FANTASTICKS REDOUX

            Well, if your suddenly confronted with a new musical in town and you haven’t seen it for centuries, what do you do? You go see it. This fantastically ageless musical has been kicking around for 41 years. I saw the original production with Jerry Orbach & Friends when I was kid, back in 1960 – or thereabouts. Try to remember, that’s easy: the songs enrapture, the idea of props coming out of a trunk remains viable, and the universality of its characters and simplicity of plot,  with its fun-loving references to Shakespeare, highly theatrical.  You can’t help falling in love with the show again. Even if your supposedly well polished sophistication demands that you settle down and spy glass it.  

The Downtown Cabaret Theatre in Rochester has managed to keep alive by splitting itself in two.  Sort of like the aging actor and his sidekick in The Fantasticks, they survive by making ends meet and frequently do so with panache. Producing director Christopher F. Kawolsky has two venues running simultaneously. He keeps the theaters going with excellent one-person shows written and performed by the gifted Will Stutts, and tightly woven, small cast comedies and musicals.   

            The Fantasticks is a work of magic. No doubt about it. Eminently suitable for a cabaret environment. Audiences are full of old timers. But you can also see parents with their teenage children, and young people enamored with how close the feelings produced by the musical are like their own.    

            Just about everyone knows the old ruse that parents use to get their kids together. Pretend that you want to keep them apart by building a wall between them. That’s the theatrical premise upon which the musical is built. This lucky lottery ticket for romance has been true for The Fantasticks since Eisenhower was President, and Tom Jones (book and lyrics) and Harvey Schmidt (music) were theatre students at the University of Texas. The show has racked up a 19,465% return on an initial investment of $16,500, Which goes to show you that being a theatre student sometimes pays off.  

 “El Gallo”, pronounced “Guy-O” -  as the lead character continuously reminds us - sets the tone for the musical  from the beginning. Anything can happen and does. Intimacy and magic, the kind of hush hush revelation occurring when a narrator charms the life out of an audience, dominates the stage.  El Gallo’s believability is dependent upon his being intimate with a truth. Let the truth be told: no matter how well parents plan for their children the best laid plans….

At the Downtown Cabaret Theatre Stephen Valahovic’s “El Gallo” looks the part, moves well enough, and has a good voice, especially in the bass range.  Only the clutter of the opening ritual in this production prevented him from capturing the initial moment necessary to riveting our attention and sustaining the show. Actress Julie Harris noted that if you don’t get the right sensual opening moment down pat,  it can plague you for the rest of the evening.  

Well, good news, the  show did not fall apart. By the time it rolled merrily around to the second act, The Fantasticks captured the essence of stand and deliver. Mainly because the young lovers sang their hearts out, and their parents, guided by El Gallo, kept the ruse on tack.   

Brynn Luca’s portrayal of Luisa, the Girl, revealed luminescence,  vulnerability and zest. Ms Lucas has a fine singing voice and a sparkling  stage presence. And her moments of woe were clearly realized without pretense. Ditto her partner, Matt, the Boy, performed by Timothy Paul Evanicki. He could easily be the local, nondescript supermarket boy who carries out groceries to your car. Mr. Evanicki wins you over with a soft touch and continues to gain impact as the show goes on.  

The two young lovers singing the lovely reconciliation duet,    “They Were You”, captured the touching reality of  adolescence maturing into a truer kind of love. Unfortunately  Mr. Evanicki’s costume looked like a Tae Kwon Do  kick around outfit. I wanted to see the youth brought up-to-date. He might have worn a turned around baseball cap, sloppy pants and oversized sneakers.  At least his Dad might have recognized him.  

Speaking of parents, Cory W. Clines, as the Girl’s Father, came off with a kind of mellow Lou Costello delivery. He hopped around the stage with half believing, partly sarcastic, bewildered good will. Donald Tirabassi, The Girl’s Father, played a tall counterpoint to the parental hijinks. The two fathers singing “Plant a Radish” were a little short of that classically  comic turn with garden snips.  They were best in their trio with El Gallo. “It Depends On What You Pay” is a song that is funny and revealing. Disclosing the slightly sleezy manipulation of parents making a deal with a slick entrepreneur of masks, the scene has a contemporary ironic feel. Yet it’s a compliment to the common sense of the musical that it can still come off with good humor and a knowing nod.  

The Mute (Arron McGill), an Ariel figure,  who carries the magic dust and spreads it around the stage like snow,  missed the mark. Mr. McGill has had ballet training. But he lacked the poetic wisdom of a mime. Mime might have given him the edge of creating a wall out of nothing but air, and capturing the changing weather of the young couple’s lives. He was effective up on a  ladder conducting his emotionally potent young charges with poignant gestures.    

Two clowns belly up the theatricality of the musical. Henry, The Old Actor (Ed Scott) and Mortimer, Henry’s Sidekick (Mark Scott Almekinder) have a wonderfully conceived routine that has become a hallmark of the stage. In a death scene equal to anything in Shakespeare; including but not limited to “Hamlet”, Mortimer dies and goes on forever. Dying on stage has something to do with the longevity of getting away with it. I only wish Mr. Almekinder had extended the dying a little longer. Even God might have taken time off for a peak. Shows you what an actor can do if given half a chance.  

Its good to see The Fantastiks again. It brings close to the heart  the kind of September that leads to December and the time to remember is now.  

© 2001 Ned Bobkoff

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Winter 2001