the fantasticks
Book and Lyrics by Tom Jones, Music by Harvey Schmidt
University of Michigan-Flint
Director’s Note
The Fantasticks is a musical full of duality. Imagination and innocence are both paired with, and pitted against, reality and experience. When we first meet the young protagonists, Luisa and Matt, they live in a world full of imagination, innocence, dreams, and fantasy. They believe that they are in love and that their “happily ever after” awaits them at any moment. Out of love for their children, their fathers have gone to great efforts to enable their fantasy.
However, before Luisa and Matt can experience lasting love beyond their fantasies, they must first experience pain and hurt so that they can distinguish between romanticized infatuation and real love. As this story reminds us of our own youth and innocence, it also reminds us of the harsh reality that steals both. While it is easy to allow the hurts of life to make us hard and bitter, it is also important to remember that “without a hurt, the heart is hollow.” The heart that knows pain has the ability to become fuller and stronger. Bittersweet.
In the forward of the 30th anniversary printing of The Fantasticks, librettist and lyricist, Tom Jones, wrote that he and composer, Harvey Schmidt, wanted this musical “to celebrate romanticism and mock it at the same time. To touch people, and then to make them laugh at the very thing that touched them. To make people laugh, and then to turn the laugh around, find the other side of it. To put two emotions side by side, as close together as possible, like a chord in music.” Jones has done a wonderful job of celebrating dichotomy in this script. Imagination and reality, while seemingly contradictory, go hand in hand. The good can only come with the bad. Perhaps this poignant message is what has made The Fantasticks the longest running musical of all time. Enjoy the show.
-Stephanie Dean
Photo & Video Credit: Mark Baker
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Book and Lyrics by Tom Jones
Music by Harvey Schmidt
Scenic and Properties Design: Lisa Borton
Costume Design: Shelby Newport
Lighting/Sound Design: Doug Mueller
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For this production, I placed the audience on stage and created a thrust performance space to maintain the show’s intimate feel. After graduating a large musical theatre class the previous spring, I had a smaller-than-usual actor pool and I needed gender-flexibility with characters but still wanted to keep the parents as fathers, per the playwrights’ original intent. I envisioned the cast as a travelling troupe with a wagon. Whenever they found a performance site to land, they’d open their wagon, set the stage and perform something from their repertoire with actors able to freely take any role necessary at the time by engaging the audience through props, costumes and tropes. This concept was introduced in the overture, showing the troupe arrive, emerge from their wagon, don costumes, and prepare the stage.
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