Buy Tickets Read the full articleOver the last 19 seasons, Anaheim Hills’ Chance Theater has grown from an ambitious but modest storefront into one of Orange County’s major stage companies without ever losing its intimate, handcrafted feel. To mark its 20th anniversary, its founders thought nothing would serve their mandate better than a return to theater’s most elemental magic: its ability to tell big, dramatic stories that capitalize on the best special effect of all, our imagination.
Chance’s production of the musical “Big Fish” begins previews on Friday, June 29 and opens July 7.
“For our 20th season we wanted to celebrate storytelling,” said Oanh Nguyen, Chance Theater’s founding artistic director, who is directing its production of “Big Fish.” A well-told story is a powerful tool for exploring universal truths, Nguyen believes. “Stories can change us and the world. They give us insight into ourselves. After 20 years of telling all kinds of stories, it feels very special to work on a piece that embodies so much of what we do.”
Edward Bloom, the central figure of “Big Fish,” is a man of king-size dreams and even bigger tales. His wife Sandra and son Will have long ago grown tired of his credibility-stretching yarns. As the story begins, Will begs his father not to launch into any of them, or even give a toast, during his pending wedding celebration.
Some see vestiges of “Music Man’s” Harold Hill and other charming con men in Edward, but Nguyen defines the character a little more deeply and darkly.
“’Music Man’ was not a touchstone for me. I think (‘Big Fish’) is a little more like ‘Death of a Salesman.’ This lead character is a traveling salesman and a man of big dreams. I[t] doesn’t follow all the themes of ‘Salesman,’ but there is a connection there that I see.”
Nguyen feels strongly that another central theme of the work is the need to understand who your parents are and the secrets they are withholding from you. “Every child wants to know the person that (their mother or father) was before you came into their life. You want to know what’s behind the stories they tell and, in many cases, about the stories they don’t tell.”
Nguyen has personal reasons to be curious about probing parental pasts.
“My mother and father came over from Vietnam in 1975. They have these amazing, life-changing stories about their journey that they never tell. I’m desperate to find out more, but I can only get so much out of them before my mom says, ‘Go on, eat more.’ And that’s the end of it.”
The musical has a curious and somewhat troubled history. It’s based on Daniel Wallace’s 1998 novel, “Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions” and the 2003 film adaptation, “Big Fish,” which was penned by John August and directed by Tim Burton. The musical, with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa and a book by August, differs in only minor details from the novel and movie, but it struggled to find their level of success.
The pre-Broadway production opened in Chicago in April 2013 to positive reviews, and everyone seemed to like musical-theater veteran Norbert Leo Butz as Edward Bloom.
New York critics, though, were unimpressed with the Broadway version. “If the show is all about the need for personal myths, it has to let its leading mythmaker take charge,” New York Times critic Ben Brantley wrote. “Big Fish” closed on December 29, 2013 after only 34 previews and 98 regular performances.
After a hiatus, the show opened regionally and internationally throughout 2016 and 2017, although it had its local premiere in 2014 at Musical Theatre West, which used some of the Broadway production’s sets and costumes.
“We have the Orange County premiere,” Nguyen said. And he emphasized that he’s taking a fundamentally different approach to previous productions. “In our intimate space we get to focus on story and characters. And we treat the magical moments in the show less as spectacle and more as old-fashioned theatricality. Much of our ‘magic’ is being done simply, through shadow play and puppetry and projections.”
One of the pitfalls of the script is its complexity, Nyugen thinks.
“It’s really easy to get caught up in the impossibly elaborate stories. They’re so exciting and romantic and heartwarming. You can get seduced into overproducing those moments.”
Nguyen and his company are trying to stay focused on the essentials. “The only thing we are doing right now in rehearsal is asking questions. Whose story is this? Who is telling the story at any given moment? Why? What are they hoping to get from this story? We don’t lose sight of what’s happening in the present tense of the play and how each story relates to it.”
As Nguyen’s company approaches an annual budget of $1 million, he’s already thinking several years down the road.
“We need to get to $2.5 million and really build our subscription base. Our goal is to get from 500 to 1,500 season ticket holders. That would get us to 7 or 8 performances a week.”
But Chance’s programming, intimate, elemental and provocative, will remain essentially unchanged. “’Big Fish’ is an example of the kind of theater I think we do best,” Nguyen said. “I don’t see us changing that part of what we do.”
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