The Fantasticks is a musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics and a book by Tom Jones, loosely based on the 1894 play Les Romanesques by Edmond Rostand. It tells an allegorical story concerning two neighboring parents who employ reverse psychology to get their children to fall in love by pretending to feud.
The show's original off-Broadway production ran a total of 42 years (until 2002) and 17,162 performances, making it the world's longest-running musical.Official Website. Accessed June 16, 2010 The musical was produced by Lore Noto. It was awarded Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre in 1991. The poetic book and breezy, inventive score, including such memorable songs as "Try to Remember", helped make the show durable. Many productions followed, as well as television and film versions. The Fantasticks has become a staple of regional, community and high school productions since its premiere, with approximately 250 new productions each year. It is played with a small cast, two- to three-person orchestra and minimalist set design.
The show was revived off Broadway from 2006 to 2017. As of 2010, its original investors had earned 240 times their original investments.Cochran, Jason. "'The Fantasticks' earned its investors a 24,000% return ... and counting". WalletPop.com, April 27, 2010 The first Broadway production is planned to begin in late 2026. The musical has played in all 50 US states and in at least 67 foreign countries.Gollust, Shelley and Jerilyn Watson. "The Fantasticks at 50". VOANews.com, May 23, 2010
Background The 1954 Marc Blitzstein adaptation of The Threepenny Opera, which ran for six years, showed that musicals could be profitable off-Broadway in a small-scale, small orchestra format. This was confirmed in 1959 when a revival of Jerome Kern and P. G. Wodehouse's Leave It to Jane ran for more than two years. The 1959–1960 off-Broadway season included a dozen musicals and revues including Little Mary Sunshine, The Fantasticks, and Ernest in Love, a musicalization of Oscar Wilde's 1895 hit The Importance of Being Earnest.Suskin, Steven. "On the Record: Ernest In Love, Marco Polo, Puppets and Maury Yeston" , Playbill, August 10, 2003
The musical is based loosely on The Romancers (Les Romanesques) by Edmond Rostand,Edmond Rostand (1903) Les Romanesques: comédie en trois actes, en vers (Google eBook) which draws elements from the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore.The Fantasticks. MusicalHeaven.comEdmond Rostand (1915) The Romancers: Comedy in Three Acts, Samuel French (Google eBook)
Productions The Fantasticks is one of the most widely produced musicals in the world, and by 2010 had been staged in all 50 states, and across 67 countries with many translations.Vincents, M.: "Amazing Facts About The Fantasticks", Go Articles, January 13, 2010Healy, Patrick. "Fantasticks Pays Back for 50 Years". The New York Times, May 2, 2010 It has been performed at The White House, for the Peace Corps in Africa, at the Shawnee Methodist Mission in Kansas, the Menninger Foundation, Yellowstone National Park, and the White Sands Missile Range."The Fifth Decade!" Official Website, accessed June 16, 2010 It was performed in Mandarin by the Peking Opera, and in 1990 under the auspices of the United States State Department it played for the first time in Russia. Notable cast members have included David Canary, Robert Goulet, Richard Chamberlain, John Carradine, and Ed Ames.
Early productions Jones, together with John Donald Robb of the University of New Mexico, first adapted the Rostand play as a Western titled Joy Comes to Deadhorse.Jones and Schmidt, p. 5 The play premiered at the University of New Mexico in the spring of 1956. It was set in the American West and featured a "half-breed Apache" among the characters.Weaver, p. 115 Jones was not happy with this version and subsequently teamed with Schmidt.Jones and Schmidt, p. 7
The script was substantially rewritten by Jones and Schmidt, with the character of Mortimer now "not really an Indian" but playing one during the "Rape Ballet" sequence. The Wild West setting was abandoned, as was most of the script. All but a few songs in the score were also jettisoned, and the staging of the play was changed to a thrust stage.Jones and Schmidt, p. 8 Tom Jones says that the name of the play came from George Fleming's 1900 adaptation of the Rostand play, which used the name The Fantasticks.Edmond Rostand, George Fleming (1900) The Fantasticks: a romantic comedy in three acts, R.H. Russell, New York (Google eBook) Harley Granville-Barker's book, On Dramatic Method, provided the idea of using a series of images to help weave a unifying theme to the play.Jones and Schmidt, p. 10 Thornton Wilder's Our Town gave Jones the idea of using a narrator, the staging of Carlo Goldoni's Servant of Two Masters provided the concept of having actors sit stage-side when not acting, and John Houseman's production of The Winter's Tale and Leonard Bernstein's Candide suggested the use of sun, moon, frozen action, and incidental music.Jones and Schmidt, pp. 10–11 The song "Try to Remember" was added at this time. Harvey Schmidt says he wrote it in a single afternoon, after it emerged in almost complete form after a fruitless afternoon attempting to compose other songs.Jones and Schmidt, pp. 11–12
The revamped play appeared on a bill of new one-act plays at Barnard College for one week in August 1959.Jones and Schmidt, pp. 12–15
Original off-Broadway The Fantasticks premiered at the Sullivan Street Playhouse, a small off-Broadway theatre in New York City's Greenwich Village, on May 3, 1960, with Jerry Orbach as El Gallo, Rita Gardner as Luisa, Kenneth Nelson as Matt, and librettist Tom Jones (under a pseudonym) as the Old Actor, among the cast members. The sparse set and semicircular stage created an intimate and immediate effect. The play is highly stylized and combines old-fashioned showmanship, classic musical theatre, commedia dell'arte and Noh theatrical traditions. The original production was directed by Word Baker and was produced on a very low budget. The producer spent $900 on the setFarber and Viagas, p. 158 and $541 on costumes, at a time when major Broadway shows would cost $250,000. The original set designer, costumer, prop master, and lighting designer was Ed Wittstein, who performed all four jobs for a total of only $480 plus $24.48 a week.Farber and Viagas, p. 157 The set was similar to that for Our Town; Wittstein designed a raised stationary platform anchored by six poles. It resembled a traveling players' wagon, like a pageant wagon. For a curtain, he hung various small false curtains across the platform at various times during the play. He also made a sun/moon out of cardboard. One side was painted bright yellow (the sun) and the other was black with a crescent of white (the moon). The sun/moon was hung from a nail in one of the poles and is referred to in the libretto. The orchestra consists of a piano and sometimes also a harp, with the harpist also sometimes playing some percussion instruments.
