Big Fish is a head-turning kaleidoscope of action
Hamilton Theatre Inc.’s final production of the season is a rollicking, high energy, never-say-die good time meant for a wide audience.
Hamilton Theatre Inc. is known for its enthusiastic and lively musicals backed by the orchestrations of its own talented band. This time the company is performing Big Fish, based on the 1998 novel by American novelist Daniel Wallace and the 2003 film by director Tim Burton. At its heart the story of the relationship between a father and son, Big Fish is a colourful and zany spectacle populated by a dizzying cast of characters.
The play centres around an aging father, Edward Bloom, who has made his living as a travelling salesman, returning again and again with incredible fairy tale-style stories to regale those around him, especially his wife and son. Edward is as vivid and colourful as his stories, and they seem to charm almost everyone who crosses his path. His son, Will Bloom, on the verge of marriage, is less enamoured. The larger-than-life tales and flights of fancy have become unwelcome, even embarrassing. He’s never been certain what’s fact or fiction when it comes to his father and, increasingly, this leaves him feeling like he doesn’t truly know the man. Then life takes a turn and forces his hand even more.
Burton’s film featured a veritable who’s who of Hollywood in its cast, including Albert Finney and Ewan MacGregor as Old and Young Edward, Billy Crudup, Helena Bonham Carter, Jessica Lange, Danny DeVito, Steve Buscemi, Marion Cotillard, even a young Miley Cyrus. The movie’s screenwriter John August won a BAFTA nomination and wrote the book for the musical version of Big Fish. In fact, he read Wallace’s manuscript before it was published and was instrumental in getting Columbia Pictures to acquire the film rights.
Edward Bloom is, notably, a big fish in a smallish pond, a memorable man who wins over most people with his humour, optimism, and sense of adventure. For Big Fish to work, the audience has to buy into Edward Bloom’s charm, likeability and salesmanship. Luckily for this production, it has actor Glen McCann, who returns to the HTI stage after Something Rotten in 2023. McCann strikes an imposing figure on the stage, and has a strong and steady vocal command throughout the performance. It takes skill to move easily from speaking to singing to speaking again, but McCann manages this seamlessly throughout his many scenes, proving a clear and excellent storyteller as he unravels his many tales.
Another notable performance is that of Edward’s beloved wife Sandra Bloom, played by the enchanting and winsome Fiona Roossien. Roossien can do it all, whether it’s dancing with grace and high spirits, displaying warmth and sass with her husband and son, or delighting the audience with her beautiful, soaring voice.
Big Fish has a lot of humour and kooky razzle dazzle, but there’s the edge of something darker there, especially in Will’s growing mistrust of his father’s tendency to embellish. Adult Will (played with earnest intensity by John Connolly) has a simmering resentfulness in that he had an essentially absentee father, with Edward away so much for work and his ever-growing list of adventures.
Admittedly, it’s a bit unexpected that a dark-haired Young Will (Penny McKay) turns into a red-haired adult (Connolly), but this seems like quibbling when the rest of the production is filled to the brim with characters that require suspension of disbelief. From a crystal ball-wielding witch (the magnetic Aramenta Sobchak) to a brainy cave-dwelling giant (Noun Holloway, last seen in a Shakespearean role at Dundas Little Theatre) to the ubiquitous featured puppet, Mr. Fluffybottom (a scene stealer if there ever was one), HTI’s Big Fish is a head-turning kaleidoscope of action.
Supporting the central story and populating Edward’s many tall tales is a large, fully invested, dynamic and seemingly inexhaustible ensemble. Well choreographed and fearless, our eyes leap from one to another of the supporting characters as they bring to life the whirl of Bloom’s colourful exploits. In this production, the orchestra manages to strike a good balance, adding musical magic to the proceedings without overpowering the vocalists.
Big Fish is the story of a man's life, some of it real and some it imagined. It’s about truth and legacy and memories and imagination. Mainly, the production is just a rollicking, high energy, never-say-die good time meant for a wide audience. But it also poignantly reminds us that storytelling serves many purposes, among them to conceal, change, inspire and remember. Our stories, recalled and passed on by our children and grandchildren, are some of the only things that remain of us when we’re dead and gone.
A small number of tickets remain for this weekend’s performances of Big Fish, the last production on this season’s playbill.
NEED TO KNOW
Big Fish continues May 22, 23 & 24, 8 p.m.
Hamilton Theatre Inc.
140 MacNab St. N., Hamilton
Tickets are here
Doors open: 7:30 p.m., ages 12+
