Light Fantasticks

Energy and good will The Fantasticks has. But everybody's favorite bittersweet musical is deceptively difficult to pull off.

by David Anthony Fox

What's the difference between community theater and a professional production? Is it talent? Equity card status? Production values? The venue? Ticket prices? The standards a critic ought to apply?

It's a serious issue, and I'm faced with it now. If this Fantasticks were in a small community theater, I could happily praise it as full of energy and good will, likely to enchant the friends, parents and local folks in attendance, and well worth the (undoubtedly inexpensive) ticket prices.

Ah, but I probably wouldn't be reviewing a community theater show at all. I am assigned to review this production, and to apply what I consider professional standards. Please bear this in mind as you read on.

Energy and good will the show still has. But The Fantasticks, everybody's favorite bittersweet musical about teenage sweethearts, is deceptively difficult to pull off. The leading roles of Luisa and Matt are vocally and histrionically challenging, and here they are played by high school students. Theoretically, this should offer genuine innocence and freshness, but instead they are both determined to "play young," with a surfeit of arch mannerisms. (He's a weak singer, but the better actor. She, incredibly, lists Linda Loman as a previous role. What's next: a 20-year-old Mary Tyrone?) A common problem with adolescent actors — lack of plausible sexual chemistry — is very much the case here.

Joe Mallon, playing El Gallo, is better — a lovely, simple actor. But he too is not much of a singer, and too boyish in a role that needs a sense of mystery and menace. (In a different cast, Mallon might be terrific as Matt.) The supporting actors all indulge in too much shtick.

Ultimately, most of the problems lie with the director, and it pains me to say because he is Philadelphia's beloved Tony Braithwaite. An endlessly resourceful comic actor himself, he encourages so much mugging and funny business here that The Fantasticks' crucial theme — the joy and pain of dawning adulthood — goes largely unmarked.

(d_fox@citypaper.net)

The Fantasticks Through Feb. 24, Broadway at the Academy, Innovation Studio at the Kimmel Center, 260 S. Broad St., 215-297-8540, kimmelcenter.org.