"...And
despite what pretty poets say, the night is only half the
day."
Imagine a stage. Small and
bare with only a post at each corner, and a bench in the center.
Imagine a cast of eight total, with a orchestra consisting of a
piano, a harp, and a percussionist. Doesn't seem like much of a play.
But from this simplicity, comes one of the greatest musicals of all
time. A humorous romantic off Broadway play, The Fantasticks has
become one of the world's favorite musicals and has been running for
more than 30 years.
The Story:
The story starts with
Louisa, a 16 year old girl, who believes she is a princess, and is as
dreamy and insane as any teenage girl, and Matt, a college boy who
has" ...been in a lab.
Dissected, violets..." .
They live next door to each other, and have parents who have built a
wall between their two houses because of their "feud". In the
knowledge that it's forbidden, they've fallen in love, and meet
secretly. The parents on the other hand, aren't truly feuding, but
setting their children up for a "prearranged marriage" by pretending to hate each other. They also meet in
private to talk, and play cards. Finally they decide that the fued
has gone far enough, and hire El Gallo, a professional Abductor to
perform a [literary] rape, let Matt defeat him, and so the feud will
end. They purchase a "first class rape" with moonlight included, he
agrees to be defeated, and we meet Henry and Mortermer, a washed out,
two man, traveling theater company, who help out in the "rape". They
attempt the rape, they are "defeated" and so happily ends the first
act.
Act II
As El Gallo wonderfully puts
it: "...the play's not over, oh no, not quite, for life never ends on
a moonlit night, and despite what pretty poets say, the night is only
half the day. So let us truly finish what was foolishly begun, for
the story's never ended, and the play is never done, until we've all
been burned a bit, and burnished by the...sun!"
And so starts the second
act, which portrays the less glamourous side of romance.
After getting what they all
thought they wanted, they slowly begin to realize that what they
built up in their minds as a wonderful life, slowly wilts in the
beating sun. Finally fed up with their child's foolish talk, Matt's
mother shows they children the bill for the "attempted rape", and
they realize it was all a fraud from the first, shattering all last
glorification that was left. Matt leaves to drink and gamble, and
Louisa stays. The parents slowly realize what a mistake they made,
and become friends again, but Louisa stays silent, sitting in the
garden day after day. Until one day El Gallo returns. Once again on a
quest for glamour, begs him to take her with him. During the song
"Round and
Round* Louisa and El Gallo
dance in a fantasy, and in the background you see Matt being tortured
by Henry and Mortermer. Louisa will see them, but then put up her
magic mask, and it will seem like something wonderful.
After the song ends, Louisa
goes to pack, to leave with El Gallo, under the promise that he'd be
back, and leaving him with her necklace as a promise that so would
she. But as she leaves, so does he, breaking her heart once more. But
Matt has come home, and so happily, and yet, in a way sadly, ends act
two, with the finishing words of El Gallo. "Remember... You must
always leave the wall".
"Deep in December our hearts will remember and...
follow."
