The winner, and a bio sidestep

Wow! You guys know some musical theater, as shown by the many haikus last Friday. My favorite, though, was this entry from DiadelKendall:

Baylor Theater
Mourns hero for musicals.
We will miss Bill Cook.

Resting in Peace was
never his thing. He'd rather
direct the chaos.

His was "Fantastick" show -
Drama, Laughter, Love and Pain.
The message lingers...

As Kendall would probably want, it seems appropriate to put his bio on hold, and instead let people know who Bill Cook was. Here is the Baylor Lariat's review of that staging of The Fantasticks:

Baylor Theatre opened its first musical in two years, Tom Jones' The Fantasticks, Thursday night. Directed by Bill Cook, the play focuses on the love story of two
young adults, Matt and Luisa.

The role of Matt is played by Jonathan Collins, a Dallas senior, and the role of Luisa is double cast with Whitney Cone, an Amarillo senior, and Megan Conner, a Granbury senior.

Cook said the production is based around allusions of love and family relationships.
"The play is basically an allusion of what we think is love and what really is love,"
Cook said. "The boy meets the girl and they fall in love with the help of their parents. Both, in a sense, experience real life."

The Fantasticks, Broadway's longest running musical, begins as two fathers decide that
they want their children to fall in love and choose to create a mock feud between themselves. The fathers, Bellomy and Hucklebee hire El Gallo, played by Rhett Henckel, a San Antonio junior, to kidnap Luisa so that Matt can save her. After the abduction,
the two realize their parents staged the feud and their love fades. They reunite at the close of the play.

"It's a typical love story," Cone said. "It's very easy to get involved in." Cook said talent usually dictates what type of production Baylor Theatre chooses. He said he originally planned to put on South Pacific, but after the technical director
resigned, Cook selected The Fantasticks, a smaller show. "It doesn't require an orchestra, just a piano, bass and drums," Cook said. "It is also a simple set, most of the actors never leave the stage when they get on. It's a good training production for students."

The cast consists of 15 actors and chorus members. Cone said that because of the lack of set pieces, the audience must use their imagination to get involved in the story.

Leta Horan, director of Baylor's Showtime, is the musical director and Karen Flygare is the show's choreographer.

The Fantasticks continues tonight and runs through November 11. All shows, excluding the 2:30 p.m. Sunday matinee, begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Jones Theatre at Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center.

I didn't know Bill Cook, but it's hard not to like a guy who describes a story with lots of singing, a fake family feud, and an abduction as a "typical love story."


[If you are interested in learning more about Bill Cook, who died last week, there is a fascinating set of interviews here]