderstorm before changing into an apocalyptic battlefield. Their ingenuity is matched by the costumes designed by Kaye Voyce.

The original The Skin of Our Teeth provided humor and hope for the country during the early wartime years of the 1940s. The Seat of Our Pants, this updated musical version, seems to try to do the same in these politically unsettled times, based on the reaction of the audience with whom I saw it.

I encourage you to see this long-awaited musicalization of a classic theatrical comedy. Make your way to the Public Theater and see how we’ve managed to survive by The Seat of Our Pants!

The Seat of Our Pants is presented in the Newman Theatre at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St. in New York, through Dec. 7, 2025. For more information, or to purchase tickets, go to publictheater.org.