First, I want to caution that there are flashing light effects in the second act that may pose a problem to people with photosensitivity. This was not mentioned in the pre-show announcement but I hope the company will add it for future performances.
Big Fish is based on the 1998 book and 2003 film of the same name. The story revolves around the relationship between Edward Bloom and his son Will. Their relationship is strained because Edward, a traveling salesman, was often away during Will’s childhood. When he was home, he told Will wild and sometimes inconsistent tales about his life that have left adult Will not sure he knows his father at all. Approaching fatherhood himself, Will resolves to try to find out what was real in his father’s life, just as their time starts to run out.
The tricky thing about bringing this story to the stage is that musical theater is an arena that already encourages suspension of disbelief. As an audience, we are meant to be a little suspicious of scenes like “Ashton’s Favorite Son,” where a young Edward is praised for being a star at everything he does. But how do we suspend disbelief enough to accept people breaking into song and dance but also remain skeptical of the stories being told? Why would we look askance at witches and giants when they such a common sight on the stage? At least two other community theater groups in town are performing Big Fish this year, and I’m interested in seeing how each director approaches this problem. At St. Matthew Community Theater, this conflict with the tall tales worked best in scenes when Will himself was present to view his father’s stories and bring some uncertainty to the mix.
Big Fish relies on the charisma of its leading man, played in this production by two actors: Jim Hebeisen plays the older, present-day character, and Gabriel Gomez plays Edward in the scenes from the past. Both men bring a joyful charm and strong vocals to the role and have good chemistry with the other actors. As young Will, Morgan Stone is unaffected and sincerely shows the vulnerability necessary to understand adult Will's (Adam Hebeisen) worries. The show opens up with a rousing all-cast number, and but it is adult Will's quieter song "Stranger" that sets up the emotional heart of the story. Adam Hebeisen's Will is clearly in pain and longing for a relationship where he and his father understand each other. (It wasn’t until writing this review that I realized the present-day characters are played by a real-life father and son pair. No wonder the actors work well together!)
There are multiple featured characters in the show. Axl Dahl, coming very quickly off of The Little Mermaid, looks at ease moving and dancing on stilts as the deep-voiced and funny Karl the giant. Aaron LaPacz, as Amos the circus ringleader, happily (and fittingly) chews the scenery in the role of a charming rogue. A witch (sung with power by Christine Kullman) and a mermaid (danced gracefully by Brooklyn Schwiesow) are mysterious but important figures from Edward's childhood‒or imagination.
The main female character in the show is Sandra Templeton/Bloom, played by Kate Callen and Anissa Lubbers. Callen has a lovely voice that is especially shown off in the USO crooner "Red, White, and True." Lubbers, in a show where most of the cast plays multiple roles, takes the cake for most impressive resume‒in addition to playing Sandra Bloom and a tap dancer she also designed the costumes and served as dance captain. This sounds like a very stressful combination, personally. As Sandra, Lubbers brought great emotion to her big number "I Don't Need a Roof." But overall, this show is about the men in the story, and the script doesn't really do justice to its female characters. As Will's wife Josephine, Marissa Moeller is interesting but has little to do. Jenny Hill, around whom a major conflict revolves, is also barely on stage, though both actresses (Abigail Capaul and Jackie Peterson) bring a great deal of emotion to the role.
The stage at St. Matthew Lutheran Church is in a "gymatorium" with very limited built-in stage space. An added platform extends the stage forward around the mermaid's water space, with some actors crawling under the platform to pop out as fish. The back wall is covered with a mural, which is a lovely painting of the show's logo and a clever way to make the best possible use of the space. Anthony Tallarico's technical direction also included the construction of a staggering amount of set pieces. Clouds hung from the ceiling above the audience were one of many nice touches.
Costuming was another massive project; every character seemed to have at least five costume changes, covering realistic and fantastical characters and time periods from the 50's to the present. Highlights for me were the USO costumes, young Sandra's on-stage transformation at the end of Act I, and Karl the giant and his love interest dressed as 70's moneymakers. Renee Chizek’s choreography covers many different styles, from the lyrical mermaid to the USO tap show to some cute dancing elephants in the circus. Use of dancers to add ambiance to the witch scene and to show a campfire were well done and a good use of the younger performers. The band, led by music director Carol Blase, performed well to the side of the stage and the balance between the music and the singers was surprisingly good. A nice touch in this production’s program is that the band members and the tech crew had bios printed along with the cast.
Credit goes to the cast and to director Vanessa M. H. Powers for managing so many set and costume changes successfully throughout the show. Powers created a lot of moments of very nice staging. Parallel moments between past and present versions of characters worked especially well, whether it was Edward reminiscing fondly or Will still being hurt by childhood memories. The crowd scenes also had many nice details, especially with the colorful and varied characters of the circus.
While I have my qualms with aspects of the script, Big Fish still builds up to a strong emotional ending. In “What’s Next,” Will starts to see what the stories have meant to his father, and the return of characters from Edward’s past makes for a very touching scene. Here I appreciated that Edward was double-cast; the scene was all the more poignant because it was the first time that we saw this version of him interacting with these other characters. “How It Ends” was performed excellently by Jim Hebeisen, and “The Procession” was a wonderful moment of thoughtful character work and costuming that brought everything together very well. Overall, the cast performed with a lot of enthusiasm and the show has many wonderful moments.
