August 1959. Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, who had been writing this "unique new entertainment" for a decade, and director Word Baker couldn't believe that just when they needed it most, the gods of comedy and tragedy were sending them an angel.
While students at the University of Texas, the trio became adept at staging musicals. They had a particular fascination with Edmond Rostand's 1890 play, Les Romanesques, a story of two fathers - next door neighbors - who concoct a feud to fool their romance-obsessed son and daughter into falling in love. After many failed adaptations, they felt they'd finally gotten it right. The Fantasticks, as they titled it, was a one-act musical accepted for Barnard College's summer festival. It would be on a triple bill. Jones had labored hard to get producers uptown to see it. Several showed.
Things had run smoothly until the dress rehearsal. Susan Watson, the musical's ingenue, who was recovering from a fall from the ladder that was the show's only scenery, now had strained her vocal chords and could hardly manage a whisper. The mini-musical, which in this early inception was written completely in verse, was the very model of putting a show on with a shoestring budget. The "orchestra" was Schmidt playing piano. [In a stroke of later genius, he added a harpist to accompany the songs.] Costumes were sketched by Schmidt, an accomplished illustrator, and executed in bare-bones fashion. Still they had color and sparkled a lot. Because of Watson's injury, the choreographer stepped in to do her dances, and Schmidt sang her songs. "We didn't know what else could go wrong," exclaims Jones.
In retrospect, everything went right. After the finale, Lore Noto introduced himself and said he thought The Fantasticks would be perfect for Off Broadway. "Of course," said Schmidt, "like all producers, he had some suggestions. They were minor. One was that the show be expanded to two acts. But we couldn't help but love him when he mentioned his other condition." Noto told Jones, Schmidt and Baker that he'd produce the musical only if they had total creative control. "We couldn't believe our ears," exclaims Schmidt. "That was unheard of!" adds Jones. They soon believed their eyes. A contract and small advance materialized. And The Fantasticks was on its way to making theatrical history.
There would be plenty of obstacles on the road to getting the show on 120 blocks south at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village, but a dream was becoming reality. The Fantasticks is Jones and Schmidt's most famous show. Academy Award-winner and stage star F. Murray Abraham believes it has a valued place in history. "I love Tom, Harvey and Lore (Noto, the producer)," said Abraham from New Orleans, where he's attending the annual Jazz Festival, "The Fantasticks is magical. It's a very important show to me and to the country. It's meant a great deal to me because it was my first really big break. Very early in my career, I played The Old Actor. I'd give anything to be at the anniversary celebration on Sunday (May 2)."
The little musical that has endured almost didn't happen. That it even opened May 3, 1960 Off Broadway at the 150-seat Sullivan Street Playhouse is a miracle. "Of the handful of people involved in the original production, no two remember it quite the same," says Jones. "That goes for Harvey and I, and we were there; and have been answering questions about it for almost 40 years."
From its inception, Jones and Schmidt thought The Fantasticks the perfect show for what was shaping up to be a unique decade. "Its longevity is amazing," said Jones, "when you consider that our opening night was punctuated not only by the snores of sleeping audience members but also by such comments as 'I don't understand it! And then came the reviews!"
"They weren't money notices," observed Schmidt.
"Harvey, that's an understatement!"
"Tom, they weren't that bad!"
For the most part, they were. Especially the most important one: The New York Times. Brooks Atkinson, a much-respected critic and one who loved innovative theater, wrote "Two acts are one too many to sustain the delightful tone of the first [It's] the sort of thing that loses magic the longer it endures." The Fantasticks appeared doomed.
But even critics who were puzzled by the musical, praised the cast, which - in addition to Jerry Orbach, Rita Gardner and Kenneth Nelson - included Jones, billed as Thomas Bruce, in the role of The Old Actor. "In retrospect," laughed Jones, "it's amazing that we had a second night, much less that we were able to run that first week with anyone in the audience." Sometimes the cast played to10 and 20 people.
Gardner, still acting and singing, remembers the rocky days after the New York opening. "The critics thought The Fantasticks was sweet, but we didn't get what you call money notices. Audience were sparse, so much in fact that Lore Noto suspended performances and took the show to East Hampton. We generated enough world of mouth to assure some kind of life back in New York."
Business did build through excellent outer critics' reviews and the gradual exposure the songs received on TV from such huge pop stars as Harry Belafonte, Ed Ames and Barbra Streisand.
Jones' mentor was Iden Payne, his drama professor at the University of Texas who had an outstanding English theatrical background. "He introduced us to an obsure Rostand play, Les Romanesques," relates Jones. "It was a charming trifle about a boy and girl in love, written when he was twenty-four. In the 1900s, it was translated into English and done in London. Payne later revived it.
"It has a profound effect on me," he continued, "but I didn't think of it as a source of a musical. In fact, I'd never seen a musical, except in the movies. We did hundreds of plays in college, but not one single musical. It was later, in graduate school, when I met Harvey and Word, that I began to discover musical theater." In New York, working with Schmidt on revues, the duo decided to write a "fun musical." "I don't remember which of us suggested the Rostand piece," says Jones, "but we all agreed on it. Then Harvey and I got drafted. While I was waiting for him to become a civilian again, I teamed with John Donal Robb, who was a former lawyer. Our adaptation was called `Joy Comes to Deadhorse.' Why? I don't know why now, and I don't think I knew then. It was set against two ranch families quarreling. We relied as much on Romeo and Juliet as Les Romanesques."
