Entertaining `Fantasticks' runs smoothly despite bumps
The story begins with Luisa and Matt, two children who have rebelliously fallen in love despite an apparent feud between their parents. What the lovers do not know is that their parents are not enemies, but the best of friends. The feud was just part of a plan to bring the two children together.
In order to cement the relationship, the parents hire a group of actors to stage an abduction so that Matt has the opportunity to impress Luisa with his courage, and that the parents, overcome with gratitude, can end their "feud." Once the wall between the families is gone, the lovers can live happily ever after, right?
Nope. When the element of danger is gone, the love loses much of its appeal. The families begin to fight in earnest, and the course of true love becomes markedly less smooth.
Directors Adrian Crowne and Erin Newman have assembled a strong group of actors and singers. As the lovers, Cathie Deans and Jonathan Pearl bring life and depth to what could easily have been cardboard characters.
Deans has a natural, relaxed and strong stage presence, and her Luisa is consistent and believable.
Pearl makes Matt's potentially incredible transformation from a love-stricken, "beardless, callow" boy in search of madness into an experienced, world-weary man seem natural. Both performers have excellent voices, and their duets are among the musical highlights of the show.
Jesse Jou and Marla Smith play the parents with great energy; Jou in particular is hilarious (watch his facial expressions). While their voices are not as strong as Dean's or Pearl's, Jou's and Smith's musical numbers are entertaining due in large part to energetic choreography. Kristofer Barber plays El Gallo, the play's narrator and Luisa's "abductor," with great cape-swinging panache. Barber's strong voice and presence help him give the seductive and powerful El Gallo a jaded air appropriate to the narrator of this story.
Giving a needed blast of kinetic comic energy to the show are Dennis Huston as the inept Shake- spearean actor Henry, and Ryan Plumley as Mortimer, "the man who dies" (and does it well). The two work extremely well together, and their scenes, though short, are among the show's funniest and most enjoyable.
Finally, there is the ever-present Mute, played by Natalie Kirilcuk. Although she never utters a word, Kirilcuk's mute performs her prop setting and dispensing duties with fitting stoic grace and a perpetual poker-face.
Despite strong performances, the production had problems. As of the final dress rehearsal, the show's lighting, designed by Drew Ellis, was in need of fine-tuning. These technical problems should be ironed out by the time the show opens.
The choreography runs the gamut from excellent -- particularly "Round and Round" in Act II -- to clunky, and at times the actors seemed unsure of their next lyric or movement. The directors generally do a good job of keeping the actors and the show moving, but the pace sometimes lags between plot points. In the end, it is the strong performances that carry the production over its rough spots.
Hanszen's The Fantasticks , although occasionally uneven, is consistently entertaining. Although the course of love may not run smoothly, it does, at the very least, run.
This item appeared in the Arts & Entertainment section of the November 10, 1995 issue.
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