article_1315332080600 the void The Fantasticks,” that long-running off-Broadway institution, is performed with energy and entertaining flair in a production at Stages of Omaha’s Millennium Theatre. The show, which first opened in a small New York City theater in 1960 and has run there ever since, is a simple, winning fable of young love. A boy and a girl fall in love after their parents (in the Stages production, two mothers) build a wall between their properties and forbid them to see each other. Unbeknownst to the lovers, their parents are hoping they’ll get married; the wall is a bit of reverse psychology. Jerry R. Ditter stars as the boy, Matt, and Lindsey Wilkerson plays the girl, Luisa. Their mothers are played by Christine Schwery and Linda Mead. The cast also includes Greg Montgomery as the mysterious bandit El Gallo, Tim Reilly and Kevin Bensley as a pair of wandering actors, Henry and Mortimer, and Ryan Rubek as the Mute. Ditter, who is also the theater’s artistic director, was touting Wilkerson’s performance last week, and at Friday night’s opening it was easy to see why. The young actress, a Westside High School student, handled the vocal demands of the role with seeming ease while lending her character an air of hopeful romanticism mixed with naivete that is important if the play is going to work. She gets good support from Ditter; the two performers shine in their three duets, “Metaphor,” “Soon It’s Gonna Rain” and “They Were You.” Montgomery also displays a good voice as El Gallo, the narrator of the play. Montgomery opens the show with the play’s most familiar song, “Try to Remember,” and his performance mixed flamboyant humor with an odd sympathetic quality that will keep first-time viewers of the show off balance while appealing to “Fantasticks” fans — and there are many — who already know how everything turns out. Schwery and Mead are strong as the mothers — the songs “Never Say No” and “Plant a Radish” should please parents in the audience — while Reilly and Bensley provide comic relief as a pair of aging players who are hired by El Gallo to stage a fake “abduction” that will allow the mothers to end the feud. “The Fantasticks” hasn’t run 40 years without reason. The play is delightful, not especially demanding for the audience, and often very funny, while the songs are memorable. When given a good production, as director Kathleen Bagby and her cast have done here, the family-friendly show should not be missed. A reviewer-estimated crowd of 45 attended Friday’s opening-night performance. The Fantasticks What: Musical comedy by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays, through May 7 Where: Millennium Theatre, 601 S. 16th St. Tickets: $15, $12 students, seniors and military Information: 345-8166 000416 what's it to you? who go blather from