139. BIG FISH
Big fish or not, this is one Broadway
musical I’d like to throw back into the water as being too underdeveloped for the
theatrical dinner table. Based on the 1998 novel by Daniel Wallace that Tim
Burton made into the 2003 film of the same name, BIG FISH, at the Neil Simon, has a book by the film’s
scriptwriter, John August, and music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa. Workable as the
plot may be within the liberal parameters of a novel, when put on stage it
needs to have dramatic propulsion that moves inexorably from a beginning to a
conclusion; BIG FISH has a central conflict, but the plot is a string of
pearls, a series of flashback anecdotes, and the string holding those pearls
together can come apart at any moment. When the pearls become interchangeable
with others, none being of essential importance to the integrity of the whole, we
get an inchoate stew like BIG FISH.
Kate Baldwin and Norbert Leo Butz. Photo: Paul Kolnik
The
show’s conflict is between Will Bloom (Bobby Steggert), a young reporter from
small- town Alabama working in New York, and his dad, Edward Bloom (Norbert Leo
Butz), an inveterate storyteller. Edward’s tall tales about his heroic deeds
seem so outrageous that Will, enamored of them as a kid, determines to verify them
as an adult before he can come to terms with who his father really is. Some of
the movie's major sequences are simply omitted, like the story about the
town of Spectre, while new ones are added, like the one about Edward’s heroism
in capturing a super-enemy during what seems to be World War II. I suspect that
the idea of having a USO-themed jitterbug number with girls dancing in skimpy
red, white, and blue was the reason for the change. There are numerous other
differences between the movie and the show, including the Broadway witch’s
(Ciara Renée) using a crystal ball to tell the future instead of it being visible
in her blank eyeball; the witch, once her function of revealing
to Edward how he will die is over with, disappears; in the movie, where she’s played
by Helena Bonham-Carter, she makes an important reappearance.
Regardless
of these and other major changes, which are always to be expected in such
transfers from one medium to another, BIG FISH is a relatively faithful adaptation.
It has all the elements traditionally associated with big Broadway musicals—loads
of spectacle, chorus girls, acrobatics, lots of upbeat and sentimental songs, romance,
family conflicts, unusual settings, and colorful characters and costumes. But
the result is a vacant, poky show that is all surface; despite every effort
to tug at heartstrings, it remains insipid and corny. A lot of energy
and money has been spent in the pursuit of an unattainable goal. I’d viewed the
movie back in the day, and watched it again before visiting the show. The second
viewing confirmed my feelings about it—despite nice
visual effects, it left me cold. But it was good to recall that Edward
was played by two actors, Ewan McGregor as the young Edward and Albert
Finney as the older Edward. McGregor is Scottish and Finney British, but both
had richer Alabama accents (Finney’s being too rich, actually, for my taste)
than that of Mr. Butz, who plays both the younger and older Edwards.
His accent is indeterminate and uneven, but that’s only one of his problems.
Mr.
Butz is one of Broadway’s most versatile stars, appearing in both straight
plays and musicals. He can sing, dance, and act, and is usually cast in shows
that allow him to exercise his broadly theatrical and energetic stage presence.
But Edward Bloom doesn’t fit him well. He makes barely any effort (except when
playing the dying Edward) to differentiate the young man from the old, and the
enormous physical demands of the role prevent anything more than superficiality, so he becomes increasingly uninteresting as the
show progresses. He’s the kind of actor, like Nathan Lane, who works so hard at
what he does that, however enjoyable the result, the effort always shows. BIG
FISH forces him to run on a performative treadmill at such high speed and on
such a steep incline that the sweat pouring off him could fill a bathtub. He has so much to do, and at such a high intensity, that
there’s simply no time to create an engagingly charming character.
While
there’s no bathtub in this show, there’s a river flowing between the first row
and the stage, and it’s here that we see the big fish of the title (which is
also metaphoric—Edward being a big fish in a small pond), which makes so strong
an impression in the movie. The river also contains a mermaid (Sarrah Strimel),
who is one of the fabulous characters Edward tells of in his stories, like the
giant named Karl (Ryan Andes, on stilts), and the circus owner cum werewolf,
Amos Calloway (Brad Oscar). The river (barely visible from my otherwise
excellent seats in the orchestra) is only one of the outstanding
effects on display, with Julian Crouch’s set of moving barnlike slats combined
with remarkable projections by Benjamin Pearcy that demonstrate the
technological advances increasingly prevalent in theatrical
settings. William Ivey Long’s costumes are fun in
familiarly theatrical ways, and Donald Holder’s lighting is all that we've
come to expect from high concept Broadway musicals. A number of special effects
are notable, onebeing a dance performed by three realistically
contrived elephants standing in their stables where only their rear ends can
be seen. Another occurs during a scene in the woods when projections not
only make the trees seem to move, but also cast fascinating images on the
chorus’s woodland costumes.
But
we don’t go to Broadway musicals only because they contain visual delights; we
need to be touched by their stories, characters, and performances; we need to
care, not about how the effects were created but about the people involved and
how they feel. Kate Baldwin, as Sandra Bloom looking very much like a young Jessica Lange (who
played the older Sandra in the movie), is stunning, and sings the
pleasant ballad “I Don’t Need a Roof” with sweetness and emotion. The character, though,
is standard issue “Mom.” Bobby
Steggert as Will tends to overact, perhaps in an effort to cover
up the blandness of his role (dully played in the movie by Billy Crudup). Will’s
wife, Josephine, portrayed on screen by the wonderful French actress Marion
Cotillard, has been cast with an African-American actress, Krystal Joy Brown,
who doesn’t get to do anything of particular interest. As in the movie, which
has Robert Guillaume, Edward’s doctor is played by a black actor, JC Montgomery.
For a story set in small-town Alabama, the lack of any commentary on the
interracial relationships among these folks seems a bit odd; am I too
influenced by stereotypes of the Deep South?
Director-choreographer
Susan Stroman delivers her usual show biz skills in making this fishy stewpot
reasonably palatable, but even her superhuman efforts can’t prevent its bones from
sticking in your throat. BIG FISH has size, certainly, but it’s also rather flavorless.
