Review: CONTEMPORARY THEATRE OF OHIO'S BIG FISH at Riffe Center Studio One

When it was first released in 2003, the Tim Burton-directed movie BIG FISH was a visual masterpiece. Rolling Stone magazine’s Peter Travers said the movie “brims with storytelling sorcery, and Burton makes it glitter.”

Transferring that sparkle into a musical would appear to be a challenge and yet, there seems to be a solid marriage between Burton and Broadway. Burton films like BEETLEJUICE and CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY successfully transitioned from screen to the stage and the quirky director adapted the musical SWEENEY TODD into a successful film.

With a fraction of a Broadway budget, the Contemporary Theatre of Ohio recaptures the enchantment of the movie and the charm of the Andrew Lippa-penned musical. The Leda Hoffmann-directed production opened Sept. 12 and runs through Sept. 29 at the Riffe Center’s Studio One (77 N. High Street in downtown Columbus).

At its heart, BIG FISH is a story about storytelling. The two-act musical centers around grown son Will Bloom (Wade Elkins) trying to come to grips with the legacy of his father Edward (Brian C. Gray) who is dying of cancer. Throughout his life, the senior Bloom tells fish stories and tall tales to his young son (Paxton Longoria) to the point where the younger Bloom can’t discern his father’s truth from fabrication.

After the two become estranged after a blow-up at his wedding, the journalist in Will finds himself trying to strain the facts from the faux to get a clear picture of who his father really is.

“All I got from you is a bunch of crazy stories about how awesome you are and I’m sorry Dad, that’s not the man I see,” Will says.

“Maybe you never bothered lookin’,” Edward retorts.

As he investigates his father’s seemingly invented stories, Will discovers the line between his father’s fiction and fact is nearly microscopic. Even some of Edward’s wildest tales have an element of truth to them.

Elkins and Gray realistically portray a fracturing relationship between a father and son. Gray nails the dreamer/storyteller role while Elkins conveys the skepticism of someone coming to grips with the flaws in his absentee father.

When William reminds his father he was six when he last believed some of the tall tales, Edward counteracts: “You were never six. You were born a tiny middle-aged man.”

Serving as peacekeepers in this show are Edward’s long-suffering wife Sandra (Alexa Baker) and Will’s optimistic spouse Josephine (Gabriela Arismendy), who recently discovered she was expecting. The two counterbalance the volatile temperaments of the respective spouses. 

The eight remaining actors drift in and out of the plot. Justin King shifts easily from Amos, the shifty ringmaster who may be a werewolf and the compassionate, yet serious Dr. Bennett. Caleb Jeffries may have had the biggest shoes to fill, playing Karl the Giant. In the movie, Matthew McGrory (who, at 7 feet, six inches, is listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as the world’s tallest actor) played the giant. For most of the play, Jeffries performs on well-hidden stilts to capture the enormity of Karl.

Hunter Minor casts a major presence as Edward’s frenemy Don Price. When he asks the Witch (Jo Michelle Shafer) to give him his fortune, the Witch says, “You lead an unexceptional life, filled with minor triumphs and major disappointments.” The witch’s prediction comes to fruition, as he loses the starting quarterback role, his fiancé, and after he’s elected as mayor, the respect of the townspeople to Edward.

Kelsey Hopkins shines as Jenny Hill, a former high school sweetheart who still carries a torch for Edward and waits patiently for him to return to Ashton.

Shafer (as the mysterious witch with a crystal ball which reveals how each person will die), Longoria, William Harrington (Zacky), and Winnona Maddrey (Mermaid) each add something unique to the show.

Musical director Lori Kay Harvey (piano) and Karl Wohlwend (guitar), Matthew Kinnear (violin), Tomasz Jarzecki (percussion), Eric Stratton (bass) and Chuck Junkin (cello) provide the cement of the musical, handling Andrew Lippa’s score easily. Harvey even got one of the bigger laughs of the night. When the townspeople were listing off their litany of complaints against Karl the Giant, the pianist blurts out, “He ate my cat.”

Near the end of the musical, Edward sings, “I know my life was small. I know that I pretended that I knew it all. But when you tell my story, and I hope somebody does, remember me as something bigger than I was.”

Perhaps that’s the way this Contemporary Theatre of Ohio’s production should be considered. It may have been a scaled back version of Burton’s vision, but it should be remembered as something much bigger than it is.

Photo credits: Kyle Long

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