The Fantasticks
Original Off-Broadway cast album cover
Music	Harvey Schmidt
Lyrics	Tom Jones
Book	Tom Jones
Based upon	Les Romanesques by Edmond Rostand
Productions	1960 Off-Broadway 2007 Off-Broadway revival

The Fantasticks is a 1960 musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones. It tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the play "The Romancers" ("Les Romanesques") by Edmond Rostand [1], concerning two fathers who put up a wall between their houses to ensure that their children fall in love, because they know that children always do what their parents forbid. After the children do fall in love, they discover their fathers' plot and they each go off and experience things in the world. They return to each other and the love they had, having learned from the world and made an informed decision. Elements of the play are ultimately drawn from the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, winding through Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream as well as Rostand's play on the way. The Fantasticks CD cover File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Harvey Schmidt (born Texas, 1929) is a writer of musical theatre, best known for the longest running musical in history, The Fantasticks, which has been running off-Broadway since 1960. ... Tom Jones (born in 1928 in Texas) is lyricist of musical theatre, best known for the longest running musical in history, The Fantasticks, which has been running off-Broadway since 1960. ... Tom Jones (born in 1928 in Texas) is lyricist of musical theatre, best known for the longest running musical in history, The Fantasticks, which has been running off-Broadway since 1960. ... Statue dedicated to Edmond Rostand in Cambo-les-Bains Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand (April 1, 1868 - December 2, 1918) was a French poet and dramatist. ... Year 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Off-Broadway plays or musicals are performed in New York City in smaller theatres than Broadway, but larger than Off-Off-Broadway, productions. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st Century. ... Off-Broadway plays or musicals are performed in New York City in smaller theatres than Broadway, but larger than Off-Off-Broadway, productions. ... A revival is a restaging of a former hit play at a later date. ... Year 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Black Crook (1866) is considered the first musical comedy Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. ... Harvey Schmidt (born Texas, 1929) is a writer of musical theatre, best known for the longest running musical in history, The Fantasticks, which has been running off-Broadway since 1960. ... Tom Jones (born in 1928 in Texas) is lyricist of musical theatre, best known for the longest running musical in history, The Fantasticks, which has been running off-Broadway since 1960. ... An allegory (from Greek αλλος, allos, other, and αγορευειν, agoreuein, to speak in public) is a figurative representation conveying a meaning other than and in addition to the literal. ... Statue dedicated to Edmond Rostand in Cambo-les-Bains Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand (April 1, 1868 - December 2, 1918) was a French poet and dramatist. ... For the asteroid, see 88 Thisbe. ... Romeo and Juliet in the famous balcony scene by Ford Madox Brown For other uses, see Romeo and Juliet (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see A Midsummer Nights Dream (disambiguation). ...

The show's original production off-Broadway ran for 17,162 performances, becoming the world's longest-running musical, for 42 years. The poetic book and breezy, hummable score, including such familiar songs such as "Try to Remember," helped make this show so durable. Many productions followed, as well as television and film versions. The Fantasticks has also become a staple of regional, community, and high school productions virtually since its premiere, despite a deceptively simple plot line and several politically incorrect themes discussed below under "Controversy". It is one of the few musicals to have been made available to other theaters before its original production closed. The show is very budget-friendly because of its small cast, two-person orchestra and minimalist set design. Off-Broadway plays or musicals are performed in New York City in smaller theatres than Broadway, but larger than Off-Off-Broadway, productions. ... Try to Remember is the most famous song from the musical comedy The Fantasticks. ... Politically Incorrect was a late-night, half-hour political talk show hosted by Bill Maher that ran from 1993 to 2002. ...

Productions

The play's first iteration was as "Joy Comes to Deadhorse" at the University of New Mexico in 1956. After substantial rewriting, it appeared on a bill of new one-act plays at Barnard College for one week in August 1959. The University of New Mexico (UNM) is a public university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. ... Barnard College, founded in 1889, is one of the four undergraduate divisions of Columbia University. ...

The Fantasticks premiered at the Sullivan Street Playhouse, a small off-Broadway theater, on May 3, 1960, with Jerry Orbach as El Gallo, Rita Gardner as Luisa, and Kenneth Nelson as Matt, 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. Off-Broadway plays or musicals are performed in New York City in smaller theatres than Broadway, but larger than Off-Off-Broadway, productions. ... is the 123rd day of the year (124th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jerome Bernard Orbach (October 20, 1935 – December 28, 2004) was an American actor best known for his starring role as wisecracking Detective Lennie Briscoe in the Law & Order television series and for his musical theater roles. ... Rita Gardner is an American actress and singer. ... Kenneth Nelson (born March 24, 1930 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, died October 7, 1993 in London, England of AIDS-related complications) was an American actor. ... The Black Crook (1866) is considered the first musical comedy Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. ... “Commedia” redirects here. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

The original off-Broadway production was produced on a very low budget. The producers spent $900 on the set and $541 on costumes at a time when major Broadway shows would spend $1-2 million on sets, props, and costumes. 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. 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. As for a curtain, he hung different 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 a harp. Our Town by Thornton Wilder Our Town is a three act play by Thornton Wilder that is, perhaps, the most frequently produced play by an American playwright. ... Antonio Ghislanzoni, nineteenth century Italian librettist. ...

