Vital Theatre's 'Fancy Nancy The Musical' Bursts with Style and Wit

Vital Theatre Company's newest staging, Fancy Nancy The Musical, brings popular storybook illustrations to life on an Off Broadway stage. The result is a family-friendly production brimming with style and wit.

You heard it through the grapevine (a fancy word for “Twitter”): A new kids’ show inspired by a popular book series is slated to open in the near future. Sounds good. Still, in the “yay or nay” world of mom and dad, a familiar question insists on popping up: How can I parentally predict if it will be fly (or fizzle) with my kids?

Fancy Nancy (right) and her BFF Bree share tea

Suggestion: Go undercover during the early rehearsal period…Groucho mask, maintenance overalls, or invisibility cloak should do the trick. And while you’re swathed in incognito regalia, always remember that if creativity and talent shimmer through the fledgling song, dance, and dialogue learning curve, the show will be a stage triumph (a fancy word for “winner”)—like Fancy Nancy, the Vital Theatre Company’s newest musical for the small and tall.

Based on the popular children’s series by Jane O’Connor, Fancy Nancy The Musical is one of those rare productions that not only manages to translate a storybook storyline into stage-worthy dialogue and lyrics, it also captures the spirit of Robin Preiss Glasser’s vivacious drawings, including the look of the characters—which is pretty amazing when you consider that the youngsters in the illustrations are played by fresh-faced adults in the musical.

And it’s this visual parallel that inspired veteran director/choreographer Sam Viverito in a major way.

I know this because I was able to sit in on Fancy Nancy’s third rehearsal (invisibility cloak uncalled for), after which Viverito—whose professional involvement with Vital includes helming both Angelina Ballerina The Musical and Angelina Ballerina The Very Merry Holiday Musical—showed me his personal stash of Glasser illustrations and explained the impact they had on his creative process.

“What I’m doing with this show is different from any past productions I’ve worked on,” he says. “I’ve never really used artwork as an inspiration, but Glasser’s poses are so amazing and animated I’ve incorporated several into the show.”

Working with the cast on the Vital Theatre stage—barebones set pieces and a smattering of props—Viverito is an arsenal of energy as he demonstrates dance moves, positions his actors, and takes the show’s musical numbers from concept to concrete. “I throw things at them and refine as we go along,” he explains, adding that prior to rehearsal the cast had never heard the score, an irresistible collection of ingenious tunes by award-winning composer/lyricist Danny Abosch and lyricist Susan DiLallo (who also skillfully adapted the book to the stage).

The Story

Nancy, a little girl with a fancy for all things fancy—tiaras, cloth napkins, costumery (even when it’s not Halloween), vocabulary words (a butterfly’s not “pretty,” it’s “exquisite”), French phrases (“suives-moi” for “follow me”)—and her friends (including BFF Bree) learn their dance class is putting on a show called “Deep Sea Dances.” Naturally, Nancy and Bree are primed to be mermaids—“the fanciest of [sea] creatures”—but are crushed to learn they weren’t picked to be the show’s one mermaid. Worst of all, Nancy is playing a tree—an ordinary, not-at-all-fancy tree—and Bree gets cast as an oyster.

They’re disappointed until Mom reminds them of the importance of making the most of every part we are called on to play in life, and then reminds them of the healing power of tea parties. All is fine until fate steps in and Nancy learns some very important lessons about friendship, jealousy, and just how incredibly fabulous a tree can be.