The Fantasticks

Act One

El Gallo, the narrator, welcomes the audience to the show while the actors set up the stage, and asks them to try to remember a time when they were young and innocent and in love (“Try to Remember”). Then, he introduces our protagonists: two adolescents named Matt and Luisa. Their houses are next door to one another, and are separated by a wall (played by the Mute). Despite their respective fathers’ insistence that they shouldn’t speak with each other on account of an ongoing feud, Matt and Luisa fall in love with one another. From either side of the thick wall, Matt and Luisa court. Sweet and hopeful, Luisa tells the audience about the many things she dreams of doing in her life (“Much More”), while poetic Matt describes his love in verse and metaphor (“Metaphor”). In whispers, the two lovers discuss Luisa's fantasy that Matt will, one day, rescue her. Nearby, Matt’s father Hucklebee appears and shares his philosophy of life with the audience. His philosophy also applies to