The original off-Broadway production closed on January 13, 2002 after a record-shattering 17,162 performances. It is the world's longest-running musical, and the longest-running, uninterrupted show of any kind in the United States [2]. Notable actors who appeared in the off-Broadway production throughout its long run included F. Murray Abraham, Keith Charles, Kristin Chenoweth, Bert Convy, Eileen Fulton, Lore Noto (the long-time producer), Dick Latessa, and Martin Vidnovic. January 13 is the 13th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... Fahrid Murray Abraham[1] (born October 24, 1939) is an American actor. ... Kristin Chenoweth (born Kristi Dawn Chenoweth on July 24, 1968) is an American singer and Tony Award-winning American musical theatre, film, and television actress. ... Bernard Whalen Bert Convy (July 23, 1933 – July 15, 1991) was an American game show host and panelist, actor and singer known for his tenure as the host for Tattletales, Super Password, and Win, Lose or Draw. ... Eileen Fulton Eileen Fulton (born Margaret Elizabeth McLarty on September 13, 1933 in Asheville, North Carolina) is an American actress. ... Dick Latessa (born 1930) is an American actor. ... Martin Vidnovic (born January 4, 1948) is an American actor and singer. ...

The Fantasticks has played in every state, in more than 11,103 U.S. productions in over 2,000 cities and towns. It has played at the White House, Ford's Theatre, the Shawnee Mission in Kansas, Yellowstone National Park and in America's more exotic locales from Carefree, Arizona to Mouth of Wilson, Virginia. Internationally, more than 700 productions have been staged in 67 nations from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. These include Canada (200+), Germany and Australia (approx. 50 each). Scandinavia has seen more than 45 productions including at least one each year since 1962, when it won an award there as the year's Outstanding New Theatrical Piece. Japan, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Czechoslovakia, have all seen multiple productions as have such newsworthy locales as Kabul, Afghanistan and Tehran, Iran. Recently, The Fantasticks has also been seen in Dublin, Milan, Budapest, Zimbabwe, Bangkok, and Beijing. Carefree is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. ... Mouth of Wilson is an unincorporated community in Grayson County in the U.S. state of Viginia, just north of the North Carolina state line. ...

It has been translated into many languages including Pashto, Dari, French, German, Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew, Czech, Slovak, Farsi, Irish, Italian, Magyar, Thai, and Mandarin.

Television, film and recent revival

The show was broadcast by the Hallmark Hall of Fame on October 18, 1964. The cast included John Davidson, Stanley Holloway, Bert Lahr, Ricardo Montalban, and Susan Watson, who had appeared in the original Barnard College production. Hallmark Hall of Fame is a long running anthology program on American television. ... is the 291st day of the year (292nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also Nintendo emulator: 1964 (emulator). ... John Davidson in 1990. ... Stanley Augustus Holloway (October 1, 1890 - January 30, 1982) was an English actor and entertainer famous for his comic and character roles on stage and screen, especially that of Alfred Doolittle in My Fair Lady. ... Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion. ... Ricardo Montalban (born November 25, 1920 in Mexico City) is a television and film actor. ... Susan Watson (born December 17, 1938) is an American actress and singer. ...

An unsuccessful 1995 feature film version, directed by Michael Ritchie, starred Joel Grey, Barnard Hughes, Joe McIntyre, and Jean Louisa Kelly. A.O. Scott wrote of it in the New York Times, "Unfortunately, what looks like magic on stage can seem manic by the light of the screen. Live theater can tolerate outsize gestures, rickety sets and willful illusionism more easily than film, which is a stubbornly literal-minded medium.... The musical numbers are bizarrely edited.... The haphazard cutting wrecks the moment with self-consciousness. [It] is, at bottom, a tribute to the transformative power of theater, and the theater is where it should have been allowed to remain...."^{[citation needed]} Other writers criticized the casting. Michael Ritchie (November 28, 1938 - April 16, 2001) was an American film director Michael Ritchie is also the name of an English college student in East Sussex who is famous for writing three novels for teenagers about teenage life. ... Joel Grey (born Joel Katz on April 11, 1932 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American stage and screen actor, who graduated from Beverly Hills High School in Beverly Hills, California in 1950. ... Barnard Hughes (July 16, 1915 – July 11, 2006), born Bernard Aloysius Kiernan Hughes[1], was an American character actor of theater and film. ... Joseph Mulrey McIntyre (aka Joe McIntyre, Joey McIntyre), born December 31, 1972 in Needham, Massachusetts, is a singer-songwriter and actor. ... Jean Louisa Kelly (born on March 9, 1972 in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA) is an American actress and singer. ... A.O. Scott (born July 10, 1966) is a film critic for The New York Times newspaper. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...

