My first experience of The Fantasticks, by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt (and this version at the Snapple theatre, directed by Tom Jones himself) was over ten years ago, when my friend was the stage manager down at the Sullivan Street Playhouse. I only knew the song “Try to Remember,” nothing whatsoever about plot, as mine must have been the only high school in America that did not select The Fantasticks to put on (we got Godspell instead.) At the time, I didn’t know what to make of it, as it smacked of a “Let’s put on a show with a curtain,” sort of feel, but I couldn’t say that to my friend, as he had comped my ticket. Also, I wound up dating him.
Anyway, the same friend is now in the show, we are no longer dating, and I saw it again last night. I was prepared for the same old, same old, and I was as surprised as you might be to read this: I genuinely like the show. The cast was fresh, appealing and altogether wonderful. The score is still lovely. The curtain is the same, but it doesn’t matter: there is a genuine sweetness to this version of The Fantasticks that the one I saw ten years ago lacked. And everyone in the cast is on the same sweetness wave.
Boy (Nick Spangler) meets Girl (Erica Piccininni) and they fall in love. Judging by the wall built to prevent the two from seeing each other, it looks like their fathers, Hucklebee (Gene Jones) and Bellomy (Steve Routman) respectively, do not want this match, but what they are doing is idiotic reverse psychology: they built the wall to increase the unrequited love of their children, and know that by saying no, their children will defy them and wed. The finale to all this is an abduction scenario, perpetrated by El Gallo (Dennis Parlato) and his “helpers”: The Old Actor (John Thomas Waite) and The Man Who Dies (John Shuman). The energetic mute (Jordan Nichols) rounds out the cast.
I could go into all the trouble these two old, delightful codgers cause, but that’s not really the point. Enjoy the number “Plant a Radish” Jones and Routman have (and are obviously relishing) together, and nod along with the rest of the audience to all the complaints about raising children. Listen to “Try to Remember” and just try not to be lulled into nostalgia by Parlato’s splendid voice; plus, it’s nice to see a foxy El Gallo, in a dashing James Brolin kind of a way. Witness the young, complicated, delirious love of Boy and Girl, and just try not to be enchanted. Piccininni is particularly fine at the child/woman switch, and has a wonderful voice to match. Not to be outdone, Spangler’s bravado and then weariness once he experiences the world is touching, and he has the singing chops to match. For extended comic relief, try not to laugh when The Old Actor hams it up in a Shakespeare kind of way, rolling Geilgud, Olivier and hambone into one (and Waite is affecting, too, as he’s being shut out from the light). As his sidekick, Shuman has a most unusual voice, used to great effect: both have brilliant comic timing, and I was saddened when they left the stage.
There is not a saccharine nor sarcastic note throughout the entire show, and that is the way The Fantasticks must be played. So there is it: it was not the same-old, same-old. This cast was as invested in this show and score as any I’ve seen. May it run another 40 years. Oh, did I tell you who my friend was“ I didn’t, did I?
