The very first "how to write a musical" book I ever read was by Tom Jones and he used THE FANTASTICKS for examples throughout the book. Yet, I had never seen THE FANTASTICKS and the only song I had ever heard was "Try To Remember".

As a kid I knew the song well and played it all the time on the piano, but didn't know it was from a show. So, I felt that my musical theatre education was sadly lacking. Was I the only person on the planet who hadn't seen THE FANTASTICKS?

Needless to say I was thrilled to see it was coming back to New York at the Snapple Theater Center on 50th at Broadway (you can't miss the giant Snapple lids adorning the outside of the theatre, which is a nice, classy touch!).

There is a wonderful photo gallery in the theatre, a sort of history of THE FANTASTICKS. I found out that Rita Gardner who is currently playing the grandmother in THE WEDDING SINGER was the original Luisa when THE FANTASTICKS opened at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in 1960. Jerry Orbach was the original El Gallo! There is also a picture of all the different logos fonts that Harvey Schmidt submitted to the original producer, Lore Noto. They ended up going with that distinctive scrawl, which just happened to be Harvey's handwriting! There is also a picture of a TV production that was done on NBC starring Ricardo Montalban and John Davidson! Very cool stuff.

THE FANTASTICKS, with book and lyrics by Tom Jones and music by Harvey Schmidt, first opened at the Sullivan Street Playhouse May 3, 1960 and ran for 42 years, the longest running musical in theatre history.

From the Playbill:

THE FANTASTICKS is a tongue-in-cheek, all-time smash paean to young love. It has, at this writing, enjoyed more than 11,000 productions throughout the United States, more than 700 around the world.

The whole cast is wonderful:

Thomas Bruce (Henry) in this production, originated the role of Henry in the original Sullivan Street Playhouse production. This is his first appearance on the New York stage since December 1960!

Sara Jean Ford (Luisa)
Burke Moses (El Gallo)
Santino Fontana (Matt)
Leo Burmester (Hucklebee)
Robert R. Oliver (Mortimer)
Douglas Ullman, Jr. (The Mute)
Martin VIdnovic (Bellomy)

I think my favorite character was Mortimer. Dressed up as an Indian, he had a wonderful comic face which reminded me of a sixties cartoon! He was just hilarious. I also enjoyed the piano (Dorothy Martin) and harp (Erin Hill) accompaniment.

This plainly presented show really evoked the early sixties for me -- charming, whimsical, and fresh. Yes, tongue-in-cheek, but not in a dry cynical way. Sort of a sixties "anything is possible" feeling to it. So now I'm excited to see the Roundabout Theatre revival of Jones and Schmidt's first Broadway show, 110 IN THE SHADE this season.

Here's to another 17,000 performances!

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