Published on: Jan 15, 2015

The Fantasticks

Jerry Orbach Theater – Snapple Theater Center

The Fantasticks, by Tom Jones & Harvey Schmidt, is the world’s longest running musical – running for over 50 years in Manhattan and entrancing generations of audiences the world over.

The Fantasticks is a funny and romantic musical about a boy, a girl, two fathers and a wall. The narrator, El Gallo, originally played by Jerry Orbach, asks the audience to use their imagination and follow him into a world of moonlight and magic. The boy and the girl fall in love, grow apart, and finally find their way back to each other after realizing the truth in El Gallo’s words that “without a hurt, the heart is hollow”. The famous score, which includes the classics Try To Remember, They Were You and Soon It’s Gonna Rain, is as timeless as the story itself. The Creative Team behind The Fantasticks is Tom Jones (Books, Lyrics, Director) and Harvey Schmidt (Music). The Fantasticks began as a summer theater production at Barnard College. In May of 1960 it opened Off-Broadway, and afterward it went on to become the longest-running production in the history of stage and one of the most frequently produced musicals in the world.

Robert Felstein

The Fantasticks

Jerry Orbach Theater – Snapple Theater Center Website HERE