After Paradise Found last Sunday we really needed to see a good musical, but instead we got The Fantasticks. The show begins and ends with Try to Remember, nicely sung by Hadley Fraser, but a show needs more than one decent song. In between is some asinine nonsense which purports to be inspired by Shakespeare but makes High School Musical look sophisticated. To make matters worse it's given an avant garde reimagining by Amon Miyamoto and ends up like something the Young Vic might churn out in one of their dafter moments. I seem to remember Lorna Want singing a very good song from this show at the WoS Awards, but here it was either unrecognisable or had vanished altogether. Miss Want is a very talented young actress with a lovely voice but you can see the desperation in her performance as she is aware of the damage this nonsense could do to her career. As for Fraser, after The Far Pavilions, The Pyrate Queen and now this, perhaps he needs to change his agent. - David Baxter
26 Jun 10
I believe I predicted that whilst it ran 42 years off-Broadway it wouldn't last 42 days in the West End +++ And it closes June 26. Not a moment too soon. +++ read the truth at the blog called A KICK IN THE STALLS - JohnnyFox
16 Jun 10
The general reaction when I went was that this was both hilarious and superbly done - however, I find it very interesting that opinions on here are split between both extremes. Does this mean it counts as art? Congratulations to all the actors and to every person who made a play on a very basic stage with minimal props come alive. Now that's what acting is all about. - Heather
12 Jun 10
To add to my last entry--I see the show is so wonderful that the top seats are already at almost half price and the show has just opened!!!!!!!!!!!!! If anyone booked to go--take a comfy pillow - Joe Spiteri
12 Jun 10
Terrific and whacky this Off-Broadway show comes to London and not for the first time I'm told, it's been tried twice before, maybe it's going to be third time lucky? I loved it, unlike the Evening Standard critic who could only muster up one star? He should get out more and to New York City where on Off-Broadway some of the best shows have been produced. Unless you are prepared to make the effort and get your ass out there you'll miss some of the very best in theatre. There is a smugness here that considers the English stage the only "proper" theatre, believe me you can forget that idea. I've seen some crap of late and in no way does this show deserve such a derisory marking as a one star. The cast have a ball and it even has a wonderful cameo appearance from Edward Petherbridge. A fun night at the theatre. - rds
12 Jun 10
I thought this show was beautifully done and magical. The two clowns were hilarious. I was taken into another world. I think the negative reviews are TOTALLY unfair..... - Kate Sandison
11 Jun 10
When it got to the interval of this highly watchable, charming little show I was genuinely enchanted. The score is lovely, the staging is original and the cast are superb (especially Edward Petherbridge, Paul Hunter and the terrific Hadley Fraser) but Act 2 is so insubstantial that, despite the efforts of the talented people involved, it becomes a bit tedious. I wish they'd drop the interval and cut about 30 minutes off it, then this would be a 4 star evening. - ajh
11 Jun 10
I go to the theatre 5 to 6 times a month so expect to get a BAD one once in a while but this was really a TURKEy as the Daily Mail has just given it. What a load of rubbish and how it has lasted 50 years heaven knows and must be in a 5 seater theatre. What a waste of talent of actors specially Mr Rowe and Mr Burt to be in this stupid rubbish. Some people did laugh out at times (they obviously don't go out very much. I and my group did something we rarely do and that was walk out at the interval--had we been able to creep earlier, would have gladly done so but the thought of a second half--well I felt like quoting actress Mildred Dunnock in the film "Barefoot In the Park" where she says "If I had found a drugstore open, I would have bought a knife and killed myself". Luckily it is only on for a short run but be surprised if it even stays on that long - Joe Spiteri
11 Jun 10
Not a one-hit-wonder -- 110 in the Shade and I Do! I Do! were both successes. - Mel Atkey
11 Jun 10
Absolutely appalling. I kept on falling asleep during the second half and found it impossible to follow, follow, follow what was going on. So people rowed and behaved like children. I could have stayed at home and watched any reality TV show of my choosing if I wanted to see that. - Chris
10 Jun 10
Great cast, wonderful production. You can't eat 'heavy' all the time try something 'light' and 'refreshing'! - from an audience point of view
10 Jun 10
The vile critical reaction is unjustified. What this production has going for it is a very attractive cast who do give it their all. Whilst no denying the premise of the show is one that is locked in time, it tells it story in a charming way and in doing so I allowed it to work and found myself enjoying it. - Owen
10 Jun 10
“The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic.”
Oscar Wild
So don't pay any attention to these loosers as all they do is come to the theatre with their little notebooks and criticize others hard work, they don't compose music, they don't write scripts and so on, and therefore they assume they know everything... Pathetic! Most of the shows the critics hate the general public likes as they are the ones who buy the tickets.
The Fantasticks is worth every penny for perfect West End show. - Caroline Smith
10 Jun 10
After the huge deception of Paradise Found we needed something funny and worth watching! Great musical, 8 incredible Bristish Talents. Thanks for this beautiful show. - DH
10 Jun 10
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Hudkey Fraser is Fantastick!
Loved every part of this lovely production. Very magical, sweet full of good energy. - Cris Evans
10 Jun 10
The show was great. Wonderful cast, great songs and very funny moments...
Will see it again! - Laura C.
