With dancing, music, costumes and storytelling, Big Fish: The Musical dazzled audiences at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School Performing Arts Center over the weekend.
The house was packed all weekend — and so was the stage, on which nearly 50 performers brought to life the magical tales of a father and fabulist, and his son’s lifelong struggle to understand his father.
Islanders have come to expect outstanding things from the high school’s singers, actors and dancers, and this year’s musical delivered many worthy farewell performances from seniors who have starred on the stage from year to year.
Director Brooke Ditchfield hand-picks each annual musical for the roles it offers the young people in the high school performing arts program. The level of talent in this year’s group was so high that she double-cast the lead female character, with Caitlin McHugh and Bella Giordano giving equally compelling performances as Sandra Bloom at alternating shows.
Skylar Hall, as leading man Edward Bloom, and Jaiden Edelman, as son Will, also excelled as both actors and singers.
Mr. Hall’s character maintained his optimistic spirit in the face of all obstacles as he danced, charmed fish and a giant, chased a girl and an assassin, and climbed into a cannon to get blasted across the state of Alabama.
That flight, and a climactic flood later in the narrative, were dramatized by animations from the school’s art and design students, who teamed up with the performing arts department to create projected backdrops for the set.
Other memorable moments that had the audience applauding included a tap-dancing chorus line, with a cameo by choreographer Ken Romero as a fast-tapping, sequin-covered Uncle Sam, and just about every appearance by audience favorite Karl the Giant, played by Wyatt Belisle on stilts.
The production design was equally remarkable, from the back projections and stage lighting to Chelsea McCarthy’s exuberant costuming, an essential element in a show so full of spectacle.
The 13-piece orchestra, led by high school music director Abigail Chandler, also contributed tremendously to the atmosphere of the production, adding emotional content to key spoken scenes as well as supporting the singers in their numbers.
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