St. Matthew Community Theater’s production of Big Fish closes May 12. For showtimes and more information follow this link.
Big Fish is based on the 1998 book and 2003 film of the same name. The story revolves around the relationship between Edward Bloom and his son Will. Their relationship is strained because Edward, a traveling salesman, was often away during Will’s childhood. When he was home, he told Will wild and sometimes inconsistent tales about his life that have left adult Will not sure he knows his father at all. Approaching fatherhood himself, Will resolves to try to find out what was real in his father’s life, just as their time starts to run out.
The tricky thing about bringing this story to the stage is that musical theater is an arena that already encourages suspension of disbelief. As an audience, we are meant to be a little suspicious of scenes like “Ashton’s Favorite Son,” where a young Edward is praised for being a star at everything he does. But how do we suspend disbelief enough to accept people breaking into song and dance but also remain skeptical of the stories being told? Why would we look askance at witches and giants when they such a common sight on the stage? At least two other community theater groups in town are performing Big Fish this year, and I’m interested in seeing how each director approaches this problem. At St. Matthew Community Theater, this conflict with the tall tales worked best in scenes when Will himself was present to view his father’s stories and bring some uncertainty to the mix.
Big Fish relies on the charisma of its leading man, played in this production by two actors: Jim Hebeisen plays the older, present-day character, and Gabriel Gomez plays Edward in the scenes from the past. Both men bring a joyful charm and strong vocals to the role and have good chemistry with the other actors. As young Will, Morgan Stone is unaffected and sincerely shows the vulnerability necessary to understand adult Will's (Adam Hebeisen) worries. The show opens up with a rousing all-cast number, and but it is adult Will's quieter song "Stranger" that sets up the emotional heart of the story. Adam Hebeisen's Will is clearly in pain and longing for a relationship where he and his father understand each other. (It wasn’t until writing this review that I realized the present-day characters are played by a real-life father and son pair. No wonder the actors work well together!)
There are multiple featured characters in the show. Axl Dahl, coming very quickly off of The Little Mermaid, looks at ease moving and dancing on stilts as the deep-voiced and funny Karl the giant. Aaron LaPacz, as Amos the circus ringleader, happily (and fittingly) chews the scenery in the role of a charming rogue. A witch (sung with power by Christine Kullman) and a mermaid (danced gracefully by Brooklyn Schwiesow) are mysterious but important figures from Edward's childhood‒or imagination.
The main female character in the show is Sandra Templeton/Bloom, played by Kate Callen and Anissa Lubbers. Callen has a lovely voice that is especially shown off in the USO crooner "Red, White, and True." Lubbers, in a show where most of the cast plays multiple roles, takes the cake for most impressive resume‒in addition to playing Sandra Bloom and a tap dancer she also designed the costumes and served as dance captain. This sounds like a very stressful combination, personally. As Sandra, Lubbers brought great emotion to her big number "I Don't Need a Roof." But overall, this show is about the men in the story, and the script doesn't really do justice to its female characters. As Will's wife Josephine, Marissa Moeller is interesting but has little to do. Jenny Hill, around whom a major conflict revolves, is also barely on stage, though both actresses (Abigail Capaul and Jackie Peterson) bring a great deal of emotion to the role.
The stage at St. Matthew Lutheran Church is in a "gymatorium" with very limited built-in stage space. An added platform extends the stage forward around the mermaid's water space, with some actors crawling under the platform to pop out as fish. The back wall is covered with a mural, which is a lovely painting of the show's logo and a clever way to make the best possible use of the space. Anthony Tallarico's technical direction also included the construction of a staggering amount of set pieces. Clouds hung from the ceiling above the audience were one of many nice touches.
Costuming was another massive project; every character seemed to have at least five costume changes, covering realistic and fantastical characters and time periods from the 50's to the present. Highlights for me were the USO costumes, young Sandra's on-stage transformation at the end of Act I, and Karl the giant and his love interest dressed as 70's moneymakers. Renee Chizek’s choreography covers many different styles, from the lyrical mermaid to the USO tap show to some cute dancing elephants in the circus. Use of dancers to add ambiance to the witch scene and to show a campfire were well done and a good use of the younger performers. The band, led by music director Carol Blase, performed well to the side of the stage and the balance between the music and the singers was surprisingly good. A nice touch in this production’s program is that the band members and the tech crew had bios printed along with the cast.
Credit goes to the cast and to director Vanessa M. H. Powers for managing so many set and costume changes successfully throughout the show. Powers created a lot of moments of very nice staging. Parallel moments between past and present versions of characters worked especially well, whether it was Edward reminiscing fondly or Will still being hurt by childhood memories. The crowd scenes also had many nice details, especially with the colorful and varied characters of the circus.
While I have my qualms with aspects of the script, Big Fish still builds up to a strong emotional ending. In “What’s Next,” Will starts to see what the stories have meant to his father, and the return of characters from Edward’s past makes for a very touching scene. Here I appreciated that Edward was double-cast; the scene was all the more poignant because it was the first time that we saw this version of him interacting with these other characters. “How It Ends” was performed excellently by Jim Hebeisen, and “The Procession” was a wonderful moment of thoughtful character work and costuming that brought everything together very well. Overall, the cast performed with a lot of enthusiasm and the show has many wonderful moments.
St. Matthew Community Theater’s production of Big Fish closes May 12. For showtimes and more information follow this link.
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