Bigger isn’t always better.
Just ask Charles Packard.
“Everything emphasized the big in “Big Fish” [on Broadway]. Big cast, big orchestra, big scenery. I didn’t see a single ad about a son trying to know his father,” Packard, executive director of The Aurora Fox Arts Center, said in a statement. “They had buried the story in the big. The heart was still there in the text and lyrics, but it was smothered in flashy numbers and special effects.”
That blinding layer of chintz is what Packard aims to peel off of “Big Fish” in The Fox’s own production of the musical set to open on the East Colfax theater’s main stage on Feb. 27. Following five weeks of design and production, Packard, who is also the show’s scenic designer, has worked diligently to refocus “Fish” on the story — something he believes was noticeably absent from the musical’s short-lived Broadway run in 2013.
“[Disrupting the story] is something Broadway is having a real problem with, because they’re doing so much film adaptation,” Packard said. “There is sometimes a tendency to let the spectacle get out in front of the story and that is what happened to Big Fish badly.”
With lyrics by Andrew Lippa and a book by John August, “Big Fish” was originally a 1998 novel by Daniel Wallace, but only gained widespread acclaim after director Tim Burton turned it into a film in 2003. The story follows the Odyssey-like journey of Edward Bloom, a master yarn spinner who self-reportedly leads a life that’s as riveting as it is unbelievable. Very unbelievable.
Packard said that while the film has helped familiarize audiences with the story, he has been cognizant to not recreate Burton’s surrealist fantasy.
“It really does disservice to the story if you try to retell it onstage as Tim burton told it on film,” he said. “Film has certain tools, advantages and disadvantages and the stage has its own. It’s about figuring out how to exploit those advantages and then how to do it affordably.”
Although the Fox’s production is scaled back from the Burton incarnation, that’s not to say the team at the Fox has abandoned fantasy altogether — there’s still plenty of spectacle to be had. Air cannons that launch stuffed fish with the help of 120 PSI of pressure, a flood, a full carnival of characters and over 7,000 hand-placed faux daffodils are just a few of the attractions the show is slated to offer.
And The Fox’s long, narrow main stage is an apt fit for such a fantastic, story-focused show, according to Packard. So much so that he sought out the licensing rights to Big Fish the day after he saw it two years ago, making The Fox the first theater to produce the show following its stint on Broadway.
“I boldly announced to the agent that “Big Fish” failed on Broadway because it didn’t belong on Broadway,” Packard said in a statement. “It belongs at The Fox and I know how to fix it. He believed me, he believed in The Fox.”
Despite the stage’s unique ability to support a show like “Big Fish,” that doesn’t mean it has been an easy task to bring to fruition. The show’s myriad technical feats — such as a retractable stage and expanded performance area that expands into the theater’s front row — were demanding for technical director Brandon Case, though he echoed Packard’s thoughts on the Fox’s distinct capability to tell an intimate story through a personalized lens.
“I think it almost gives us a better chance at it. Because we have a very small family of artists who get together and can sit around a table, pour our guts out and say, ‘this is how we want to tell the story,’” Case said.
Such intimate knowledge of the space, the theater and each other is what allowed the production team, charged by director John Ashton, choreographer Piper Lindsay and musical director David Nehls to make some of the show’s boldest dramatic decisions, according to Packard. However, he added that many scenic aspects were made easier through his familiarity with the show’s protagonist.
“Every little visual choice we’ve made, is, ‘how would Edward have told the story, how would Edward have said this happened, how would he have exaggerated it or told not quite the truth?’” Packard said.
The only problem with relying on an admittedly verbose, grandiose character, according to Packard, is the resulting tall order of work.
“One of our mantras is, ‘it’s going to be awesome, it’s not going to be awesome today, but it’s going to be awesome.’”