The Fantasticks
SPOILER ALERT: People who have never seen The Fantasticks may wish to skip the rest of this review. (Suffice it to say The Fantasticks is a beautiful romance and that the intimate NYC production (that you can get half price tickets for at TKTS) is excellent.

The Fantasticks is the longest running show in American history, and the longest running musical in the world-- it has been steadily performed in New York for 37 years, besides the countless regional productions. The show brings spectacle to a human scale, but never loses itself in trying to over simplify the situation of the young couple and their fathers.

The story is both simple and complex: the starry eyed girl and the just-graduated boy ("I defy Biology and Achieve… Ignorance") fall in love, despite (or because of) their fathers' play at being mortal enemies, in the classic Romeo and Juliet tradition. The wall (represented by an actor with an outstretched stick) symbolizes the distance the fathers' place between them. When the fathers' look for a way to finish their feud, they decide on hiring the cunning bandit El Gallo to stage an abduction, allowing the boy to heroically rescue the maiden and save the day. Act one ends with the happy reuniting of the two families and the tearing down of the wall.
But the relationships had an easier time in the romantic moonlight than in the hot sunlight. The father's find that they can no longer easily share a garden. The boy needs to see the World. And the ever-romantic girl finds herself falling for the dark and mysterious El Gallo. In the end, the wall is rebuilt, along with the friendship of the fathers' and the romance of the lovers, with everyone made wiser for the struggle. As the final song points out: 
Deep in December, it's nice to remember:
Without a hurt, the heart is hollow.
Deep in December, our hearts should remember,
And follow.
I respected the way this show brought together so many elements: a happy ending, but not too happy, slapstick comedy, catchy songs, elements from a wide range of classical theatre modes, and a bittersweet sentimentality that is tempered by a caution of situations that seem too simple.

The New York production, in a slightly run-down off-Broadway theatre, made excellent use of its small, intimate stagespace. Tickets are almost always available for half-price from TKTS at Times Square. It's a wonderful evening for a romantic NYC getaway. (Also, this play is a favorite for local theater companies, probably because of its smallish cast and production requirements.) If you haven't seen this show yet, you owe it to yourself to go.

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