The musical premiered in 1956 at the University of New Mexico, where, despite some perceived flaws, it was a success. But Jones and Robb split, each taking the rights to their contributions. Jones and Schmidt worked on a new version for three years, until in frustration they were ready to give up. Jumping forward, through several roadblocks, it was (the late) Word Baker who saved the day.
"We championed the idea of an open stage," says Jones, "a presentation that would exalt in theatrical devices rather than trying to hide them. We would take all the thing we liked about theater and throw them into one little one-act musical. We would try it out in summer stock, so what did we have to lose?"
Nothing, as it turned out. It was that germ of theatricality that made the presentation of the retitled show, The Fantasticks, so appealing to Noto. And the rest, through many stops and starts, is theatrical history.
And where did the title come from? The fathers refer to the Girl and Boy as being "fantastic." Jones added the K to make the show sound more mysterious.
Sunday, May 2, The Fantasticks will present its 16,156th performance. It's the longest-running show of any kind in the U.S., and the longest running musical in the world. By its third year, The Fantasticks was a solid Off-Broadway hit and remained so for years. But it almost closed in 1986, when producer Noto became ill. When the closing notice was placed in the New York Times, protests calls and letters poured in from around the world. The show was saved when Noto's friend Don Thompson stepped in to take over as producer until Noto recovered. Within a week, three months of performances were sold out.
And so it goes. Eight times a week, the story unfolds - "radiating," says Schmidt, "a timeless sweetness and sunniness. The story is universal: starry-eyed boy and the-girl-next-door fall in love, yearn for the dangerous attractions of the world outside, then opt for fulfillment in each other's arms and in hearth and home."
There's no doubt of the innovativeness of Jones and Schmidt's work, but much equal credit must go to Baker's unique staging of the show. His original direction, with only minor changes, still stands in the New York production and has been the model for countless other productions. The original cast: Jerry Orbach (El Gallo), Rita Gardner (The Girl, Luisa), Kenneth Nelson (The Boy, Matt), William Larsen (The Boy's Father, Hucklebee), Hugh Thomas (The Girl's Father, Bellomy), Thomas Bruce/a.k.a. Tom Jones (The Old Actor), George Curley (The Man Who Dies) and Richard (Blair) Stauffer (The Mute). The cast now (in the same sequence): John Savarese, Allison Munn, Max Von Essen, Richard P. Gang, William Tost, Bryan Hull, Joel Bernstein and Kim Moore.
A few weeks into the show's run, producer Noto (now 80) took over the role of The Boy's Father and played it 6,348 performances (into 1986), earning a Guinness Book of Records citation. Hull, the current Old Actor, broke Noto's record a year-and-a-half ago. On May 2, he'll have played 7,421 performances. He has been out of the show only for vacations (when he does his one-man Dickens show) and for three-and-a half months last year when he broke his leg.
Fantasticks tickets now range from $36.50 weeknights to $38 weekends. (When the show opened in 1960 prices were $2.95, $3.95 and $4.95.) The show's original 44 investors have received a 19,213% return on their $16,500 total investment. Songs from the musical, including "Try To Remember," "I Can See It" and "Soon It's Gonna Rain" have become standards and are known to generations, from bobby-soxers and flower children to babyboomers and cyberkids.
The Fantasticks, in 11,103 productions has played every U.S. state - in more than in 2,000 cities. There have been special performances at the White House and Washington's Ford Theater (and seen by nine presidents) and in Yellowstone National Park. In addition to the record-breaking run in New York, the show established records in San Francisco (1964-1970), Denver (1968-73) and Los Angeles (1964-68). Internationally, there've been over 700 productions in 67 nations from Afghanistan (and Czechoslovakia and Iran) to Zimbabwe - with more than 200 in Canada alone. Three successful tours have come to Japan, with another scheduled for 2001. On these tours, Jones plays the role of The Old Actor (Henry) opposite SM Cook, as The Man Who Dies (Mortimer). Also, the show has played successfully for over 18 years in Japan.
SM Cook says, that though the show is presented with supertitles in Japan, "audiences there seem to understand what's going on without reading them. The music is well-known there and the Japanese find the simplicity of the show appealing. Also, especially with the blocking of The Mute, there are parallels with their Noh theater traditions."
In addition to Orbach and Abraham, many now well-known stars have played in various productions: Ed Ames, George Lee Andrews, Jennifer Lee Andrews, David Canary, John Carradine, Richard Chamberlain, David Cryer, Elliot Gould, Robert Goulet, Liza Minnelli, Ricardo Montalban and Dennis Parlato. In a musical about romance, you'd expect it to occasionally blossom - and it has. Notable examples: in the early 60s El Gallo/Keith Charles married music director Nancy Ford (later the composer of Getting My Act Together And Taking It On the Road); and, in the 70s, El Gallo/George Lee Andrews married The Girl/Marty Morris. (Sidelight: Andrews' daughter (from a previous marriage) Jennifer Lee Andrews later played The Girl (at 17, she was the youngest to date) opposite her dad - and her stepmom was her understudy. Another sidelight: Jerry Orbach's son Chris works with the New York production.
The 30th anniversary tour starring Robert Goulet was presented with a full orchestra and chorus and "enhanced" scenery. It was a huge success. The Fantasticks received a 1992 Special Tony Award and the Obie Award. Jones and Schmidt were honored with ASCAP's 1993 Richard Rodgers Award. And on February 1, 1999, they were inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame. Fantastic.
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