“Without a hurt, the heart is hollow” is a strange concept for a comedy, but these words are the anchor of a musical that’s set up would be 100% screwball comedy were it not for the deleterious effects of that hurt in the second act of The Fantasticks A Love Story Reimagined now playing at CVRep. (The reimagined part is same sex lovers.)
The Story
Note: The fourth wall is broken often as El Gallo (pronounced El Guy-oh) tells us who the players are, where we are in the play, i.e. intermission, or to explain things – in stage direction: an aside to the audience. And now the stage is set and we begin:
A young man of 20, Matt (Eric Phelps), and a boy of 16, Lewis (Jack Mastriannni) – both limited in their worldly knowledge having never strayed from home – are falling in love over the top of a wall constructed by their feuding (in the reimagined version) mothers Bessie Mae (Lisa Vroman), and Mildred (Sadé Ayodele). It’s all very Romeo and Juliet with a gender twist in both generations.
