‘The Fantasticks’ premiering April 22 at The Cat
By STU CLAMPITT
The Fantasticks is the world’s longest running musical, having been on stage for 42 years, and now Carmel Community Players is bringing it to audiences at The Cat, 254 Veterans Way, Carmel, for three weekends.
According to Director Rich Phipps, the show ran continuously at the Sullivan Street Playhouse off-Broadway for 17,162 performances from 1960 to 2002.
“I saw it there in 1990 and was taken by the simple beauty of the show, and the intimacy of the venue, as it was only five rows deep,” Phipps told The Reporter. “By the early 2000s, The Fantasticks had become established as perhaps the most performed musical in the world, having been adapted to film and produced around the globe in 67 countries by professional, community and school theatres.”
Phipps said he believes the show’s popularity stems from the fact that people of all ages and life experiences can identify with it.
“It starts with a spoof on Romeo and Juliet with fathers staking a feud, but it’s a lot more than that,” Phipps said. “It works on many levels. Sometimes it is actually a play within a play within a play. It has beautiful music, including the iconic song ‘Try to Remember’ sung by the narrator.”
This play shows how young love starts off as an idealized fantasy and can mature into a more meaningful relationship.
Thom Johnson plays Mortimer in CCP’s production of The Fantasticks, premiering April 22 at the Cat in Carmel. (Photo provided by Ghost Light Photography)
“Certain audiences can draw much more from it, viewing from the lens of their own life experience,” Phipps said. “At various life stages, some will identify with the young lovers, others the parents, the ‘old actors’ or the story tellers.”
This play has been a favorite of Phipps for a long time. Many moons ago he even played the role of Matt, the young boy.
“One of my favorite lines from the show is, ‘Without a hurt, the heart is hollow,’ which has certain profundity to it, I think, and almost a religious kind of meaning,” Phipps said. “It is a touching show, but it is also absurd and a bit over the top. We walk that fine line between fantasy and reality, between joy and sorrow. It starts with everything is beautiful in the moonlight in Act 1, to the reality of the sunlight coming in Act 2 and exposing flaws in people and relationships. But it all resolves in the end in a beautiful way.”
As the world comes back to public life after the pandemic, many theaters are finding it hard to cast their productions. While actors who have not been on stage in a long time are eager to get back to the work, they are also in very high demand.
“We had quality and not quantity in terms of auditioners,” Phipps told The Reporter. “Coming out of COVID, people who hadn’t done shows had a break for over a year. This is our second show where attendance is back to normal levels. A lot of people are booked now because it’s like coming out of hibernation. We did face a lot of competition in casting parts. While we didn’t have big numbers of people, at the end of the day we only need eight for a full cast, and I am very pleased with the people who turned out.”
Whether you have ever seen this show or not, Phipps encourages you to come see it at The Cat, 254 Veterans Way, Carmel, where is stages from April 22 through May 8.
“I’m sure many in the audience will have seen The Fantasticks before, perhaps several times,” Phipps said. “So as a director, the challenge has been to keep it fresh, while not deviating far from the essence of what made it so popular in the first place, striking a balance between how touching it is, and yet how ludicrous.”
Visit CarmelPlayers.org or call (317) 815-9387 to get your tickets for this fantastic show.
Photos provided by Ghost Light Photography