MUSKET has continued to surprise me with their musical choice and amazed me with their performances. Big Fish was a triumph and a joy to watch. This comes as no surprise though, as MUSKET’s performances have always been amazing. Big Fish is different though, as it ran for a very short time for on Broadway and only received mixed reviews. MUSKET had to take this unknown musical and present to an audience. This is both a blessing and a curse as the audience has no preconceived notions, but also will be less attached to the music and plot of the performance. MUSKET Was able to overcome this and make the musical something that one could grow attached to.
In this musical, we are first introduced to the father/son duo of Edward and Will Bloom at Edward’s wedding. This initiates the true conflict of the plot as Will asks his father to not tell his stories at the reception, giving us a clue as to what their relationship is like. Of course, Edward doesn’t listen. In the beginning of the musical, the actor portraying Edward, Ben Reitemeier, seems to be overacting. He’s very hammy, but as the musical progresses, you come to realize that this is the perfect acting needed for the character. The character is a fantastical storyteller, always making himself the brave, noble hero. This hammy acting really accentuates the characters peculiarities and make him an entertaining watch.
Throughout the rest of the piece, we transition between the present real-world, and the fantastical world of Edward’s stories as Will tries to understand who his father really was. The first story we get introduced to is the tale of how Edward was told of his death by his hometown’s witch. This is where the musical really starts to shine. Kat Ward plays the witch and is easily the funnest part of the entire musical. Kat Ward pulls out all the stops as the witch and sings her heart out. I watched in amazement as I couldn’t believe the performance I was watching. This is truly the best part of the entire performance.
This plot continues on until we come to the end and Will realizes why Edward only told fantasy stories and never really revealed who he truly was. The rest of the musical is very adeptly performed and is a delight to watch, though none of it is as impressive as the witch sequence.
Some negatives of the play do not come from the performances, but from the actual script/music of the play , something that MUSKET can’t change. Two of the problems, revolve around Will’s wife. First, the writer found it necessary for some reason to state the entire plot of the story through Will’s wife’s line. This was completely unnecessary and treats the audience as children. Secondly, Will’s wife did not have a large part in the story as it mostly focused of Will and Edwards relationship and Will’s mother, Sandra mediating the relationship. This made it necessary for them to find ways to keep the wife out of the narrative. This was very obvious and could have been handled a lot more effectively.
In addition, the character of the doctor was completely unnecessary. He could’ve been cut out of the narrative entirely without losing anything. This was further made apparent as the actor did not do justice to the character. His line reads felt unnatural and the characteristics did not match the tone of the scenes that he was in.
Overall, this performance was spectacular. For those who have never heard of Big Fish, but still saw the performance, I am sure this is now a favorite musical of theirs. It was a fun, sappy time that audiences will love.
