The Fantasticks

The Fantasticks
Music by Harvey Schmidt, book and lyrics by Tom Jones. Wooden Horse Productions in association with Hayes Theatre Co. January 11 – 31, 2016.

Somewhat reimagined and stripped even further back than its very basic original by director Helen Dallimore, with new, darker atmospheric arrangements for keyboard and guitar from musical directors Hayden Barltrop and Glenn Moorhouse, against a simple setting of translucent drapes and astro-turf by Hugh O’Connor, the world’s longest running musical remains true to its minimalist roots in its current makeover at Sydney’s Hayes Theatre, a good match for the show’s original intimate New York home.

With The Fantasticks set to reach a phenomenal 21,000 Off Broadway performances in February (a cumulative total of its original production (1960 to 2002) and its revival (which has been running since 2006), it clearly felt like time for a local revival.

Despite a more contemporary interpretation, the current version needed to go somewhat further to sit comfortably with 2016 audience values.

Pared back to a cast of five (from the usual eight), and stripped of most of its now anachronistic 1960s theatrical conventions, with more aggressive, sometimes foreboding, accompaniment than the original piano and harp, the heart of this show remains simple, theatrical storytelling of the rites of passage tale of a boy and a girl who eventually find love, despite the misguided efforts of their fathers to pair them up, aided and abetted by malevolent narrator / puppet master El Gallo and a pair of OTT actors.

The biggest change for anyone familiar with the show is the doubling of roles, with the actors playing the fathers also hamming it up as the itinerant 19th century style actors, and the removal of the non-speaking ‘mute’ character (used to represent the wall built by the two fathers in their misguided attempt to pair up their kids, among other things).

If you know the show, some changes may require adjusting your expectations, though first-timers won’t notice.

While the pantomime ‘mute’ is gone, amongst my favourite original touches in the production is the introduction of guitarist Glenn Moorhouseinto the action (with a new spin on the function of the missing role), playing on stage to symbolize the rebuilding of the wall in act 2, preceded by his appearance with Martin Crewes at the beginning of the boy Matt’s journey, lending it the feeling of setting off on rock music odyssey, with all three on guitar. Perhaps it’s a motif worth expanding on.

The cast features a good mix of youth and experience.

Leather-clad Martin Crewes is every inch the manipulative, seductive, ambiguous, sinister El Gallo.

Doubling as the vaudeville style fathers of the young lovers and campy, over-the-top second-rate travelling actors, Gary Scale and Lawrence Coy play their stylized characterisations to the hilt.

Jonathan Hickey as Matt and Bobbie-Jean Henning as Louisa bring a joyous naivete to the roles of the young lovers.

The comic timing is excellent, while an all too rare treat is the acoustic singing throughout – there’s no personal microphones – a delight in a venue which severely challenges sound designers. The Fantasticks is one of the best listening experiences at The Hayes to date, with Jeremy Silver achieving anexcellent balance between singers, the two musos and soundscaping.

For decades there have been alternate lyrics to the show’s increasingly controversial ‘Rape’ song and ballet, “It Depends on What You Pay”, even an alternate song. The constant repetition of the word ‘rape’ in the original, used in this production, leaves modern audiences cringing. While the script tries to explain, at length, that it is referencing classic literary interpretations of the word, in 2016 they’re not convincing arguments for sticking to the 1960 lyrics, while the comedic tone of the number makes it seem even more glib and offensive. Though the intention was clearly to tell the young lovers journey in allegoric or symbolic terms, that intent no longer seems to hold water (especially with staging conventions which supported that approach gone).

It’s a shame that this frequently discarded relic of the original potentially sours the current experience at the Hayes, in what is otherwise a solid, enjoyable production. Younger musical theatre audiences and students should have a chance to see and appreciate this pioneering ancestor of the modern, intimate musical theatre genre which they regularly devour on the very same stage.

Neil Litchfield

Photographer: Marnya Rothe.

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