‘Fantasticks’ is competent but could use more delicacy, whimsy and charm

OKC POW WOW CLUB PLANS BENEFIT

It’s a simple premise for a musical: one boy, one girl and the two fathers who pretend to feud with each other in order to prevent their children from falling in love. Anyone with an inkling of theatrical history knows this couldn’t be anything other than “The Fantasticks.”

Lyric Theatre continues its 2016 Plaza season with this landmark musical, one that may be more familiar for its glorious melodies than its theatrical inventiveness. Either way, it’s a timeless property that deserves to be seen more often.

Yet, despite its simplicity, “The Fantasticks” is enormously challenging to mount. Treat it too literally, and it becomes cloying. Give the actors too much freedom, and it loses its charm. To make it work, one has to tread the fine line that exists between the two extremes.

Director Ashley Wells has assembled a competent production, one that works quite well in comical scenes. But those intangible elements of delicacy, whimsy and charm, so crucial to the success of this musical, are evoked too infrequently.

Wells also has encouraged or allowed her cast too much leeway when it comes to embellishing the printed text. The same thing often happens with Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, and like them, “The Fantasticks” libretto doesn’t need improving.

“Have you never seen my Romeo,” the old actor asks El Gallo in one scene. The line “My Rumplestiltskin, my Peter Pan?” is then added for an additional laugh. Later, the old actors sing the line “shining somewhere,” which becomes an impromptu cue for a melodic nod to “West Side Story.” The mention of medical marijuana is equally unnecessary.

That aside, Terry Runnells breathes terrific life into Henry, the creaky old actor whose buffoonish actions are both touching and humorous. The cheery Hassan Nazari-Robati is amusing as Mortimer, Henry’s cohort whose specialty is acting out lengthy death

THEATER REVIEW

‘THE FANTASTICKS’

When:

7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, through April 24.

Lyric at the Plaza, 1725

NW 16

524-9312 or www. lyrictheatreokc.com. scenes.

The character El Gallo, played by Mateja Govich, serves both as narrator and participant in the action. He set the evening’s tone with a fine rendition of “Try to Remember,” but was more persuasive still in “I Can See It,” a delightful second-act duet with the character Matt.

Brian Stockton (Bellomy) and Thomas Cunningham (Hucklebee) make a fine pair of curmudgeonly fathers. They illustrate their fondness for reverse psychology in “Never Say No” and explain their metaphoric love for gardening in the delightful “Plant a Radish.”

Sheridan McMichael has nary a

American Indian dancers, drummers and food are just a few highlights planned for the Oklahoma City Pow Wow Club’s benefit Saturday at the Indian Hills grounds, 9300 N Sooner Road.

The all-ages event will showcase indigenous talent while raising funds for the club’s 66th annual Indian Hills Pow Wow in July. It will feature club Princess Brittany Taylor. The gourd dance will be from 2 to 5 p.m., and the grand entry begins at 7 p.m.

For more information, call Joe Poe at 923-1254. For information on vendor space, call Margaret Morgan at 528-5026.