Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s Off-Broadway juggernaut The Fantasticks, which ran for 42 years, has been revived (yet again) by the Ruskin Group Theatre. The musical, which opened at Greenwich Village’s Sullivan Street Playhouse in 1960 and, rather remarkably, was continuously mounted there until 2002 for a total of 17,162 performances, will have a limited run (not nearly as long as the Sullivan’s!) at the Ruskin (surely L.A.’s equivalent of an Off-Off-Boadway theater?) through August (not September!).
In this iteration helmed by stage stalwart Elina de Santos, a trio of musicians play three keyboard instruments, including two pianos and a melodica, to accompany the cast live, which greatly enhances this musical’s production values (as opposed to singers warbling along onstage to pre-recorded instrumentalizations). Of course, The Fantasticks’ most beloved song is the evergreen “Try To Remember,” which opens and closes this rather long two-act play. In the opening, El Gallo (aka “Bandit,” depicted by Danny Bernardo) croons the musical’s rather catchy signature song, with the 16-year-old Luisa (Sophie Pollono) and 19-ish-year-old Matt (Rhett Hemingway, a distant relative of Ernest), and their scheming fathers, Hucklebee (Kiel Kennedy) and Bellamy (Michael D. Cohen) joining in. As the Mute, Raven Scott is onstage during the number, but has the unenviable task of remaining quiet throughout not only this lovely, toe-tapping melody but the entire show—although with her lithe figure, movements, and charming smile, Scott’s Mute speaks volumes (albeit silently) as the action unfolds.
The gist of the show is that Hucklebee and Bellamy, who are neighbors on a piece of land divided by a wall they’ve cunningly built, have contrived a “feud” in order to manipulate their son and daughter to fall for one another and wed. In most love stories, from Helen of Troy to Romeo and Juliet to the Brontë sisters to Harlequin romance novels, the would-be lovers must overcome obstacles in order to fulfill their ardor. Thus, the plotting parents believe that with their sham Hatfields versus McCoys ploy, they are stoking the flames of their children’s desire for one another.
The first act of the highly stylized The Fantasticks is splendid, as Matt and Luisa woo one another. Sophie Pollono (daughter of award-winning playwright John Pollono) is fetching in the ingenue role and is quite the warbler. Rhett Hemingway is likewise quite winning; he knows for whom the bell tolls as Matt pursues his prize, and even believes himself to be defending Luisa’s besieged honor in a bit of derring-do cooked up by their doting if doltish dads. As El Gallo, Danny Bernardo alternates between menace and goofiness as he, in turn, conspires to liberate Hucklebee and Bellamy from their hard-earned loot.
To aid El Gallo in his elaborate intrigue at the fathers’ behest (worthy of a MAGA conspiracy theorist’s addled imagination), the bandit teams up with his daffy henchmen, who are veteran thespians. Michael Redfield plays Mortimer, whose theatrical specialty is dying onstage. If it’s humanly possible, Henry (John Wuchte) is even hammier and outré. Both Redfield and Wuchte double as musicians in this production, with the former playing piano and Wuchte blowing and fingering the melodica. The other pianist is Malaysian musician Nisha Sue Arunasalam, who tickled the ivories with zest and an infectious joy, smiling throughout the show as she obviously relishes playing Schmidt’s lilting melodies.
As a non-actor, I have always marveled at the ability of thesps to transfigure themselves into various, disparate roles, and I recently had the pleasure to see two of this cast’s performers in Rogue Machine plays. Last February, I saw The Fantasticks’ multi-talented musical director/ sound designer/actor Michael Redfield in Pulitzer Prize finalist Will Arbery’s drama Evanston Salt Costs Climbing. Prior to that, last August, I experienced Kiel Kennedy in the droll Red State vs. Blue State comedy Human Error. It is a testament to their artistry that both Redfield and Kennedy (who is an Emmy-nominated writer and a Groundlings Main Company Member) are totally transmogrified in their fantastical roles, in contrast to their portrayals on the boards of the Rogue Machine (which Fantasticks director de Santos is the founding Co-Artistic Director of).
It is also worth mentioning that the Ruskin Group Theatre likewise displays versatility in that some of its recent shows have included: Two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Jon Robin Baitz’s anti-Nazi The Substance of Fire and Arthur Miller’s heavy Hollywood Blacklist parable A View From the Bridge, which also comments on the playwright’s troubled marriage to Marilyn Monroe. Act I of The Fantasticks is quite lighthearted and full of the rapture of romance—very opposite to the aforementioned hard-hitting realistic dramas.
On the other hand, the musical’s second act isn’t nearly as enjoyable and arguably becomes pretty nightmarish. Perhaps the moral of Tom Jones’ story is that crazy little thing called love can’t be construed and concocted through verkakte plotting and planning.
The well-directed cast—aka “the Fantastick Eight”—is captivating and enjoyable, Jennifer Pollono’s costumes are a couture hoot, Jen Oundjian and Erik Hall’s choreography is lively and well-executed, and the songs are always well-sung. Some of the characters made me think of the hobos in Waiting for Godot, the absurdist classic Samuel Beckett penned only seven years before The Fantasticks’ debut at the Sullivan Street Playhouse. Throughout the show, without saying or singing a single word, Raven Scott as the Mute remarkably manages to hold her own with her voluble castmates. But having said all this, theatergoers seeking a happily-ever-after love story and September to remember might want to leave after Act I.
The Ruskin Group Theatre’s The Fantasticks is being presented until August 24 at 8:00 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and 2:00 p.m. on Sundays at Ruskin Group Theatre, 3000 Airport Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90405. For reservations, go here or call (310)397-3244.
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