It’s easy to be a cynic about “The Fantasticks.”
The commedia dell’arte-ish musical played endlessly off Broadway (it opened in 1960 and closed in 2002, after a record-breaking 17,162 performances).
It’s simple. It’s corny. It’s even a tad tired.
But Winding Road Theater Ensemble didn’t care about all that.
Rather, it cared about giving us a heartfelt production of a musical that smacks of innocence, has some wonderful songs and seduces audiences who can shrug off the “oh, that again” attitude.
Count this writer among them.
We were hooked with the opening strains of “Try to remember the kind of September/When life was slow and oh so mellow,” sung by El Gallo, played by Mark Hockenberry, who has an impressive baritone.
And we were sucked in even more as we watched Elena Lucia Terry, who plays the Mute. It’s clear Terry has a dance background — she moves with astounding grace. But she also has a face that speaks volumes. She was mesmerizing.
“The Fantasticks,” by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, is a story of young love. The Boy and The Girl live next to each other. Their fathers have a wall between the two properties, ostensibly because they hate each other. In truth, they have long plotted to have their children fall in love and marry. They figure if they demand they not speak, they surely would. The fathers then go on to make elaborate plans to stage a kidnapping of The Girl so that The Boy can rescue her and become a hero in her eyes.
This production, directed with humor and abandon by Maria Caprile, has a couple of shortcomings, such as some inexperienced actors and a few opening-night glitches with the lighting.
But it had so much going for it that it was near impossible to leave the theater without big grins and those songs wafting through your head.
The most joyous moments belonged to Chad Davies and Eddie Diaz, who played The Old Actor and The Man Who Dies, respectively. The two clowns were over the top — as it should be — and laughter rolled when they were on stage. Davies is new to Tucson, and a welcome addition to local stages. And Diaz, who made an art of dying with over-acted ridiculousness, was a complete stitch.
A live band accompanied the performers, and often interacted with them, which added to the fun.
There’s a sweetness to “The Fantasticks” which is hard to turn away from. The dark moments in the script keep that sweetness from becoming too sticky.
This Winding Road production is fun, funny and a piece of light whimsy — something we are in desperate need of these days.
