The Fantasticks

ISN’T IT ROMANTICK Rosenthal and Effinger-Dean get lovey-dovey.

Photo: Anna C. Bahow

Thanks to Mother Nature, the matinee opening of The Fantasticks couldn’t have happened on a better day—it was, yes, that kind of September about which the musical’s narrator, El Gallo, knowingly sings in “Try to Remember.” In this revival, Parker expertly handles the role, exuding warmth but keeping his emotional cards shrewdly close to the vest. He is there, after all, to narrate. The tale he sets in motion tells of a boy and a girl in love, neighbors who giddily but unwittingly fall for each other thanks to their fathers’ phony dispute.

Given its 42-year Off Broadway incarnation and worldwide popularity, The Fantasticks tends to work; Kelly’s entertaining production is no exception. The cast’s musical delivery is robust, though its comic business is a bit predictable. While the ensemble plays broadly, Effinger-Dean and Rosenthal as the young lovers sketch remarkably detailed, sweetly comic portraits, utterly charming in their teenage bumbling and swooning. Here, Matt and Luisa throw themselves into love, rather than just falling into it. Rosenthal’s powerful voice is showcased, yet it’s their duets, especially the closing “They Were You,” that mesmerize. They lead us into, and back out of, that tender but unrealistic cocoon in which love can contain us, and they draw us into the kind of performance that’s worth missing a glorious September afternoon.

• More theater reviews
• More Theater articles