The Fantasticks, in addition to being the longest running musical anywhere, is one of the most produced shows for regional theatre. Standing Room Only (SRO), one of Columbus’s storied repertory theatres, ends their 30th anniversary season with a production that doesn’t reinvent the wheel but shines light on what makes this show so enduring and so delightful.
The Fantasticks is an investigation of innocence. It traces the borders of naïvete, the limits of a family’s love, and not only what is lost in the shattering of the chrysalis of of youth but what is gained. In many ways, Tom Jones’ book has not stood the test of time, the oft-rhymed spoken sections feel stilted and corny in a way that’s less appealing than the songs. But as soon as those luminous, glowing songs (with lyrics by Jones and music by Harvey Schmidt) start, everything is forgiven.
The self-consciously theatrical presentation, using the tools of commedia dell’arte and vaudeville to both embrace the lushly romantic, out of time, aspects and wink at, nudge, and tease them still has a great deal of electricity. After the six principal cast members appearing during the overture to mug and wink at the audience, drawing out their characters in broad, wordless strokes, El Gallo (Chris Rusen) sings “Try to Remember,” the show’s standard and still one of the most beautiful ballads of the 20th century. The song sets the scene as one of nostalgia and so sets the play up as a long look back, the melancholy in “try” is key here – the shadows of the score are writ in the ambiguity introduced by losing touch with the Eden of paradise.
The use of El Gallo as both narrator and participant, though not a concept new to the theatre even then, still feels modern and fresh. It demands an actor who can integrate the romantic at his core with the shell of cynicism and even make the audience wonder if those two aspects are actually reversed. SRO found a perfect El Gallo in Rusen, his rich singing voice commands an audience and his physicality is vital to believing everything else. The corollary to El Gallo, and just as important, is The Mute, one of the clearest links to the earlier theatrical forms the show plays with – a silent actor who stands in for pieces of setting and scenery but also, with deceptively simple gestures and expressions, comments on what’s happening, the world casting judgment. Again, SRO outdid themselves, Alex Lanier is a revelation, charming, funny, and likable without every saying a word.
The young lovers are also beautifully cast. Sharon Kibe’s Luisa is beautifully insane, manic energy and one thought more explosive and new – to her – than the last, with a chiming voice that cuts through everything else happening. Lake Wilburn’s Matt is a perfect foil to her, a young man desperate to be both stable and wild, with a voice that blends with Kibe’s perfectly. Their fathers, setting the plot in motion by pretending to feud, are also extremely well-cast together and apart. Scott Bellomy’s doting, almost smothering father to both his plants and his daughter and Ron Nocks’ former Navy officer man of the world are clear elucidations of the innocence vs. experience theme. Their voices meld beautifully, helped by the fact that their two songs together – “Never Say No” and “Plant a Radish” – stand up as funny and wise meditations on fatherhood and shade from whence aspects of Matt and Luisa’s personalities appear and their song with El Gallo, “It Depends on What You Pay” is the pinnacle of the funny, frenzied energy of the show.
Steve Black’s direction is mostly very fine, keeping everything moving and keeping the audience’s attention where it should be with such a sparse cast and set. I’m not sure where choreography ends and blocking begins here but I wish they would have taken more chances in that regard, my one complaint with the way action is staged is that it’s often too static. With so few people on stage at any given time, a more kinetic approach could have smoothed over the moments where pacing seems to drag. My one serious complaint about the production was Aaron Dvorak as accompanist – for most of the performance it felt like he was rushing tempos, ignoring flourishes, and generally not reacting to anything on stage. For a show like this where Dvorak’s piano is the only music and the piano is on stage as though he’s part of the cast, that musical voice hit one sour note after another for me.
Those quibbles aside, anyone interested in a classical-styled musical with some phenomenal performances should make a point of seeing The Fantasticks and soon.
The Fantasticks runs through June 14. For tickets and more information, visit SROTheatre.org.