FYP announces ‘Big Fish’ will be show for 2016-17 school year

First Year Players announced Sunday they will produce and perform the musical “Big Fish” this spring for the Syracuse University community.

The musical details the story of Edward Bloom and his son Will. Edward, who works as a traveling salesman, tells elaborate and outlandish stories to his son. Will, soon to be married and with a baby on the way, has trouble believing his father’s tales. When Edward falls ill and faces death, Will must reconcile his disbelief in order to maintain his relationship with his father.

“It’s a coming of age story,” said Peter Levchuck, an FYP assistant producer.

“Big Fish” is based on the 1998 novel by Daniel Wallace. Tim Burton directed a 2003 movie adaptation of the story. This is the fourth consecutive year that the FYP show has been based on a movie.

Kelly Egan, co-producer of FYP, said that one of the goals with picking “Big Fish” was to create a positive experience and build a family and a home for its exclusively first-year cast and crew.

FYP goes through a rather intensive selection process for their shows. Each of the 12 e-board members pitches three shows they’d like to see produced. Those 36 options are then narrowed down to six and then presented to the whole FYP staff of over 100 members.

Typically, the box office sells over 600 tickets to the FYP show every year, making it one of campus’s most anticipated events.