Try To Remember A Little Differently At Island City

Jesse Luttrell right, and from left,  Margot Moreland, Kevin Hincapie, Jonny Lee Jr. Jeni Hacker in The Fantasticks at Island City Stage .. . Photo by Matthew Tippins

By Britin Haller

From The Fantasticks …

“There is a curious paradox that no one can explain.
Who understands the secret of the reaping of the grain?
Who understands why Spring is born out of Winter’s laboring pain,
Or why we must all die a bit before we grow again.”

 Hot off the heels of their outstanding 12th year comes Island City Stage’s 13^th season opener, The Fantasticks, a delightful romantic dramady billed as the South Florida premiere of “The world’s longest running musical in history … with a twist.”

And that it is.

In fact, Director Andy Rogow and Managing Director Martin Childers had to get special permission and are now only the third playhouse in the country to perform this version. So what’s so unique? Namely its star-crossed lovers Matt and Luisa are now Matt and Lewis. That’s right. Welcome to the gay retelling of The Fantasticks!

It is in a word, dare we say it without getting booed, fantastic.

This is simply a reimagined take on the classic show, The Fantasticks, (the name based on a 1900 adaptation of an Edmond Rostand play that had the k) that just so happens to have two male leads instead of the standard male/female ones.

There are only a few minor necessary changes to lyrics and lines, and the dueling buttinsky fathers (Hucklebee and Bellamy) are now mothers named Mildred and Bessie, but other than that the differences from the original are not addressed. Nor should they be. As Rogow puts it, “There’s no need to explain why two young men should fall in love. Love is love.”

The time and place, according to the playbill, are somewhere in your memory. Next door to each other live the nearly 20-year-old Matt and 16-year-old Lewis. Forget about the fact that Matt is already a practical young man, and Lewis is a spoiled, melodramatic mangenue who thinks he’s a prince and has visions of grandeur, and let’s not talk about the age discrepancy no reasonable parent would allow for obvious reasons, because the two are smitten with each other, and that’s just the way it will be.

Adding to the drama/hilarity are Matt and Lewis’s matriarchs who bicker in front of their sons for effect, but behind the scenes are besties, because in the nuttiest bit of reverse psychology ever, the moms built a wall between their two houses so the boys can’t even see each other. But just when we think they are keeping them apart because they suspect their children are gay, the joke is on us, and the ladies are actually separating them to tempt them to fall in love. After all, there is nothing like forbidden passion to make two people want to be together.

For a little while, it works, but then the fickle Lewis sees Matt in the daylight, and loses his attraction. So Bessie and Mildred come up with an even more elaborate scheme when tempted to do so by the cagey bandit, El Gallo, who knows a couple of good marks when he sees them. What follows is one of the most redonculous (extremely ridiculous) good times in musical history.

In its first off-Broadway run, Greenwich Village to be more precise, The Fantasticks went a whopping 42 years and 17,000 performances from 1960-2002, such a record-breaking event that The New York Times covered its closing on the front page. Four years later, a revival, also off-Broadway, played over 4,000 times. Staying power, indeed.

Without having the benefit of ever seeing the OG The Fantasticks (yes, so ashamed!), and with nothing to compare it to, this book and lyrics seem seamless. There’s a reason for that. This new rendition was lovingly created by Tom Jones, who wrote the original with music composer Harvey Schmidt, as well as the script for the 1995 film adaptation.

During Covid lockdowns, Michigan artistic director Michael Lluberes approached Jones with a proposal of reimagining The Fantasticks with male love interests, and Jones, a 92-year-old open-minded straight man, proved it’s never too late to reinvent oneself by quickly jumping on board, taking the idea even further than Lluberes had imagined. Tom Jones passed away in 2023 leaving a huge legacy and a lovely parting gift to the LGBTQ+ community. In addition, Jones cleaned up two particular references that definitely don’t hold up in today’s evolved society, namely he removed mention of the American Indian and changed the title of the ballet from rape to abduction.

