Blogs > Stage & Screen
FCT's 'The Fantasticks' is quality theater not to be missed
Howard Korn/contributing photographer
The cast of Frisco Community Theatre's production of "The Fantasticks" poses for a photo before the show opens. It runs at the black box theater in the Frisco Discovery Center through December 17. From left, standing, Charles Beachley, Rick Tett, Frank Rosamond, Aaron Green, Jerome Stein and Nick Mann. Kneeling, Emily Ford and Sam Swenson.
By Penny Rathbun, prathbun@acnpapers.com
If you think you have to drive 25 miles south to see excellent theater think again.
While you're thinking, save gas money and come see Frisco Community Theatre's production of “The Fantasticks” at the black box theater in the Frisco Discovery Center.
With this small musical Frisco Community Theatre shows it can give a very good bang for the buck, rivaling anything available in Dallas.
Not that there is anything substandard about theater in Dallas. But FCT now competes equally with anything south of LBJ and parts in between.
“The Fantasticks” is about a boy and girl who are neighbors. They fall in love. Their relationship is all the more sweet because they think their fathers forbid it.
Emily Ford plays Luisa and Sam Swenson plays Matt. These two couldn't be more ingenuous.
Ford has a beautiful voice and gives an accurate portrayal of a teenage girl experiencing first love. Her Luisa also seems to be in love with the whole world and just ready for an adventure. Ford dances really well too.
Swenson as Matt looks like he should be doing a guest spot on “The Big Bang Theory”, but he's here falling in love with Luisa and just brimming with teenage angst.
When he returns in the second act from experiencing the world he has the uncanny ability to age a decade during intermission. As he gets older he may wish to develop this skill in reverse.
Matt's father, Hucklebee, is played by Jerome Stein and Bellomy, Luisa's dad is played by Rick Tett. Every parent of teenagers in the audience was able to relate to these dads. They alternate between quarreling with one another and co-operating on how to get their children to want to marry.
Tett and Stein make an unlikely but entertaining song-and dance-team. They sing “Never Say No” quite well and even though they move like the tractors that travel down the highway at 10 miles an hour, it somehow fits with what they are singing about, the incomprehensible behavior of children, and their dancing is just plain funny to watch.
Frank Rosamond plays El Gallo and acts as The Narrator. He doesn't so much own the stage as presides over it. He brings a sort of North Texas dashing charm to the part that works quite nicely.
The comedy main course is served up by Charles Beachley as The Old Actor, Henry and Nick Mann as Mortimer.
El Gallo hires Henry and Mortimer to help stage an abduction of Luisa so Matt can rescue her. They arrive on stage by climbing out of an old trunk. They are covered with decades of dust from their travels. With every move clouds of it waft from their persons.
After awhile the smell of baby powder in the black box theater is inescapable, but that just adds to the joke.
Beachley's old actor is always reciting Shakespeare and managing to look truly pitiful even while he's being funny.
Mortimer's specialty is his death scenes. Mann gets some of the loudest laughs when he goes through gyrations that cause him to join the choir invisible.
Aaron Green as the Mute provides much of the show's theatrical magic. When he sprinkles confetti or glitter or moves the scenery he manages to do it with a sort of ethereal quality. He also has to provide many props at exactly the right instant. He does that so smoothly it's barely noticeable.
Pianist Mark Miller and harpist Shanna Griffith are on stage accompanying the actors during every song. It is so good to see singers accompanied by live music rather than recorded music. There is something about watching singer and musician working together that adds to the enjoyment of a show. Miller and Griffith provide a major element to the success of the show.
Mary Medrick has directed “The Fantasticks” with a light touch and an aptitude for bringing out the themes in this show such as the frustration of raising children and the futile desire to protect them from any of life's blows or just the pain of growing up.
Medrick though has kept most of the action far upstage and seldom uses the acres of downstage space. The theater was not designed for sound conduction so often sound goes up to the ceiling instead of out toward the audience.