10 Jun 10
We all left at the interval (we were not alone). Dire am dram drivel. Trite and unfunny. Embarassing for the couple of good actors in it. - JN
10 Jun 10
I loved every minute of it. As did the majority of the audience last Saturday afternoon. It will appeal to anyone who loves theatre - not ALW fans. What is wrong with folks these days? - ASB
10 Jun 10
This was so bad that I felt depressed for days - and really sorry for the cast. The only redeeming feature of the evening was Edward Petherbridge and meeting him afterwards - I told him how well I remembered him in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead at the Old Vic in the 1960s. What on EARTH are he and Clive Rowe (and indeed all the cast) doing in this trite, sickly, terminally boring drivel? How I longed for it to end...Ruth - Ruth
10 Jun 10
If it weren't for Edward Petherbridge this show would have been unwatchcable. BUT, he saved the day and was worth the ticket price alone. Go and see it for one of the best hammy actooor performances ever. - Todd
10 Jun 10
The Fantasticks is a perfect show, funny with a lot of beautiful songs with great lyrics. The cast is amazing, yes the set has its faults but what one could do in such a tiny stage? But Rick Fisher lights do the trick and give magic to the performance. It is a great show, that's why it's running in NYC for more than 40 years. - marcus
10 Jun 10
Went on the WOS evening and thoroughly enjoyed it. I did know the piece as I had been involved in an Amdram version a few years ago.
Excellent performances. Both Clive Rowe and David Burt having fun, and Edward Petherbridge was just divine. Will also look out for Hadley Fraser in future. If you are wanting a juke box musical or glamour or glitz this isn't the one for you. However, if you want to enjoy a superb cast in a delightful romp, you will have a ball. - Helen Brown
03 Jun 10
Hell is a knowing nod to the audience and addressing them directly. Absolute hell is the same, but with singing and "dancing" on a set your mate at stage electrics blagged you for a sunday/monday show at the Finborough.
The FANTASTICKS, however defies this categorisation and is in a unique morally corrupt bubble of it's own. The levels of hell reached here are more akin to those the first voyagers on that space ship 'Event Horison' witnessed. You know, the ones where they rip out there own eyeballs and speak in backwards latin.
There are no redeeming features to this show, and i genuinely felt sorry for all the actors being subjected to it. The FANTASTICKS is about reality, non reality, lies, truth, yawn, yawn, etc, etc and so the poster is the first big mistake, It lies too well.. This is a colourless 'undesigned' nightmare of set and 'costumes' which (had i paid proper cash) i'd have felt so angry about i probably would have demanded a refund (for what it looked like see absolute hell above and add that it's a bad rip off of 'Spring Awakening'). Second the show itself is a turkey (how it ran on broadway that long i have NO idea). Third the performances are awful (particualy the cringy mute gay dancer who insited of throwing glitter and paper about.... like that Sweedish Tennis player did in LA CLIQUE, but not ironicaly), and even when they're 'not that bad' the horror and torment oozing off each performer is so great that they never really rise to the greatness that most of them have achieved at some point in the West End in the last 3 years.
Avoid this at ALL costs. Your life may depend upon it, Sam Neil may hunt you down.
- Cassox
01 Jun 10
TOO TRITE TO REMEMBER +++ A lot of people think there’s a pleasure in writing a scathing review. Once yes, once is delicious but twice would be vicious, or just repetitious but when faced with the third theatrical turkey in four days (Carmen at the O2, Paradise Found and now The Fantasticks) you can tire of prodding entrails with a skewer. +++
These entrails were strewn around the appropriately coffin-shaped stage of the Duchess theatre as liberallly as Jack the Ripper distributed those of his victim Mary Kelly by hanging them from the picture-rails of her sordid bedsit like paper chains. +++
We had a particularly good view of the post-mortem, having opted for on-stage seating at half the price of the Stalls, although this may not be such a bargain in the future, given that no-one will pay full price for this cadaver once it officially opens. +++
This is a chamber production - bearing in mind that a ‘chamber’ is a pisspot – and presided over by an all-seeing impresario figure called ‘El Gallo’ – bearing in mind that El Gallo is Spanish for cock – played by the otherwise delightful Hadley Freeman with too much facial hair and a floor-length frock coat in what could have been an audition for the David Tennant incarnation of The Doctor. +++
He also gives away in the opening moments the show’s only memorable song ‘Try To Remember’. +++
‘Try to Remember’’ is one of those songs, and Send in the Clowns is another for me, in which every interpreter of it points each ruddy syllable with a head-tilt and knowing stare at the audience to invest the lyrics with meaning the song simply doesn't own. +++
Try to remember
and if you remember
then follow
follow
+++
Follow what? Certainly not the plot, because despite its simplicity it gets bogged down in a counter-argument about the wisdom of planting fruit and vegetables that might be momentarily appropriate (previews began the same day as Chelsea Flower Show) but when ramped up into a jocular point number for Clive Rowe and David Burt playing the fathers, singing brightly 'I like a man who knows his way around a carrot' it served merely to cause physical collapse among certain smutty-minded members of the onstage audience, and thereby get the best laugh of the night. Rowe actually turned round to see what was making the auditorium giggle, because it certainly wasn't him. +++
'Try to remember' is an exhortation to the audience to cast its mind and its suspension of disbelief back to an earlier, simpler age, and to try to engage with the pure 'message' of The Fantasticks which is that love overcomes all, and there's beauty in the simple pleasures. That's what a cheap date tells you when you got dressed for Gordon Ramsay but finish up on a 2-for-1 deal in Pizza Express. +++
read the rest of this review at the blog called A KICK IN THE STALLS +++ - JohnnyFox
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