Theatre Review

BIG FISH: The Musical

I’m taking a break from my usual rom com reviews to share some thoughts on a new musical adaption of Big Fish that’s currently playing in Chicago (gotta put that theatre degree to use somehow!) Big Fish is playing at the Oriental Theatre through May 5^th. Ticket information is available on their official website.

Grade: C+

The new Broadway-bound musical Big Fish, currently in tryouts in Chicago, attempts to juxtapose the fantastical with the mundane by crafting two worlds onstage. Sadly only one of those worlds actually works, creating a bizarrely uneven night of musical theatre that achieves moments of greatness and moments of tedium that smell awfully fishy. It’s not a total flop, but it’s a misstep that leads this big fish swimming in circles instead of moving forward in a satisfying way.

The musical, based on the 2003 Tim Burton movie and the 1998 book by Daniel Wallace, centers around Edward and Will Bloom, a southern father and son whose relationship struggles when it comes to communication. Edward is famous for recounting epic, magical tales of his life, including the time he caught the titular fish using his wedding ring. The more pragmatic Will knows the tale of his father befriending a giant and joining the circus, but feels like he’s never connected with the man behind the stories. With his own baby on the way and Edward’s health in jeopardy, Will tries to understand what his father is hiding behind all of his tall tales.

As I mentioned, there are essentially two halves of the show. One half is the “real world,” the scenes between adult Will and his father that start at Will’s wedding and continue a couple of years into the future (Big Fish places fast and loose with time and place, jumping from location to location with remarkable fluidity). The other half of the show is “Edward’s fantasy world,” the visual manifestation of the tall tales Edward recounts to everyone around him. These stories start when Edward meets a witch as a young boy and continue on to depict him as high school hero, giant tamer, circus worker, romantic wooer, soldier, and father to a young Will. It’s not quiet as confusing onstage as it sounds on paper, but there’s still a lot to keep track of (not to mention a totally superfluous fantasy sequence set in the Wild West). The musical bounces back and forth between its two worlds in a way that never feels particularly purposeful.

Somewhat surprisingly, it’s the realistic portion of the show that works beautifully. The staging is simple, the scenes are well written, and the acting is solid. Book writer John August (who also penned Burton’s film) and director Susan Stroman find a quiet intensity in these scenes that still manages to fill a big Broadway-sized stage. They are helped along by their fantastic cast, particularly Bobby Steggert as Will who is doing incredible work in a role that requires very little singing and a whole hell of a lot of acting. The music, by Andrew Lippa, isn’t particularly memorable, but the best songs all take place in the “real world.” The show’s best number “Fight the Dragons” (available for free download here) does more to establish Edward’s character than all of his fantastical stories put together.  

The problem lies almost entirely in the “Edward’s fantasy world” portion of the show. The intention here is create a unique visual landscape for Edward’s stories that feels entirely different than the more somber real world. Unfortunately that visual landscape seems to be based around the terms “hokey” and “corny.” There’s clearly a lot of money being pumped into this show, but it all ends up feeling cheap and cutesy in a way that undermines the show’s central themes. I think the intention was to make Edward’s stories feel like something out of a children’s book, but the production aims too low and the stories end up feeling like The Wiggles instead of The Lion King (the stage version). There are a few hints of creativity (cowboys emerging from a TV screen, ensemble members hidden amongst the set, imaginative elephant costumes), but the majority of the time the fantasy sections rely on slow motion and hammy acting. Instead of feeling creative or magical, this section of the show just feels like bad musical theatre. The songs are dull, the choreography isn’t innovative, and the actors seem to have been directed to chew the scenery as much as possible. Instead of feeling like a triumph of bravery, the scene where Edward befriends the fearsome giant is played like a friendship lesson from a PBS cartoon. (It's also pretty much identical to this scene from the stop motion Santa Claus is Coming to Town.) There are no real stakes so Edward never seems like a hero so much as a cast member on Sesame Street. It's fun to watch a talented ensemble put on a USO show and I enjoy confetti as much as the next person, but there's nothing beneath the glossy surface of Edward's stories that links them thematically to the lovely real world scenes.

What saves the production is its incredibly game cast lead by Norbert Leo Butz as Edward, Kate Baldwin as his wife Sandra, and the aforementioned Bobby Steggert as adult Will. While a child actor portrays Will in his youth, Baldwin and Butz are called upon to play their roles from teenagers to empty nesters. It’s a slightly strange choice given that they are either too old or too young for their characters for the majority of the musical, but the actors are so spirited they mostly make it work. Baldwin in particular does an amazing job transforming herself from wide-eyed teenager to mature adult. Butz doesn’t seem quiet as comfortable as the younger iteration of Edward (although he’s certainly energetic enough to be a teenager), but absolutely nails the older wisecracking version of his character. He perfectly captures the Southern charm and slightly sardonic sense of humor that endears Edward to everyone except for the son he’s trying to impress. As a young father Butz is loving but slightly distant in a way that betrays an uncertainty about the nature of fatherhood, and as the elderly, cancer-ridden version of the same character he manages to capture an ornery spirit worn down by disease. It’s a great central performance and it’s a shame that the musical’s bifurcated structure never allows Edward to coalesce as a character the way he should.

There are some great things happening on the Oriental Theatre stage right now, it’s just too bad they are only happening half the time. I wouldn’t be surprised if Big Fish ends up being a big commercial hit (my audience certainly seemed thoroughly entertained by the spectacle numbers), but there’s a wasted opportunity here for some really groundbreaking storytelling. The cast and director prove their worth in the realistic scenes, but fail to find a creative way to tell the stories Edward is famous for. The show is slick, energetic, and colorful, but there’s an emptiness behind the fantasy that robs Edward’s stories of their heart.