The Fantasticks - Duchess Theatre

The stage consists of a black diamond shaped platform with a black box on it, to both sides are a row of seats. The audience who are sitting in these seats are shown to them just before the production starts.

Then on to the stage is Hadley Fraser (The Narrator) who introduces the rest of "The Players" and sings "Try to Remember" which turns out to be the only decent song in the whole show. The show has been running off-broadway for 50 years and the tweeness of this musical is best suited to the American's tastes.

The basic premise of the story is that two fathers have built a wall between their garden and created a fake feud in order to make their children "The Boy" and "The Girl" fall in love. The great shame is that we had such a great and talented cast for such a second rate show. Clive Rowe and David Burt are two greats of the West End stage but I felt were wasted in this production, in particular Clive Rowe's beautiful voice was not allowed to shine with the naff songs he had to sing. Lorna Want and Luke Brady were very good as the boy and girl. Luke Brady had a pleasant singing voice.

Paul Hunter and Edward Petherbridge as "The Man Who Dies" and "THe Old Actor" added some light relief to the evening and both had wonderful comic timing.

The show felt like it was over at the interval and although the second half added some darkness to the otherwise twee and light first half, the production as a whole really didn't seem to work. It's not a surprise that this musical only lasted a few weeks and has already closed down.