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The Fantasticks, with book and lyrics by Tom Jones and music by Harvey Schmidt and directed by Cherie Ulmer, opens Nov. 25 at Pentacle Theatre.
The Fantasticks is a musical whose original off-Broadway production played for 42 years straight, making it the longest-running musical in history.
The show has a universal charm that relies on a small cast of players on a stage without scenery who tell a simple story: A boy, a girl, two fathers and a wall. Love is discovered, love is lost and then regained — all enriched by the wisdom that comes from painful, inevitable life experience.
“There’s a line in the song, 'Try to Remember,' that says, “Without a hurt the heart is hollow,” said director Cherie Ulmer.
“If everything is always perfect and wonderful, we don’t grow,” she said. “We must have those difficult life challenges to change for the better.”
But no matter what life experiences people have had, Ulmer added, they will find things in the show that will touch their hearts.
The Fantasticks borrows theatrical devices from many cultures and times, notably Commedia dell’arte, early Greek drama and American musical comedy.
Everything needed for the story comes from an onstage prop box including a cardboard moon, rapiers and even some of the actors.
“We’re keeping it simple,” Ulmer said. “The show’s eight actors are supported by only two musicians, who play piano and harp. Our intimate Pentacle Theatre stage keeps the audience closely connected to the players and the story. This helps make The Fantasticks a musical in its purest form.”
Read more. Photo is Kimberly Houser Taylor on the harp and Christie Smith on the keyboard. Credit: Vicki Woods.
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