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The Firehouse Theater in Farmers Branch is celebrating it’s second season, and ringing in the summer with a stellar production of “The Fantasticks.”
“The Fantasticks,” by Tom Jones & Harvey Schmidt, is the world’s longest running musical – running for over 50 years in Manhattan and entrancing generations of audiences the world over.
The show is a funny and romantic musical about a boy, a girl, two fathers and a wall. The narrator, El Gallo (Wyn Delano) asks the audience to use their imagination and follow him into a world of moonlight and magic. The boy and the girl fall in love, grow apart, and finally find their way back to each other after realizing the truth in El Gallo’s words that “without a hurt, the heart is hollow.”
The creative team behind “The Fantasticks” is Tom Jones (Books, Lyrics, Director) and Harvey Schmidt (Music). “The Fantasticks” began as a summer theater production at Barnard College. In May of 1960 it opened Off-Broadway, and afterward it went on to become the longest-running production in the history of stage and one of the most frequently produced musicals in the world. The famous score, which includes the classics “Try To Remember,” “They Were You” and “Soon It’s Gonna Rain,” are as timeless as the story itself.
As noted in the program by the show’s director Adam Hester, “Although it can be thrilling to see chandeliers fall from the ceiling, helicopters land on stage or super heroes flying above your head, it’s also refreshing to see a captivating and simple romantic comedy that touches all the musical theatrical and emotional bases one needs for a sweet evening of entertainment.” I couldn’t agree more. My night out at Firehouse was spent being completely pulled in and wrapped up in everything that makes theater magical.
The set is kept in the simple bare bones style the show calls for. Costuming is also kept simple and classic. This leaves the magic making entirely on the shoulders of the 8 person cast – who more than rise to the occasion. Voices are clear, strong and brilliantly harmonized.
The comic duo of Henry (Gordon Fox) and Mortimer (Michael Staford) were the perfect comic relief and both actors brought comic style, timing and characterization that made the theater rock with laughter with every entrance.
Matt and Louisa (Johnathan Steffins and Nichole Neely) paired nicely as the young lovers. Both brought fresh strong vocal talents to the parts and offered the audience a chance to remember who they were at 16 and 20 years old.
During its original run at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village, “The Fantasticks” logged a record-breaking 17,162 performances. The Firehouse Theater in Farmers Branch however will only be running the show from June 2 – 19. Hester has taken a theatre classic and with the spectacular talent his cast brings to the stage, has produced a theater experience that will steal your heart and move your soul.
For more information about the theatre or to buy tickets, please visit The Firehouse Theatre
