By Jennifer Mustoe and Craig Mustoe
For nine years, Grassroots Shakespeare Company has been bringing us amazing productions penned by the bard and his contemporaries. So when I read on their calendar that they were producing The Fantasticks, I was surprised. And very pleased.
The Fantasticks is the longest-running musical ever and there is a very good reason why. It has it all: humor, beauty, love, feuds, intrigue, music, Shakespeare (yes, true), and a wall. It has a small cast and a hilarious story line. Two fathers want their children to grow up and marry, so they contrive a feud and build a wall between their houses. So naturally, the kids fall in love. The fathers further throw their children together by enlisting the help of El Gallo who hires a strange Shakespearean actor and an “Indian” to abduct the daughter, Luisa, and Matt, her sweetheart, will save her. Things go awry and all of it falls apart. And you have to see the show to know the ending. And it’s not what you hope it will be. It’s better.
My husband, Craig, had never seen The Fantasticks and I kept telling him how much he would love the show. He is a big GSC fan, so he was eager to see the musical. I will tell you now, he enjoyed the heck out of tonight’s production.
The show begins as all GSC productions do, with an introduction, with music being played as you walk to the site (the location changes with each show! They carry a removeable/buildable stage with them and construct and take it down every show.) They encourage the audience to boo, to shout out during the performance, and there is a fair amount of ad libbing that goes on. In tonight’s production, not as much of the fourth wall was broken, but I think that may be in part that it’s hard to do this in a musical, it was opening night, and the crowd, I think, was entranced by the beauty and talent on the stage and just kept quiet except when they were clapping madly.
The show is introduced by El Gallo (lots of jokes about this name) played by Ben Henderson. El Gallo is a bad guy–or is he? Henderson has an amazing voice, great stage presence, and completely embraced his role. After his great performance, he shared with the audience that being able to be in GSC’s first musical was beyond anything he ever imagined doing–it was pretty touching.
The two fathers were played by Ardon Smith (Hucklebee) and Jason Sullivan (Bellemy.) These two men were so in sync–we loved watching their physical comedy, their harmonizing. Their timing was perfect. Often onstage with them was The Mute, played by Carter Walker. Walker plays the wall (a person, playing a wall? Walker totally makes this work.) He also has amazing physicality onstage, as a mute would need to have. I loved watching him.
The lovers, Luisa, played by Amber Dodge Tinney, and Matt, played by Caleb Tinney, were darling and as you might expect, had great chemistry and ease with one another. Caleb plays Matt with a fun geekiness that is charming, and Amber’s Luisa is wide-eyed and naive, but also rather grown up in some ways, too. These two were a delight onstage. When Amber dances with El Gallo, we feel her confusion and the seduction. A very powerful scene.
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Lastly, Henry (the Shakespearean actor–who flubs his lines constantly) is played by longtime GSC player Addison Radle. I’m a huge Radle fan and he made this role his own. His sidekick, Mortimer, played by Paris Abigail Moore, was hilarious. It is her role to die onstage and she really makes dying funny. (Isn’t that horrible?) But she has great comedic timing and a pleasure to watch.
The only instrument is a keyboard, but the sound was really amazing for it being an outdoor venue. As with GSC productions, there is no director. The actors learn their parts, have little rehearsal, then perform these amazing productions. This season’s The Fantasticks is of this same caliber.
For those of you who have never been to a GSC production: Bring a chair or blanket (or both); bring snacks and something to drink, if you want; bring bug spray. AND BRING EVERYONE YOU CAN! (Except very young children. Though this show has nothing that is inappropriate for kids, there was one rather small child in the audience who got very bored, so my advice, let the kiddies stay home with a sitter.) Most productions in the summer are free, but they are asking a $5.00 donation for The Fantasticks, as they had to pay for the rights to use this work. Five dollars is TOTALLY worth it. As my husband remarked to Amber Dodge Tinney after the show, “It makes me sad.” She looked quizzically at him and he said, “There should be 500 people here.” Grassroots Shakespeare Company is only one of three troupes like this in the world, and we in Utah are lucky enough to see them every summer for free. Do yourself a favor and get to a GSC show–both of them!–this summer.
For times and dates, check their website. There are productions in Salt Lake, Provo, Orem, Spanish Fork. Find a venue and a time, and give yourself a treat.
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