Metro Pulse/Backstage/Fantasticks

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What:
The Fantasticks

When:
Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 3 p.m. Through March 18.

Where:
Bijou Theatre, 803 S. Gay Street

$12/$10. Call 523-4211 for information.

The Bijou's Fantasticks actually is

by Paige M. Travis

When I heard that the Bijou Theatre's newest production was a musical named "The Fantasticks," I groaned. "The Fantasticks," despite being the longest running play on Broadway and spawning a Top 40 hit, "Try to Remember," in the '60s, sounds like an unbearably cutesy work of heart-warming contrivance with a few songs that have nothing to do with the story and a story that has nothing to do with anything at all. Feeling particularly cynical, I was in no mood for soulless charm, jokes that fell flat or actors who weren't singers and singers who couldn't act. I walked in the doors of the Bijou on opening night prepared to roll my eyes a lot. Luckily for my eyes and all of Knoxville, this show is truly charming, actually funny and the best the Bijou has presented this season.

The Fantasticks, a play within a play, is also the name of the acting troupe led by El Gallo (Edward Pierce), who serves as narrator, bandit and mentor to Louisa and Matt, two neighbors who fall in love despite their fathers' opposition. The dads have gone so far as to build a wall between their houses, a wall that seems to only lure the dreamers to meet on the sly.

Chelsea Samples is the wide-eyed 16-year-old who is insane with adolescence. She fantasizes about being a princess and doing wild things that seem tame by today's teenage standards. Her paramour, played by Johnny Goshen, is four years her senior and just as dreamy. The fathers (Greg Stout and Greg Congleton) find more satisfaction from their predictable vegetable gardens than their off-the-wall progeny.

One of the best surprises of the play would be ruined if I tell you too much about the plot, so let's just say that lack of a story isn't a problem in the best musicals, which should let us get to know the hearts and thoughts of the characters while forwarding the story at least as well as dialog. And it's a delightful surprise to find that the players can actually sing. Samples' voice can handle the Broadway range, and it's sweet enough to tug your heartstrings. Goshen has a good voice, although sometimes he's too quiet for the back rows. He really shines in the song he shares with El Gallo. Every singer will probably improve after working through their opening-night jitters.

Much of the humor of The Fantasticks comes care of Donald Thorne as an old Shakespearean actor, and Wayne Graham as Mortimer, his sidekick with a pot belly and a surprising Cockney accent. These two are hilarious, speaking their lines and flailing about the stage. Like Shakespeare's players, Mortimer and the old actor provide comedic relief and raise the other actors to their humorous potential.

Edward Pierce plays the part of El Gallo with a rakish charm blended with a fatherly concern. His menacing eyebrows and smirkiness are appropriately dastardly, but he's no villain. He's like Father Time, aware of the way things are and have to be. He guides Louisa and Matt in a way their fathers can't because, as one of the play's funniest songs points out, children love to do the opposite of what parents want.

The play is a simply staged affair, although it could've been even simpler. Maybe I've been brainwashed by so many film musicals, but I wanted more dancing, which was made impossible by the risers, extensions and some sort of scaffolding thing with limited purpose. Music accompaniment was provided by a talented trio—Elizabeth Farr on harp, Ron Murphy on piano and Michael Vaughn on bass—but it could've been louder, more dynamic. Director Donald Thomas writes in the program that he wanted his production to be as intimate as the original. To an extent he succeeds, but with some microphones and a less sparse setting, the production could've filled the Bijou's intimate space more effectively without overwhelming the simplicity of the play.

But these are small issues in the context of how enjoyable it was to be an audience member on opening night. The group next to me, who had seen every Bijou production this season, hooted at every joke and comical expression. I hope to write off the sparse opening night crowd (about 50 people) to it being a Thursday night, during the SEC basketball tournament. Considering the audience response I witnessed, this play will be a hit if people go see it.

When The Fantasticks was written by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt in 1960, the United States was coming down from the wholesomeness of the post-war '50s and building up to the Beatles, Woodstock and the Vietnam War. The play presents traditional rebellions between the generations and the sexes, and also, in hindsight, foretold the kinds of conflicts the '60s brought to pass. Instead of confirming the maxim "You can't go home again," The Fantasticks tells us we must leave our childhoods and home towns in order to return, to grow up. In the words of El Gallo, "Without a hurt, the heart is hollow." Thankfully, in life as in The Fantasticks, there are poignant moments and quite a few laughs in the bargain.