Fantasticks - Mum Puppettheatre - Amazing!

[BroadwayPenguin2]

Posted: 4/13/07 at 10:36pm

I just got back from a production of FANTASTICKS tonight. It was at a small 'stadium' theatre in Philadelphia. It was amazing and overwhelming.

If you're anywhere NEAR Philadelphia, please go see this production. Student tickets are only $10!

The use of puppets, props, and other set dressings were extremely innovative and beautiful.

Words can't even describe the amazingness of this production.

http://www.mumpuppet.org/season/2007_fantasticks.html

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 4/13/07 at 11:04pm

I also saw a regional production in FL not long ago. Totally agree, fantastic! It truly deserves to be the longest running musical of all times.

[sparrman]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 1:52pm

Details please, BroadwayPenguin2! Were all the characters embodied by puppets? Were the puppeteers a physical presence in the show and expressive themselves, like in Avenue Q? One puppeteer for each character, or was there doubling? How large were the puppets? What was the staging like? Was the singing performed by the puppeteers, and of a professional caliber?

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 6:55pm

Penguin?

[BroadwayPenguin2]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 9:54pm

Details please, BroadwayPenguin2! Were all the characters embodied by puppets? Were the puppeteers a physical presence in the show and expressive themselves, like in Avenue Q? One puppeteer for each character, or was there doubling? How large were the puppets? What was the staging like? Was the singing performed by the puppeteers, and of a professional caliber?

Oh! Sorry, I was at Caroline, Or Change. *eh*

It's not the kind of puppetry where there's a hand up their ass, the characters can be seen in the link I posted. They're about 1 foot and a half? One hand controls the head movements using a stick holder protruding from the back of the neck. The other hand controls the hand(s). Sometimes, someone will come in and control the other hand. Mort and the old man are played by the same guy. The singing was performed by the puppeteers. There were only 6 actors. The theatre is TINY. The entire theatre is smaller than the stage of Wicked. It's stadium, so they have a table in the middle where they are able to play to both sides of the audience.

[BroadwayPenguin2]

Posted: 4/16/07 at 12:51am

Toby Zinman's review...

Bev Appleton as El Gallo and the show's narrator/director is an unusual choice - the last El Gallo I saw was young, sexy, androgynous and (the point of El Gallo) seductive. Artie Sievers brings a fine voice and an open face to the role of Matt, and Kim Carson as Louisa has a powerful and apparently effortless soprano. As the two fathers, Chris Faith and Austin Durant are both funny and tuneful, while Dave Jadico does triple duty in a variety of roles. Matthew Wright heroically provides the entire score on the piano sitting under the stairs.

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/arts/20070413_Puppet_idea_less_than_fantastic.html

I sat in the front row and thought that the puppets were extremely well done.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 4/16/07 at 12:54am

Sounds like a "fantastic" production.
Yet, try to see the version with actors onstage as well.

Updated On: 4/16/07 at 12:54 AM

[sparrman]

Posted: 4/16/07 at 9:37am

Thanks for the review link. Seems like "The Fantasticks" is a pretty good choice of musical for this approach, but sounds like they didn't quite pull it off.

[jpbran]

Posted: 4/16/07 at 12:30pm

This note from their site cracked me up:

Rated PG (mild sexual innuendo, disillusionment)