Review: THE FANTASTICKS at Powerhouse Performing Arts Center

If you've never seen The Fantasticks, one of world's longest running musicals, now is your chance, and you don't want to miss it. This collaboration between Connecticut Playmakers and the Town Players of New Canaan is one of the best productions of this show that this critic has seen.

The show, originally produced Off-Broadway in 1960, packs a lot with the simplest of things: a small cast of eight players and two musicians, a platform the size of a deck, two benches, two trunks, three curtain, a piano, a harp, and a simple love story dotted by simple trickery.

Before we go on, let's get a few things out of the way. The book is dated. In 1960, people used terms such as mute instead of speech-disabled and Indian instead of Native Americans. There's also a reference to the Rape of the Sabine Women, which originally referred to abduction (rapto in Portuguese). This was all before political correctness and sensitivity were introduced into our society.

Here's the plot. Fathers Hucklebee and Bellomy (played by Andre Herzegovitch and Norris Wakefield) have a wall built between their homes and pretend to have a long-running feud in hopes that their children, the bookish and goofy Matt (Matt Liebowitz) and hopeless romantic Luisa (Rebecca Borowik) will fall in love with each other. To move things along, they hire the villain (and show's narrator) El Gallo (Brian Maher) to pretend to kidnap Luisa. Faded actor Henry (PJ Morello) and his sidekick, Mortimer (Maryann Ramos) help with this scheme. Matt heroically saves Luisa, the feud ends, and everything is as planned. In the second act, reality sets in. The young couple fight, Matt goes off to see the world, and Luisa is enchanted by El Gallo. Bellomy and Hucklebee blame each other and have the wall rebuilt. The lovers gain new perspectives and reunite. Throughout the two acts, there is a character called The Mute (Martin Diamond), who is responsible for the stagecraft.

Lyricist and librettist Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt's music are still lovely to hear, especially as performed by Maher, Rebecca Borowik, Leibowitz, Herzegovitch, and Wakefield. Their singing, acting, and dancing are, well, fantastic. Morello and Ramos are both so funny to watch and work well together, often stealing scenes. Diamond has an attention-grabbing presence on stage. Also on stage are the show's two musicians, who are well-known and in high demand in Fairfield Country -- Music Director Chris Coogan (www.cooganmusic.com) and harpist Lisa Tannenbaum (www.lisaharpist.com) add so much to the show. They don't just accompany the performers with their music. They truly enrich the show and even have a little banter at the beginning of the show. Pulling this all together is director Michele Grace, stage manager Terry Le Bel, and producers Ramos, Peggy de la Cruz, and Deborah Burke. Joel Reynolds's set design uses the Powerhouse Performance Arts Center's stage to its best advantage, without losing any of the intimacy of the show. Arnie Feintuck and Patricia Spugani's lighting design is a perfect complement to the black box stage. Costumes were provided by Grace, de la Cruz, Robin LeMay Knight, and Linda Colucci, who also did the props.

Since COVID, many theatres have reduced the size of their productions, but as stated earlier, this show packs a lot with great music and performances. The collaboration between Town Players of New Canaan and Connecticut Playmakers is ideal, with each organization contributing the best each has to offer. Don't miss this gem of a production. There's a reason it has lasted in New York for more than 42 years. For the record, Town Players and Connecticut Playmakers have been performing for more than 75 years. All the more reason to go see The Fantasticks, which is running through October 2 at the Powerhouse Performing Arts Center in Waveny Park (off Exit 37 on the Merritt Parkway). For tickets, visit our.show/theFantasticks or www.tpnc.org.