Performing Arts

Lyric Stage's show lives up to name with heart, humor

03:42 PM CDT on Friday, September 23, 2005

By LAWSON TAITTE / The Dallas Morning News

IRVING – There are reasons why The Fantasticks is one of the most popular musical comedies ever.

EMERY KAMENICKY/Special Contributor

Dwight Sandell (left), Greg Dulcie, Chamblee Ferguson and Emerson Collins unveil their marriage plans for the children.

On Saturday, Lyric Stage opened its festival devoted to works by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones – and opened its 2005-06 season – with their greatest hit, the longest-running off-Broadway show in history. This extremely intimate piece sometimes feels a little lost in the not-really-all-that-large Dupree Theater, but the production does play up the show's substantial strengths.

The greatest of these is Mr. Schmidt's superbly tuneful score, which wraps up all the pleasures of 1950s musicals from Rodgers to Bernstein and ties them up in the prettiest of bows.

Lyric Stage's new version at first seems to stint the songs' lush appeal. Then you realize that this, commendably, is the first musical in ages that you are hearing without the benefit of microphones. This is what little musicals are supposed to sound like.

Balance between the capable singers and Gary Okeson's piano in the pit is tricky in this space. You can tell when they are having trouble hearing the accompaniment because that's the only time these folks go off pitch.

Mr. Jones' book shows us a young couple in love with love, manipulated as much by their own innocence as by their fathers' wily plans to bring them together. The tight little parable eventually robs them of their romantic notions, but by the end all is well.

Thanks to Cheryl Denson's direction, the performers act the tale with heart and humor. Dara Whitehead Allen sparkles as the girl, Luisa. Joshua Doss perhaps makes the boy, Matt, more of a drip, to use a 1950s word, than he strictly needs to be.

This Fantasticks' real strength, though, lies in its laughs. Chamblee Ferguson as Matt's father only has to cross the stage and glance at the audience to get a chuckle. Dwight Sandell matches him step for step as Luisa's dad. The show gets stolen once and for all when Gordon Fox crawls out of a trunk to play a doddering actor down on his luck. Whether tumbling off a platform into a pratfall or mangling lines of Shakespeare, Mr. Fox is a hoot. James Williams milks his own share of attention as Mr. Fox's sidekick of 40 years.

Greg Dulcie has put on some years, and some pounds, over the years he has been playing the master of ceremonies, El Gallo. The voice remains as sonorous as ever, and the acting has become more refined. It's still a shame, though, that our newly tender sensibilities have deprived this role of its most amusing song. OK, it probably wouldn't do anymore to sing a number that begins with a long melisma on the word "rape." But "Abduction" is no match for the song it replaces.

E-mail ltaitte@dallasnews.com

The Fantasticks, presented by Lyric Stage at Irving Arts Center's Dupree Theater, 3333 N. MacArthur Blvd., Irving, through Oct. 15. Runs 130 min. Tickets $25 to $30, with discounts for students and groups. Call 972-252-2787, or go to www.lyricstage.org.