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Peer Reviews
THE
FANTASTICKS
Reviewed by Craig Nolan Highley
Entire contents are copyright © 2007,
Craig Nolan Highley. All rights reserved.
"Try
to remember the kind of September,
When life was slow, and oh so mellow..."
Those are the opening lyrics of The
Fantasticks,
the longest-running off-Broadway show in history.
When they were first sung more than forty years
ago, they were meant to invoke pleasant memories
of days gone by. Ironically, they have taken
on a whole new meaning in the post-9/11 world.
And that is a shame, because the show itself
was never intended to be anything more than light,
escapist entertainment dealing not-so-subtly
with life and love.
The As Yet Unnamed Theater Company captures the
original show's fun-and-games spirit with its
current production. Directed with a deft touch
by Sandy Richens Cohrs and Amanda Davenport, the
show delivers the goods while keeping the vision
of its creators (Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt)
intact. The set is a sparse stage with a bare minimum
of scenery and props, and the audience is reeled
in by little more than the inventive staging and
considerable charm of the performers.
The boy-meets-girl/boy-loses-girl/boy-gets-girl-back
story is ingenious in its simplicity: two fathers
pretend to be in a feud so that one's son will
fall in love with the other's daughter. To seal
the deal they hire a band of actors to stage an
abduction, baiting the boy to rescue the girl and
ensuring their eternal happiness. Then in Act Two
we learn that life isn't so easy as happily ever
after.
The show is well cast, and the actors give their
all. There are several very good performances and
a couple of uneven ones, but none that could be
considered bad.
Unquestionably the best of the lot is Gary Tipton's
portrayal of the narrator and El Gallo. Make no
mistake, this is Tipton's show. His pitch-perfect
voice starts off the proceedings on a high note
with "Try to Remember," and keeps things
rousing with "It Depends On What You Pay." He
effortlessly dominates every scene that he's in.
J. T. Taylor and Richard Ray are a hoot as the
scheming fathers, and their number "Never
Say No" is a highlight. Also fun are Ian Ellis
and Eddie Dohn as a pair of has-been actors hired
to stage the abduction.
Rachel Knight is lovely as Luisa, the girl. She
conveys the character's naiveté without
making her a complete airhead (no easy feat), and
she sings her songs beautifully. Not fairing quite
as well is Josh O'Brien as Matt, the boy. My first
impression was that his voice wasn't up to the
challenge of his character's songs; in his duets
with Knight and Tipton, he was difficult to hear.
But he redeemed himself later with the song "They
Were You." His rendition on that number was
quite moving.
Overall, the production moved along at a brisk
pace. The only really noticeable problem was that
the musical number "Round & Round" seemed
to devolve into confusion by the end, and a couple
of the actors used some annoying personal tics
(such as one actor who overused flailing hand gestures
while another poked out his bottom lip to convey
every strong emotion).
Several full scale musicals have been done in the
MeX, and they have ranged from truly horrible to
absolutely wonderful. They are difficult to pull
off in a small black-box theater, but As Yet Unnamed
has created a show of which they should be proud.
The Fantasticks
The As Yet Unnamed Theater Company
Performed at the MeX Theatre at the Kentucky Center
for the Arts
Tickets (502) 584-7777
May 18-27, 2007
http://ayutc.blogspot.com/
Posted May 21, 2007
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