The Fantasticks
The Fantasticks is a 1960 musical comedy with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones. It is loosely based on a story called "The Romancers" ("Les Romanesques") by Edmond Rostand.
It premiered in the small New York off-Broadway theatre Sullivan Street Playhouse on May 3, 1960 featuring Jerry Orbach in the role of the narrator. 17,162 performances of the play were given in this theatre before it closed on January 13, 2002. It is the world's longest-running musical, and the longest-running show of any kind in the US.
The musical takes place in a suburban town in the United States. A boy (Matt Hucklebee) and a girl (Luisa Bellamy) fall in love, but their fathers oppose their relationship because they are in constant argument believing that they are ruining each other's gardens. The musical features a narrator (El Gallo), who later becomes a man who tries to seduce the girl, but in the end he is unsuccessful. In the end the children and their fathers settle their differences. The musical features several light duets by the fathers, as well as the song "Try To Remember", sung by the El Gallo, which has since been covered by many well-known popular singers. Other songs include "Much More" and "Soon It's Gonna Rain".
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