Vibrato is in full display as one gorgeous song after another showcases the tremendous talents of the singing cast. The most well-known is “Try to Remember,” a haunting number about looking back with nostalgia on the days of our youth and first love. Harvey Schmidt claims to have written the melody all in one afternoon after giving up on other pieces that just weren’t coming together. Over 50 years later “Try to Remember” fittingly served as the ringtone for this critic’s mother (who suffered from dementia before she passed), and hearing it now as it both opens and closes The Fantasticks feels especially comforting.

There are eight characters of which duos are a theme. There are the two assistants hired by El Gallo, the buttinsky moms, Matt and Lewis, and the Mute and El Gallo, and it’s almost impossible to imagine one without their partner. With no fourth wall to stop them, the players are free to ham it up and do their thing, at times making eye contact with someone in the audience, or even winking at them.

Making his Island City Stage debut, and looking like Charlton Heston’s Moses in The Ten Commandments, Michael Gioia plays Henry, a.k.a. the Old Actor. As the forgetful thespian who doesn’t want to admit he’s seen better days “Perhaps you recall my Hamlet?” Gioia holds us in the palm of his hands. Will he, or won’t he, nail his audition before El Gallo? Is this the end of Henry’s career, or just the beginning? Gioia is simply terrific, and as Henry utters that familiar line “There are no small actors, only small parts,” we know he is right. Gioia is a wonderful addition to the Island City family, and there is a burning desire to see him in something else soon.

The Old Actor’s counterpart is Mortimer, a.k.a. The Man Who Dies, because that’s his specific shtick. That, and helping Henry remember his Shakespearean lines. They are a team in the worst, and best, way. Mortimer is brought to life by Rayner Gabriel whose physical prowess and pratfalls are impressive, and whose ability to work the crowd doesn’t go unnoticed. We simply can’t get enough of Henry and Mortimer, and their twosome is a favorite for good reason. They are so much more than as Henry describes them, “I recite Shakespeare, and Mortimer dies.”

Margot Moreland, Louis San Luis, Jeni Hacker

Jeni Hacker and Margot Moreland (both multiple Carbonell winners) star as the meddling mothers, a lively pair of gardeners with basic dance moves and excellent comedic timing. In “Never Say No” they tickle us, and in their horticulture song “Plant a Radish,” they share and delight us with the frustrations of having a son and then not being able to control what he will be as he grows up. And despite being the goofiest female friends since Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz, Moreland and Hacker resonate a vulnerability and love for the sons they would literally do anything for. Wonderful work, ladies.

As Matt and Lewis, Kevin Hincapie and Jonny Lee Jr. couldn’t be sweeter as the young couple who dream of what could be. As El Gallo tells us “Instead of reading textbooks, they tried to memorize the moon.”

Kevin Hincapie and Jonny Lee Jr

Kevin Hincapie is a new addition to the ICS stage, but definitely has staying power for years to come with his leading man looks and powerful (and pure!) vocal range dropping into the deep bass at times. His Matt is an innocent protector.

Jonny Lee Jr. wins us over as the boy who wants desperately to love and be loved in the moonlight, but isn’t really sure what that looks like in the daytime. Fanciful and desperately naïve, he doesn’t want to be normal. Lee Jr. has an ideal voice for big numbers as he proves to us in his solo “Much More.” His pirouette is exquisite.

Their duets, “Metaphor,” “They Were You,” and “Soon It’s Gonna Rain” are beautiful with lilting harmonies, and when Matt lifts Lewis in a classic dance, the hardest of hearts certainly must melt.

Louie San Luis appears as the Mute, a part which has no lines, well almost none (but is not small!) and requires a lot with body language and facial expressions. In fact, the typical audition for this role sees the actor performing non-verbal movements by themselves and with others. San Luis has an uncanny ability to be present in almost every scene, and yet be almost invisible, even while working with props. He’s a mystery, and a master of confetti.

