Response to “The Fantasticks”

[unknown-user]

I haven’t played the show since I subbed in the original Off-Broadway production quite a few years ago. Hank Whitmire was the last harpist to play the show, and he may have played it the longest, too. They rewrote the harp book, I seem to remember him saying. He’s probably the best person to get in contact with. It’s all playable, surprisingly, if you’re dextrous. With a sort of glib approach, like the show itself, it kind of fall into place. You have to do a lot of fast jumping onto different notes, placing, etc. but there should be enough time. The trickiest thing was having to play in a blackout until the lights came on. You probably won’t have that problem. There is an original cast recording, and if you listen carefully you can hear most of the harp part. It all moves along rather quickly, and is really lovely music. My favorite part was Soon It’s Gonna Rain. This Plum is Too Ripe is the trickiest, perhaps. It’s very syncopated, and you may have to play the claves as well as the harp.