The Fantasticks

The pluses for this are terrific art and production design which is beautifully displayed by the cinematography of Fred Murphy but pretty pictures only go so far. The piece's other strong suit is a fine score with many lovely songs however they are compromised by being given to the two leads who have thin reedy voices without distinction or subtlety and the tunes suffer because of it. The score was a favorite of the young Barbra Streisand and she recorded several of the numbers, listen to her versions of Much More, Soon It's Gonna Rain and particularly I Can See It and you'll understand what has been lost in the pallid interpretations offered here. Alas it is of no help that the same romantic leads share zero chemistry on screen with McIntyre practically disappearing from the screen, so bland is his presence. The best work is turned in by Brad Sullivan and Joel Grey but their parts are small and Grey is especially wasted. Catch the live show instead.

Let's get the usual remarks out of the way:

1. I saw "The Fantasticks" on Sullivan Street. 2. I've played Hucklebee. 3. I love the show.

The movie was OK. Not special; but OK. This will seem egotistical, but it's not: John Corona & I were SO much better than Joel Grey and Brad Sullivan, and that's on a community theatre level. It's not that we were brilliant, but Brad Sullivan was so completely god-awful that Joel Grey (who at least is competent) was completely sandbagged. Why in the name of David Merrick would you cast someone in a major musical part who can't carry a tune in a bucket? I lamented that "Plant a Radish" was cut from the movie until I saw it as a DVD extra. "Oh. That's why they cut it. The singing sucks."

The young lovers were OK. Jonathon Morris acted wonderfully as El Gallo, danced well... and his singing was OK but breathy. None of the power associated with the role.

The best ones in the movie were Barnard Hughes as Henry & Teller as Mortimer... so of course their parts were heavily trimmed, prompting the heading on this review. Apparently when Francis Ford Coppola was editing the movie, he was shocked and aghast at Teller speaking. Teller is now silent in the film.

Some of the changes from play to film are clever, and there is some beautiful photography. But in a musical, without the voices you're sunk.

"The Fantasticks" has been a part of my life since 1960 when I first saw Kenneth Nelson, Rita Gardner, and Jerry Orbach play in the original. Over the past forty years I've directed, played-in, or played-for hundreds of performances from New York to Miami. I feel I know the play inside and out, even adding many touches for the mute that was never off-Broadway. Thirty some-odd years ago, I saw it on television, as I recall, it was John Davison, Lesley Ann Warren, and Ricardo Montalban (as El Gallo). I, being a purist, thought the TV show was abominable. But I was younger and hadn't learned to tolerate or respect other viewpoints or interpretations. I held my breath as I started playing the DVD after finding out that the opening "Try to Remember" was gone....but the more I watched...Jonathan (Stephen Sondheim's musicals) Tunnick's orchestrations started working a magic on me, and by the time "Soon It's Gonna Rain". finished, I was charmed and captivated. I didn't object to the new "Depends on What You Play", for the melody as always been in the score, only played by the "orchestra" as the Rape music ballet. Reading the other posts on IMDB board, I think many comments were unfair to this movie. There is NO way you could capture the original staging on film. A compromise had to be reached. And since it was Jones and Schmidt who wrote the screenplay, they and they alone had to right to do with it as they wished.

Ok, maybe it can be argued that it is simply not possible to make a decent film of this wonderful musical. But even given that, one certainly could have done a better job than this. I rate this at the bottom of the pile of stage to screen transfers along with the dreadful Bye, Bye, Birdie and Paint Your Wagon.

First, why cut "Try to Remember" (the one song that practically everyone knows) from the beginning of the picture (and trim it at the end). It establishes the whole mood of the show - calling the audience to remember back when they first fell in love and the magic of that moment. This show just opens with Bellamy sewing (?)

Then, because they wanted to make it more like a traditional movie musical, they cut the narrator - and with him went most of the wonderful dialogue much of it spoken in poetry and verse (note the absence of the speech before "Soon Its Gonna Rain"["You wonder how these things begin...]; trimmed down is the "Curious Paradox" speech the most important part being cut out; gone is Louisa's self-description that sets up "Much More" as well as Matt's intro to "Metaphor"; and most important of all the speech opening the second act is gone which explains much of what the story is about).

Gone also are all the wonderful metaphors (the whole idea behind the song of the same title)that prevade the show - the gardening metaphors are gone (hence why "Plant a Radish" was cut, though one wonders why they left in "This Plum is Too Ripe"); gone also is the metaphor of the wall (one of the most important in the show, leading to the most significant, if not most enigmatic, line in the play "Leave the wall, you must always leave the wall.")

Not surprisingly the mute is cut, but other characters are changed as well. With the narrator gone, the motive of El Gallo is unclear. Why is he doing these things? Why does he say the curious paradox speech if he is not going to explain why he hurt them (and himself)? Only the part of Henry remains fairly faithful to the original play (even Mortimer is given over to Teller as a non-speaking role). Louisa is played too simperingly sweet rather than as a self-absorbed teenage girl fascinated more with the idea of being in love than actually loving Matt. Her transition at the end (from "I am love" originally in Metaphor to "You are love" at the reprise) makes no sense in this version.

Yes, most of the songs are there. But they are often trimmed down, replaced with safer songs (like the absolutely horrible "Abductions" replacing the clever "It Depends on What you Pay) or the lyrics are completely rewritten("Metaphor"). I know the arguments for replacing "Depends", but I have directed the show twice and played El Gallo once and have not ever heard a complaint about the song - you simply have to introduce it correctly.

One wonders why they even decided to film this show if they were going to change it so much. I believe a fairly decent film might have been made if they had stayed with what they had. Instead they decided to go Hollywood with it and the result is nothing like the original story. No wonder it stayed in the can for 6 years before being released. It probably should have stayed there. One big disappointment.

I was the focus puller on the film and quite frankly, if you go to most theaters today, you'll see A LOT worse. Let's take it out of the box and hear all of Harvey and Tom's great music and let's relish in the tremendous images of Fred Murphy, ASC.