'The Fantasticks' Lands in the Dark

No, it does.  Literally.

The Porchlight Music Theatre opened its 15^th anniversary season this month with The Fantasticks.  Based on Edmond Rostand's Les Romanesques with music by Harvey Schmidt and a book and lyrics by Tom Jones, this classic has produced Broadway standards such as "Try to Remember."  The Fantasticks is simple parable about love and all of its intricacies.  Our Romeo and Juliet-esque heroes learn through the difficulties of maturity that fulfillment is found no further than their own backyard in each other arms.  The current production is running at the Theatre Building Chicago now through November 15, 2009.

This current production of The Fantasticks is beset with numerous problems. The Fantasticks is an intimate show; however, it is swallowed by the vastness of the West Stage, where this production is currently located.  This problem was not solved by the staging either. The West Stage is a Thrust, which the actors only acknowledged part of the time. So, if you sat on the right or the left, I can imagine that you were probably out of luck for about 65% of the show.  I do not blame this on the cast, because they really cannot help where they are staged.  Possibly because the stage was a Thrust and therefore not helping with loss of intimacy, most action was played inexplicably upstage (even though they had a big beautiful stage to play with and numerous ways to solve the issues of putting up a show in Thrust).

Through the style of the play's storytelling, I understand that "The Mute" furthers the plot by providing the moon, the wall, etc.  We should see everything she does.  However, I found the actress running from Stage Left to Stage Right at what seemed to be odd moments in Act I.  Again, I am not blaming the actress for this. She is working with the cues she is given as well as a lack of cross-over space on the West Stage. However, I found it completely distracting.    

Beyond staging, there were several frustrating aspects of the production. The pacing was completely erratic, especially every time the characters of Henry and Mortimer appeared. At some point, they brought the show to a complete stop halfway through Act I.  Yet, there were some points where the show was rushed for no reason, like in "Round & Round."  Luisa (played by her understudy the night I saw it) was robbed of any chance to be allowed to have a reaction to Matt's suffering (with or without the mask on).   However, the most frustrating production characteristic was the light design. The best example of this is found in Act II's "Round & Round."  For a show that relies on simplicity and letting the words speak for themselves, the light design became so complicated that the actors were left in the dark, literally.  

The cast gave an admirable performance, considering what they were given production wise.  By far the stand out of this show was Jeff Parker (El Gallo).  His rendition of "Try to Remember" was riveting.  The tone and quality of his voice as well of the charm of his performance, reminded me why live theatre (taking the good with the bad) can be so cool.