Saturday, January 14, 2006

The Fantasticks

Portland Center Stage
January 13, 2006; closes February 5, 2006

Nearly cried — not over lost innocence, but missed opportunity. Overthought rethink; much misdirected attention, as if production didn’t trust or was bored with its own material. How do all these trappings serve a play utterly simple in essence? They don’t. Exquisite score fortunately intact. Ron Daum is musical theater trouper.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

More than a trooper, Ron Daum shows what this production might have been -- so great!

Anonymous said...

this “chestnut” disturbed me (in a bad way). the rape song was truly tasteless (they say "it's about abduction"; it's still a song (with reprises) about “rape” (surely “abduction” rhymes with something?!?!)) and the Native American stereotype was offensive, unnecessary. couldn't another small-cast, not-outdated musical about love have been produced??

Anonymous said...

That should be "trouper", as in:

trouper |ˈtroōpər| noun an actor or other entertainer, typically one with long experience. • a reliable and uncomplaining person : a real trouper, Ma concealed her troubles.

A trooper is one of those guys with the Smokey the Bear hats

followspot said...

I concede to the Vocabulary Trooper. Indeed, it should be trouper, and I have corrected the spelling error. Thanks for catching that.