And then there’s El Gallo. If there is a bigger rascal around, good luck finding him. The iconic dastardly devil has been coveted and portrayed by a bevy of Hollywood stars over the years, including in no particular order, John Davidson, Peter Reckell (Days of Our Lives), Bert Convy,  John Carradine, Richard Chamberlain, Ricardo Montalban, the ever-so-smooth Robert Goulet, and the original El Gallo, Jerry Orbach of Law & Order fame, who got his start in musicals and was the first to perform the monumental “Try to Remember.” Despite only playing El Gallo for about a year, he made such an impression that the New York house that ran The Fantasticks was renamed in honor of him and is now known as the Jerry Orbach Theater.

As the proverbial “star” of this show, the multifaceted Jesse Luttrell is the wascally wabbit himself, the smarmy, handsome, did we mention handsome, devil-may-care mercenary who is everywhere at once. All the words come to mind for El Gallo, ne’er-do-well, rogue, swashbuckler, villain, vagabond, and snake charmer. Think a corrupt Zorro, and you won’t be far off. And nothing against Jerry Orbach, but Jesse Luttrell is Robert Goulet and Antonio Banderas all rolled into one.

With Luttrell’s sideburns, goatee, and near Snidely Whiplash mustache, and his red scarf, suspenders, black boots and hat, and long black velvet jacket with a stenciled design, he paints a dashing fellow. He’s so perfectly fitted to the complicated scoundrel.

Luttrell was a child actor, so being in character is home to him, and his training as a ballet dancer allows him to seamlessly glide across the stage while oozing his debonair charm, pretend swordfight like a pro, and “die” spectacularly after being jabbed with a tip. And during “It Depends On What You Pay,” when the confident con man is offering the mothers the deal of a lifetime of “one abduction first class with the trimmings,” Luttrell really shows off.

Besides being an omnipotent poet, and narrator, who is capable of bringing us to almost tears with his words and lyrics “Without a hurt, the heart is hollow,” and easily being able to feign concern (or is it?) for others, El Gallo is a puppet master, and at times an unreliable narrator.

Luttrell’s rich high baritone with the dulcet tones shines in his duet “I Can See It” with the young Matt, and in the oh-so-lovely “Try to Remember” when one wonders, and hopes, if the longing seen on El Gallo’s face is real. This is Luttrell’s debut at the Island City Stage, and here’s to wishing there is much more of him to come.

Musical Director Eric Alford is the evening’s sole accompanist. He sits right offstage and is able to be seen by a few lucky patrons who can enjoy him really getting into it. Intimacy Director and Choreographer Nicole Perry seems to be everywhere this year for great reason. Glad to see her enormous talents used here with an assist by the director, Andy Rogow.

The minimalist set, costumes, and props are intentional because that’s the way The Fantasticks is intended to be presented, admittingly borrowing some design ideas from Tom Jones’s idol, Thorton Wilder, and Wilder’s play Our Town.

Stage Manager/Assistant Director Richard Weinstock deserves a good mention, as do the following individuals: Rayner Gabriel (Mortimer) who doubles as the Assistant Stage Manager, W. Emil White for costumes, Denise Proffitt for property design, the house manager Megan Degraaf who kept the evening flowing smoothly with her regular aplomb, and Ardean Landhuis and David Hart, whose lighting and sound in particular during the fantasy torture scenes add to the fun. Yes, torture, and yes, fun.  

In a fitting display of respect, and because the production was not eligible for a regular Tony statuette as it was always off-Broadway, The Fantasticks was honored with an Excellence in Theatre Tony Award in 1992.

So don’t just try to remember, definitely do remember to get your tickets to The Fantasticks. You’ll watch history being made while having one heck of a redonculous good time doing it!

Britin Haller is a mystery author and an editor for Turner Publishing. Her latest short story “So Many Shores in Crookland” can be read in the 150^th issue of Black Cat Weekly. Britin’s latest edit, a cozy mystery novel called Dumpster Dying is by Michelle Bennington and available where books are sold. Find Britin across social media.

The Fantasticks runs through November 17th at Island City Stage, 2304 N. Dixie Hwy, Wilton Manors, (south of Oakland Park Blvd.); Thursday at 7 p.m.; Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m.; Running time approximately 150 minutes includes a 15-minute intermission. Tickets start at $50. Call 954-928-9800 or visit islandcitystage.org.