On August 23, 2006, a revival of The Fantasticks opened at the off-Broadway Snapple Theater Center on 42nd Street in New York City.[3] The revival initially starred Santino Fontana as Matt. It is directed by lyricist Jones, who also appears in the role of The Old Actor under the stage name Thomas Bruce. A cast recording of this production was released by Ghostlight Records. Anthony Fedorov, American Idol finalist from season 4 assumed the role of Matt from May through July 2007. is the 235th day of the year (236th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For the film of this name, see 42nd Street (film). ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Santino Fontana is an American actor, best known for his role as Hamlet in the Guthrie Theaters closing play in the spring of 2006. ... Anthony Fedorov (born Anatoliy Vladimirovich Fedorov on May 4, 1985) is a Ukrainian-American singer who was the fourth place finalist on the fourth season of the American Idol reality show series. ... AMERICAN IDOL HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO DEATH OF SIMON ...

Plot

Act I

The musical seems to take place in small town America, although it is unspecified. A boy (Matt) and a girl (Luisa) live next door to each other and are in love, despite their belief in their fathers' sentiment against their doing so. The fathers, Hucklebee and Bellomy, have concocted a feud so that their children might fall in love.

Seeking to end the charade, the fathers hire the services of a rogue (El Gallo, who also serves as narrator) to stage a phony "abduction" (or "literary rape") of Luisa so that Matt can "rescue" her and win the approval of Luisa's father. The plan succeeds, and Act I ends with a happy tableau.

Act II

Finding out that their love is no longer forbidden, Matt and Luisa begin to grow restless, and the fathers begin to actually quarrel. Matt leaves angrily, to find out what lies out in the world, while Luisa allows herself to be seduced by the mature and dashing El Gallo. Both Matt and Luisa, having been burned by their respective experiences out in the world, rediscover their love for each other and return home.

Characters

• El Gallo (the Narrator/Bandit)
• Matt (the Boy)
• Luisa (the Girl)
• Hucklebee (the Boy's father)
• Bellomy (the Girl's father)
• Henry (The Old Actor)
• Mortimer (the man who dies - an actor, pretending to be an American Indian)
• The Mute

Native Americans redirects here. ...

Musical numbers

Controversy

Although the musical was a success, The Fantasticks' book became somewhat controversial due to its use of the word "rape." When El Gallo offers to stage the phony kidnapping of Luisa, he refers to the proposed event as a "rape" -- although he makes it clear that he uses the word only in its traditional literary sense of "abduction", explaining that many classical works, including Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock, use the word in this sense. In his song "It Depends on What You Pay" he describes different kidnapping scenarios -- some comic or outlandish -- that he classifies as the "Venetian rape", the "Gothic rape", the "Drunken rape", etc. However, as the public issues of rape and sexual assault became more of a delicate subject during the play's long run, some people in the audience became offended or puzzled by the use of the word. For other uses, see Alexander Pope (disambiguation). ... The New Star, Illustration by Aubrey Beardsley for The Rape of the Lock The Rape of the Lock is a mock-heroic poem written by Alexander Pope, first published in 1712 in two cantos, and then reissued in 1714 in a much-expanded 5-canto version. ... For other uses, see Venice (disambiguation). ... Strawberry Hill, an English villa in the Gothic revival style, built by seminal Gothic writer Horace Walpole Gothic fiction is an important genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. ... Sexual assault is any physical contact of a sexual nature without voluntary consent. ...

To deal with changing audience perceptions, the book was edited to reduce the number of usages of the word "rape" and to replace them with other words, usually "abduction". In addition, the authors wrote an optional replacement piece called "Abductions", which uses the music of the show's overture (although this song did not replace "It Depends on What You Pay" at the Sullivan Street Playhouse, where, with the edits made in the book, audiences did not seem to have much difficulty in accepting the song). It is generally agreed that this song is not as inspired as the original, but it does allow producers of the musical a way to avoid the controversy raised by the original song. In order to conserve the quality of the original song "It Depends on What You Pay", some directors choose to simply substitute the word "raid" for "rape", evoking the "Indian raid" which El Gallo stages.

Another potential source of controversy is the character Mortimer's comic portrayal of an old-fashioned Hollywood-style American Indian, which has some racist connotations.

References

• "The Fantastick Career of Jones & Schmidt" by Robert Viagas, SHOWmusic, Fall 1996, pages 12-18, 69-70
• MTI site for The Fantasticks
• Official website of the original production of The Fantasticks
• Official website of the 2006 off-Broadway revival of The Fantasticks

External links

• Lortel Archives listing
• YouTube - Jerry Orbach sings "Try To Remember" from The Fantasticks at The White House in 1988.
• Official Myspace page for The Fantasticks Off-Broadway revival