ARTS . Theater Review

Delight Fantastick

One of the joys of being a critic is to be taken by surprise. It happens right off the bat in Aaron Cromie's delicious production of The Fantasticks.


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Published: Apr 17, 2007

One of the joys of being a critic is to be taken by surprise. It happens right off the bat in Aaron Cromie's delicious production of The Fantasticks when the narrator sings "Try to Remember." Here's a song I've heard about a million times; it's pretty, but normally it hardly registers. Now it's intoned by a narrator (Bev Appleton) who is older, wiser and more cynical than usual. He offers it as advice to his actors — this narrator practically ignores the audience. Suddenly, I'm really listening, and there's something compelling, even sinister, lurking in that familiar green grass and yellow grain.

PUPPET REGIME: Mum Puppettheatre's <i>The Fantasticks</i> is smart and entertaining.

PUPPET REGIME: Mum Puppettheatre's The Fantasticks is smart and entertaining.

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

It's the first of many brilliant touches that enliven this beloved classic. Mum's The Fantasticks is one of the smartest productions I've seen in years.

Nearly every musical fan has seen The Fantasticks, which ran off-Broadway for more than 40 years and is a staple of high school theater programs — no doubt because of the young leads and the romantic boy-meets-loses-and-regains-girl story.

In fact, The Fantasticks is so familiar to us that we barely notice how odd it is, and how difficult to bring off. Here's just a partial list of issues. It's a distinctly American show that nonetheless remains rooted in a quirky, European aesthetic (Fantasticks is originally based on Rostand's Les Romanesques). Some of the dialogue is in verse. Several of the roles — especially Luisa, the ingenue — are fiendishly difficult to sing. And there's the problem scene in which a father plots an attempted rape on his daughter, in order for her to find true love — what to do with that?

Cromie's production makes it all cohere almost miraculously. I wasn't enthusiastic about the idea of puppets. It seemed too busy, and potentially too mawkish. But these puppets, with their odd faces and blank expressions, are simultaneously cute and weird. They are manipulated in full view of the audience by a cast who also act and sing with great skill.

It turns out that the duality of actors and puppets perfectly resonates with the themes of this complicated story: true love versus manipulation, childlike confidence versus adult worldliness, and innocent love versus love that's been frayed by experience.

Bravo to all involved! This is a show for adults as well as children, and a lesson to all in the craft of theater.

(d_fox@citypaper.net)

THE FANTASTICKS, Through May 6, Mum Puppettheatre, 115 Arch St., 215-925-8686, www.mumpuppet.org