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My Big Fish Story

Big Fish World Premiere at Oriental Theatre, Chicago

I had a chance to go to the world premiere of Big Fish. I’m by no means an expert about Broadway musicals. I’ve been to only a few shows and enjoyed them all. I don’t really have a sense of what sets apart a great musical from a good one, but I think I may be beginning to get a sense of it.

I had the all-too-rare pleasure of coming to the show not really knowing what to expect, having neither seen the movie nor read the book. In fact, if I didn’t follow John August (who wrote both the film screenplay and the play), it might not have piqued my interest. It was great to have the opportunity to meet John while he greeted fans in the balcony section, a pretty cool thing for a guy whose next door neighbor is corn.

The show featured great visuals, most notably in the swamp scene. I really enjoyed the way the projected images interacted with the performers and set gave an appropriately out-of-this-world feel without feeling like they were “cheating.” The scenes where part or all of the cast is “paused” or in slow-motion also created a really great visual effect. The music was, as expected, outstanding, a great mix of quiet introspection, big show-stoppers, and everything in between. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but I think I’d have to go with “This River Between Us,” for the way it sets up the great who’s-the-good-guy-and-who’s-the-bad-guy struggle. It’s genuinely entertaining for all these reasons and more (yes, including Edward’s
terrifically terrible puns); if that’s all it had going for it, I would’ve really enjoyed the show.

But what made Big Fish stick with me was, unsurprisingly, the story. A well-intentioned father trying to give his son what he thinks he needs. A son looking for his real dad. A wife and mother who, like the audience, is cursed to love them both. The tug-of-war is familiar to dads. We can only provide for our children as best we can and hope that they will indeed remember us as greater than we really were. If our love is genuine, even if it’s as misguided as Edward’s was, it truly can cover a multitude of sins. Well, those were a couple of themes that I got from it, anyway. It’s such a deeply personal and relatable story, I suspect that everyone’s take is a little different.

I’m one of those (apparently few) people who believes that a standing ovation is to be reserved for those performances that are truly spectacular for one reason or another. I recall seeing a performance of Phantom of the Opera a few years back and remarking to my wife that although it was excellent, but it wasn’t so great that it deserved a standing ovation; it hadn’t exceeded my expectations or stood out among the thousands of excellent productions that happen all over. Last night, I eagerly stood to applaud a show and performance that truly stood apart from all the other shows I’ve seen.

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