ch a pair of actors sitting below another actor holding a couple of branches, dropping bits of white confetti and imagine the most serene meeting of young love? Throughout The Fantasticks we are treated to a taste when others would’ve seen fit to serve a seven-course meal, and it works perfectly. When actors die with a flourish of floating bits of red paper and we see blood, or when a piece of cardboard covered with foil makes us see a romantic, moonlit rendezvous, then theatre is truly being created.This production is also greatly benefited by the presence of a fine ensemble of actors who seem to take great pleasure in their roles. Obviously, with a production that has run continuously for 35 years, the company runs the risk of getting stale or bored, but it was very apparent that the current cast attacks the play with a fresh vitality and energy that become contagious. Eric Meyersfield and Christine Long who play the Boy and the Girl are both making their Off-Broadway debut and undoubtedly bring a great deal of youthful energy and spark to their parts. Particularly impressive was John Savarese playing the part of the Narrator with an engaging charm and likeability that makes his calculated betrayal of the Girl all the more cruel. There is much room to play El Gallo as an unsympathetic manipulator, but Mr. Savarese finds a way to balance his character’s actions with compassion, which makes for some wonderfully poignant moments, especially in the signature tune “Try to Remember.”Obviously, I found much to like and little to fault in this current incarnation of The Fantasticks. I believe it works on so many levels because it chooses to tell a simple story simply. We can draw from it what we want. Like the characters themselves, we can choose to see what we want to see. Though we all know “happily ever after” seldom is, there is indeed a kind of “Happy Ending” feeling after seei...
