The Fantasticks

What The Fantasticks actually is

The original is an allegory, deliberately thin on scenery and thick on device: two fathers pretend to forbid a romance between their children in order to cause it, and the second half is about what happens once the pretence collapses. It has run continuously somewhere in the world since 1960, and the song it is known for is “Try To Remember”.

This production changes who is in the romance. Matt and Luisa become Matt and Lewis, the pair of fathers become mothers, and the production describes the result as redefining the show's timeless romance rather than replacing it. The book and lyrics are still Tom Jones's and the music still Harvey Schmidt's, revised for this staging.

Christopher Gattelli, who has Death Becomes Her and Newsies behind him, directs and choreographs. Ruthie Ann Miles, Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer and David Patrick Kelly are among the cast. “They Were You” and “I Can See It” are in place alongside the song everyone knows.