The Fantasticks

I saw Arena Stage's production of The Fantasticks last night. Performers always matter but that is especially true when it comes to a simple little musical like this. Arena used a slightly less basic than usual set and the mild gimmick of having El Gallo and The Mute do magic tricks, but that didn't really fancy it up as much as I feared it might. Instead, the fine (and, incidentally, multiracial) cast gave the musical lots of charm. Addi McDaniel was excellent as Luisa and Timothy Ware as Matt matched her well. Laurence O'Dwyer has gotten a lot of well-deserved mention in the press for his turn as Henry, which is a marvel of comic timing. The weak note was Sebastian La Cause as a somewhat passionless El Gallo. All of his magic went into his tricks and didn't leave quite enough for his songs.

By the way, Arena used "It Depends on What You Pay" with changes in the lyrics (to refer to "raid" and "abduction" instead of "rape" instead of the more recent substitute "Abductions." That's a good way to avoid controversy without cutting music.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable evening of theatre. I will, alas, be humming much of the score for the next couple of days.