By MICHAEL BIRCHENALL
Weekender Theater Critic
 

The Off-Broadway production of “The Fantasticks,” by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, is the worlds longest running musical. Rapidly approaching 17,000 performances, it opened at the Sullivan Street Playhouse on May 3, 1960. Forty-one years later it is still going on its onginal batteries, and the creators are still working at their craft in Schmidts same West Side flat.

I could go on about the more than 11,000 productions of the light musical that have been performed in all 50 states, but lets Just say it made it into the “Guinness Book of World Records,” easily. The current McLean Theatre Alliance rendition follows its long-running predecessor’s formula for success—keep it simple, clean and delightful.

Diva Lynch has directed the parable about love with a light hand—albeit a bit slow in generating the kind of affinity you need from an audience. With a stronger pace, it would have brought the audience into the show rather than covering them with a blanket.

Its the classic Romeo and Juliet story – with a backward twist.  Here the two fathers decide that they want their children to fall in love.  Luisa (Jennifer Ballif) is the ultimate day-dreamer with an overactive imagination.  The two fathers have staged a mock feud between themselves in order to help the boy and girl fall in love. The fathers go as far as to hire El Gallo (Jack Scheer) to stage a mock abduction of Luisa, in which Matt becomes the hero and saves her.

It all works as planned, but with the coming up of the sun and the inevitable light, the children see their love fade away as they learn of their parents’ deception. The story plods toward discovery, despair and the eventual triumph of love.

Jennifer Ballif brings to the stage a strong and lyrical Louisa. Her voice handles every note with a divine sense of the musical intent of the writers. She wins us over as Louisa with songs like “Soon Its Going to Rain.”

Roy Leatherbys Matt is not quite the match for Ballif, but he is most capable, and some of my issues with his voice and diction are with the sound and its mix.

Only Ballif had the ability to sing through the sound that seemed to drop levels during songs and made the voices appear to struggle and fade.

Jack Scheer, as Gallo, has the honor of singing the show’s most memorable song
“Try to Remember.” He does so with a steady voice and acts his part with the same even hand as the figure of tension against the idealism of Matt and Louisa.

The Mute (Scott D. Landsman) is a mime here. He glides about the stage with precision and lighthearted cheer.  Landsman is always working his hat, and he brightens the performance from beginning to end. 

Then you have the two odd guys of “The Fantasticks” – The actor Henry played by Philip Baedecker and the man who dies played by David Kahn.  They are the kind of one-dimensional characters that are a blast for actors to play, and you could see both of them are having a great time on stage. Baedecker is brilliant at milking all he can get from the role of the actor just as Henry would have.

For Kahn, it is simple—he never had such fun dying so many times.

If you’re thinking of seeing “The Fantasticks” in New York, because it seems everyone else has, then you only have through the end of the year.

Yes, “The Fantasticks” will close on Jan. 13, 2002, at the Sullivan, but it’s running strong in McLean.