Sunday Showtunes

A  FANTASTICK WAY TO END THE TRIP

I ended the trip the way I started it (well at least as it was originally planned, before the bonus “Lovemusik”) with a Tom Jones/Harvey Schmidt show, in this case “The Fantasticks.”  I would hope that everyone reading this knows all about it (haven’t we all done the damn thing several times and seen it many more?) and that it’s the world’s longest-running musical etc.  (42 years in the original run, which ended in 2002; this revival has been  playing for 10 months so far).  It is  playing at the Snapple Theatre Center in one of their theatres newly crowned the “Jerry Orbach Theatre” – a fitting tribute of course since I’m sure you all know that he was the original El Gallo at the beginning of his career.  There are photos of him everywhere and a TV on the sidewalk plays a looping video of his career on stage, movies, and television.

This “Fantasticks” is a very similar version to the classic original, but there is some new and different staging (even a few new lines, although one of them is an unfortunate joke about the possibility of the two fathers being gay lovers (!), which I thought was absolutely out of place) and they do that annoying “Abduction” instead of “It Depends on What You Pay,” also known as “the rape song.”  I understand they are afraid of offending people (our world has become terrifyingly “PC”) but some of these different lyrics just don’t make sense – and the obligato “raaaaaaaaaape” parts just aren’t as effective when it’s turned into ”pay.”   And the last line becomes “I say they’re only young once, let’s order us a first class pay” which makes no sense!

The theatre is 199 seats (the old one was 149) and VERY intimate – a low 7’ ceiling and ¾ round seating on the floor with the set, sort of like the Altarena.  Almost like “environmental” theatre.  I was in the first row in front, so the show was literally acted out RIGHT in front of me (I had to duck and watch my feet a few times so I didn’t get clocked!).  The only way I could have been closer to the stage was to brush up my lines, stand up, and join the show.  The cast didn’t even have microphones on – everybody, including the piano and harp, was un-miked and acoustic.  I thought they were often too soft and the music often too loud, and I felt sorry for the people in the back rows.   Close as they were, if I sometimes couldn’t hear what they were saying when they were 8 inches away from me and only could tell what it was because I know almost every line in the show by heart, I am sure the back row completely missed it.

The author himself (Tom Jones, 78 years old) plays Henry the Old Actor, and he does it with equal parts spry and crazy.  Matt is Anthony Federov, unknown to me but according to his bio he was on “American Idol.”  Good that he’s getting work, I guess, and at least he was one of the more heterosexual Matts I’ve seen, which really helps the love story a lot.    Burke Moses (the original Gaston) plays El Gallo and he was fine.  There was a cute ad-lib in the show relevant to today’s headlines (the New York Yankees are on a losing streak according to the news):  at several points characters go into the audience (even having a seat if there are empty chairs) and one time he gave a young (12? 13?)  girl his hat to hold on to.  A couple of minutes later, upon re-entering, he motioned to her to toss his hat to him.  She wasn’t paying attention to the show at that minute and didn’t see him.  “Girl, hat – you, hat – give it – hat –hey!  - hat, toss it,” Burke said.  Finally the girl got a clue and threw the hat –  which landed on the stage halfway between them!   Picking the hat up with mock disgust, he dryly commented, “Doesn’t pay attention to the show – and I bet she pitches for the Yankees!”   Which got a combination of laugh and groan.

Nevertheless, I thought this was a really nice version of “The Fantasticks,” and a very moving and suitable end to the latest Broadway trip.

KSHO broadcasts to the Mid-Willamette Valley in Western Oregon.
Among the communities served are Albany, Corvallis, and Lebanon.