Kate Baldwin and Norbert Leo Butz

In the very first scene, as Edward tells his six-year-old son Will (played alternately by Anthony Perini and Zachary Unger) the story of the eponymous fish, we're taken from the boy's bedroom inside the guts of the giant catfish via images projected onto Crouch's house of very versatile wooden slats. The action seamlessly moves between reality and fantasy, with subsequent scenes taking us to an enchanted swamp, a circus, a submerged town square and even the campus of Auburn University. Daffodils grow from the stage, the orchestra pit has become a flowing river and William Ivey Long's costumes do such things as transforming trees into witches and back into trees again.

The story itself is a slight but touching one. On the wedding day of Edward's son Will, Will confesses his difficulty in trusting the father who, as a traveling salesman, was frequently absent and when present would tell his preposterous stories rather than reveal any truths about himself. Further, he's embarrassed by his father's corny jokes and, despite Will's entreaties to refrain from such raconteuring at the wedding, Edward goes ahead and does so anyway. Will then withdraws from his father for three years until Edward's diagnosis of cancer prompts a return visit home. This leads Will to undertake a quest to learn more about his father—an investigation which along the way uncovers some disturbing facts. There are more revelations before the story's conclusion, though, and it should be no surprise even to those unfamiliar with the movie or the novel by Daniel Wallace on which it was based, that Will and Edward reach an understanding before it's too late.

The book by John August (screenwriter of the film) reduces and condenses the action of the film, dropping some of the fantasy tales and combining others. Big Fish is heavy on music—not only the 18 charming songs with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, but a good amount of underscoring by Lippa as well. There's a subtle country influence that's appropriate for this story set in the American south, as well as a touch of vaudeville that seems right for the showman in Edward. It's a varied score, yet one that feels much more of a piece than Lippa's score for The Addams Family. It includes upbeat numbers like the opener "The God's Honest Truth," some sweet love ballads ("Time Stops" and "Daffodils" for Edward and wife Sandra and "I Don't Need a Roof" for Sandra), and anthems of optimism ("Bigger" and "Start Over"). There's also a very nice duet for father and son in which Edward justifies his travels and tale-telling as a way of protecting the child Will until he was older (with Lippa's lyric having Edward explain "I'll fight the dragons until you can"). Larry Hochman's lush orchestration is beautifully performed by Mary-Mitchell Campbell's fourteen-piece orchestra, seated on three levels of platforms upstage.

Stroman's dances are bright and lively if not particularly innovative, and she gets fine performances from her top notch cast. The role of Edward at all ages (it was split between Albert Finney and Ewan McGregor for the film) is another meaty, Tony-worthy role for Butz. In the "realistic" scenes of the older Edward, Butz is unafraid to keep the man low-key and believably older, and when he's younger and in the midst of his stories, he's an energetic dynamo. It's a star role for one of Broadway's very top male performers and is certain to confirm that status for Butz when the show arrives in New York this fall. Bobby Steggert is a wonderfully understated, troubled Will. He has just the right level of sadness and regret toward his father—never falling into self-pity—and it's his sensitive performance that brings the story to a satisfying close. He doesn't get to sing a whole lot until act two, but then he shows off his impressive bari-tenor in three big numbers. Kate Baldwin is absolutely lovely and lovable as the wife and mother to these two men, with her solo "I Don't Need a Roof" one of the emotional highlights of the show.

There are terrific supporting performances as well. Brad Oscar is a very funny as the charlatan owner of the circus Edward joins along with the giant, Karl (in a sweet performance by Ryan Andes). Kirsten Scott is touching as Jenny, the girl Edward left behind, and Katie Thompson has a knockout number as the Witch who reveals the future to a young Edward.

While most of the elements are in place for a hit show—I don't think the score, production design or least of the cast need to be touched—the storytelling could use some polishing. It opens strongly, with Edward's telling of the story of the Big Fish, then moving into a scene and song ("The River Between Us") nicely setting up the conflict between Edward and Will. The remainder of the first act, though, is spent mostly in the fantasy sequences. As colorful, funny and entertaining as they are, they don't do much to invest us in the characters or to fully understand their quest. And whose quest is it anyway? Well, Will's mostly. Though he's the secondary character, he's the one with the journey—to somehow learn enough about his father to reconcile with or at least understand him. As Butz is the headliner here, we might more logically expect him to be the one we root for. But if Edward has a journey in this tale of his life, it's not made clear. Further, the character of Jenny Hill, who becomes important to the story in act two, is almost unnoticeable in her early scene. The second act is heavier on plot and character development, and the story winds up in a quite emotional and satisfying way, but the first act ought to reel us in more.

Stroman also seems to push a little too hard in the first act—keeping everything at a very peppy level when she should take things easier and quieter. That's not a problem in the second act, though I did find the comedy number "Showdown," a cowboys and Indians comedy fantasy sequence following Will's big confrontation with Edward, to be the wrong tone for that moment in the show.

None of these issues would seem to be hard to fix. A few new lines of dialogue and some modulations of tone might just do it. Even so, Big Fish is a little bit of an odd duck: a small sensitive story whose stakes are huge for Will but may not seem so important as those faced by so many heroes and heroines of musical theater. Still, we all have or have had parents, and to one degree or another struggled to know and understand them, whether they were absent or present. Big Fish's theme thus ought to resonate for most. Its announced Broadway home of the Neil Simon Theatre, one third smaller than Chicago's Cadillac Palace, might be a more appropriate sized pond for this big fish.

Big Fish will play the Oriental Theatre, 24 West Randolph Street, Chicago, through May 5, 2013. For ticket information, visit www.BroadwayinChicago.com, Ticketmaster, call 800-775-2000 or visit any Broadway in Chicago box office.

Photo: Paul Kolnik

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-- John Olson