Arena's Fantasticks Voyage
Arena Stage's The Fantasticks.
That's what Arena Stage has done with its current production of The Fantasticks, a 1960 show that was the world's longest-running musical in its original off-Broadway run. You can feel the influence of The Fantasticks elsewhere in the musical theater canon, whether in Pippin's title character's search for his corner of the sky, or Into the Woods, which shares the structure of a happy first act, and a happy-ending-over second act. And the show itself is loosely based on the myth of Pyramus and Thisbe (well, at least the whole lovers-communicating-through-a-wall thing). But The Fantasticks above all is a simple fairy tale with some lovely songs like the melancholy "Soon It's Gonna Rain" — a safe choice for the holiday season, perhaps, but an appealing one regardless.
The magic really helps set this Arena revival apart. The Fantasticks has at its disposal a multi-talented mime (Nate Dendy) who wordlessly acts and tricks his way through a number of minor roles, most amusingly as the separating wall itself. The show is accented with disappearances here, glimmers of fire there, and carnival tricks aplenty. It's not the kind of heavy-duty, eerie trickery that Teller employed during Folger's magical Macbeth, but it's fun, showy stuff. The Lincoln Theater's stagy set, with its glimmering marquee lighting, provides a natural backdrop.
At the show's center is its star-crossed couple, Luisa (Addi McDaniel) and Matt (Timothy Ware), along with their feuding fathers (Michael Stone Forrest and Jerome Lucas Harmann), and there's chemistry aplenty in both pairings. While Matt's second-act restlessness feels a bit out of nowhere, Ware gives it a frustrated credibility, while McDaniel's soaring vocals and winning optimism add up to a zesty ingenue. Harmann and Forrest play off each other in that kind of showy, slapstick-y old-school-musical style that never really gets old.
The show has a few tiresome moments. Through no fault of the bumbling, narcissistic performance of Laurence O'Dwyer, the machinations of El Gallo's hired hand Henry just aren't interesting enough to sustain their drawn-out treatment. And while Sebastian La Cause is a lightfooted, dashing El Gallo, the show's worldly narrator, his take on "Try To Remember," The Fantasticks' most well-known ballad immortalized by Jerry Orbach, feels more a bland recitation than a dreamy reminiscence. Luckily, by the time its reprise rolls around, The Fantasticks has found its footing.
The Fantasticks runs through Jan. 10 at the Lincoln Theater. Tickets are available online.