“The Fantasticks” was written by two University of Texas alums, Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt and played in Greenwich Village in New York for 41 years.
The cast and crew of the FCT production should be proud of their work on this show. The audiences should be proud too that such a wonderful show is playing in Frisco.
Come see it. It runs through December 17. Visit www.friscocommunitytheatre.com for ticket information.
While you're thinking, save gas money and come see Frisco Community Theatre's production of “The Fantasticks” at the black box theater in the Frisco Discovery Center.
With this small musical Frisco Community Theatre shows it can give a very good bang for the buck, rivaling anything available in Dallas.
Not that there is anything substandard about theater in Dallas. But FCT now competes equally with anything south of LBJ and parts in between.
“The Fantasticks” is about a boy and girl who are neighbors. They fall in love. Their relationship is all the more sweet because they think their fathers forbid it.
Emily Ford plays Luisa and Sam Swenson plays Matt. These two couldn't be more ingenuous.
Ford has a beautiful voice and gives an accurate portrayal of a teenage girl experiencing first love. Her Luisa also seems to be in love with the whole world and just ready for an adventure. Ford dances really well too.
Swenson as Matt looks like he should be doing a guest spot on “The Big Bang Theory”, but he's here falling in love with Luisa and just brimming with teenage angst.
When he returns in the second act from experiencing the world he has the uncanny ability to age a decade during intermission. As he gets older he may wish to develop this skill in reverse.
Matt's father, Hucklebee, is played by Jerome Stein and Bellomy, Luisa's dad is played by Rick Tett. Every parent of teenagers in the audience was able to relate to these dads. They alternate between quarreling with one another and co-operating on how to get their children to want to marry.
Tett and Stein make an unlikely but entertaining song-and dance-team. They sing “Never Say No” quite well and even though they move like the tractors that travel down the highway at 10 miles an hour, it somehow fits with what they are singing about, the incomprehensible behavior of children, and their dancing is just plain funny to watch.
Frank Rosamond plays El Gallo and acts as The Narrator. He doesn't so much own the stage as presides over it. He brings a sort of North Texas dashing charm to the part that works quite nicely.
The comedy main course is served up by Charles Beachley as The Old Actor, Henry and Nick Mann as Mortimer.
El Gallo hires Henry and Mortimer to help stage an abduction of Luisa so Matt can rescue her. They arrive on stage by climbing out of an old trunk. They are covered with decades of dust from their travels. With every move clouds of it waft from their persons.
After awhile the smell of baby powder in the black box theater is inescapable, but that just adds to the joke.
Beachley's old actor is always reciting Shakespeare and managing to look truly pitiful even while he's being funny.
Mortimer's specialty is his death scenes. Mann gets some of the loudest laughs when he goes through gyrations that cause him to join the choir invisible.
Aaron Green as the Mute provides much of the show's theatrical magic. When he sprinkles confetti or glitter or moves the scenery he manages to do it with a sort of ethereal quality. He also has to provide many props at exactly the right instant. He does that so smoothly it's barely noticeable.
Pianist Mark Miller and harpist Shanna Griffith are on stage accompanying the actors during every song. It is so good to see singers accompanied by live music rather than recorded music. There is something about watching singer and musician working together that adds to the enjoyment of a show. Miller and Griffith provide a major element to the success of the show.
Mary Medrick has directed “The Fantasticks” with a light touch and an aptitude for bringing out the themes in this show such as the frustration of raising children and the futile desire to protect them from any of life's blows or just the pain of growing up.
Medrick though has kept most of the action far upstage and seldom uses the acres of downstage space. The theater was not designed for sound conduction so often sound goes up to the ceiling instead of out toward the audience.
“The Fantasticks” was written by two University of Texas alums, Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt and played in Greenwich Village in New York for 41 years.
The cast and crew of the FCT production should be proud of their work on this show. The audiences should be proud too that such a wonderful show is playing in Frisco.
Come see it. It runs through December 17. Visit www.friscocommunitytheatre.com for ticket information.
Copyright © 2013 - Star Local News