The opening of The Fantasticks met with mixed reviews. Four years later, in The New York Times, Schmidt and Jones recalled that Noto had kept the show running despite the criticism. The musical was awarded the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre in 1991.
The production closed on January 13, 2002, after 17,162 performances. It is the world's longest-running musical and the longest-running uninterrupted show of any kind in the United States.BWW News Desk. "London's 'The Fantasticks' to Close Early, 6/26". Westend.broadwayworld.com, June 14, 2010"'The Fantasticks' listing" thefantasticks.com, retrieved June 16, 2010Hernandez, Ernio. "Long Runs on Broadway", February 17, 2009, accessed June 16, 2010 Other notable actors who appeared in the off-Broadway and touring production throughout its long run included Liza Minnelli, Elliott Gould, F. Murray Abraham, Glenn Close, Keith Charles, Carole Demas, Kristin Chenoweth, Bert Convy, Eileen Fulton, Lore Noto (the show's longtime producer), Dick Latessa, and Martin Vidnovic.Replacements list at official website, accessed June 16, 2009
London and Vietnam The musical ran at London's Apollo Theatre from September 7, 1961, and ran for 44 performances.The Fantasticks. BroadwayWorld, accessed June 16, 2010 In 1990, another production was given in London's Regent's Park at the Open Air Theatre there.Thisistheatre "'The Fantasticks' at the Duchess Theatre". Thisistheatre.com, retrieved June 16, 2010
It toured in Vietnam in 1969–70, presented by the Command Military Touring Shows, a unit of Army Special Entertainment branch of the US Army Special Services. The company was made up of military personnel.Grills, Matt. "All the War's a Stage", The American Legion, July 22, 2013, accessed March 15, 2019
Off-Broadway revival On August 23, 2006, a revival of The Fantasticks opened at the off-Broadway The Theater Center, New York City where it closed on June 4, 2017 after an additional run of 4,390 performances."Off-Broadway's The Fantasticks to Close this June", BroadwayWorld.com, March 21, 2017; and Viagas, Robert. "Fantasticks Writer Makes One Last Rewrite Before the Show Closes", Playbill, June 2, 2017 It was directed by lyricist Jones, who also appeared in the role of Henry, The Old Actor, under the stage name Thomas Bruce. The original cast of the revival also included Burke Moses (El Gallo), Leo Burmester (Hucklebee), Martin Vidnovic (Bellomy), Santino Fontana (Matt), Sara Jean Ford (Luisa), Robert R. Oliver (Mortimer), and Douglas Ullman, Jr. (the Mute)."The_Fantasticks Welcome Back Old Friend". Broadwayworld.com, August 24, 2006 A cast recording of this production was released by Ghostlight Records.
Anthony Fedorov played the role of Matt in 2007. Margaret Anne Florence played Luisa in 2008.Hetrick, Adam. "Florence and Nostrand Join Cast of Off-Broadway's Fantasticks" . Playbill.com, July 21, 2008, accessed August 16, 2010 Lewis Cleale played El Gallo between 2008 and 2010."Cleale Returns to The Fantasticks, McDaniel Joins on June 29, BroadwayWorld.com, June 29, 2009Edward Watts is Fantasticks' New El Gallo; Cleale Departs 3/14, BroadwayWorld.com, March 9, 2010 Jones left the cast in 2010, after the musical had celebrated its 50th anniversary.Hetrick, Adam. "Tom Jones to Depart The Fantasticks Off-Broadway June 6". Playbill.com, June 4, 2010 Pop star Aaron Carter joined the cast as Matt in 2011.Hetrick, Adam. "The Fantasticks Welcomes Aaron Carter Nov. 7 Off-Broadway" , November 7, 2011 In memory of the original El Gallo, the theatre hosting the revival was renamed the Jerry Orbach Theater.
Washington, D.C. Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. presented the musical from November 20, 2009, to January 10, 2010, at the Lincoln Theatre. The well-received production replaced the conventional "mysterious bandit" interpretation of El Gallo with a kindly carnival magician character. Washington Post theatre critic Peter Marks wrote, "they have been reconditioned to conceal the telltale signs of age and yield a diversion that feels fresh and alive again".
2010 West End