The Fantasticks book & lyriCs by tom jones, music by harvey schmidt
a message from the artistic director I was pleasantly surprised when Peter Donaldson told me that The Fantasticks was his favourite play. He had performed in it as a very young actor and it remained his favourite for his whole life. This despite the fact that over a remarkable career Pete played in all of the great plays – in twenty four seasons at the Stratford Festival, in regional theatres across the country, and in this theatre where Pete gave his last performance in Glengarry Glen Ross. Pete was always brilliant on stage and deeply loved and admired off stage. He died in January much, much too young. He will be sorely missed. This production of his favourite play is dedicated with love, admiration, and gratitude to our great friend Peter Donaldson.
Albert Schultz, Artistic Director
artist note: William Webster There is a deceptively simple quality to The Fantasticks. The musical is closer to Our Town than it is to Shakespeare. It does have a naïveté and sentiment (not sentimentality) to it that is so tender that it creeps up on you emotionally. This show has been playing longer than any other musical in history. In many ways it was a response to America of the fifties – with its rapid progress, technological development, and turbulent political climate – a call to get back to a simpler state of living, the essentials of life, of love, of respect, of imagination. We’ve got to nourish ourselves emotionally, psychologically, and romantically. What’s thrilling here is that our musical director Paul Sportelli knows that he’s dealing with an ensemble of actors who really know one another and have an immense body of work together. So it’s been remarkable to work with him and our director Joe Ziegler to share this story with our audience. The creators of The Fantasticks have such wit and skill – there isn’t another musical that I can think of that hits all of these notes, and not just the musical ones, while maintaining such a broad appeal with so many hit tunes. I think that the show asks you to try to remember what it was like when you were 14 or 16 or when you had your first child. And the immediacy of that engagement is very affirming – it’s a masterpiece, a miracle, what the theatre should be about.
William Webster, Bellamy in The Fantasticks
photos: sandy nicholson
the fantasticks book & lyrics by tom jones,
usa 1960
music by harvey schmidt
jeff lillico, albert schultz & krystin pellerin
Production
cast
Joseph Ziegler director
Derek Boyes mute
Paul Sportelli musical director
Oliver Dennis henery
Tim French choreographer
Michael Hanrahan hucklebee
Christina Poddubiuk set & costume designer
Jeff Lillco matt
Louise Guinand lighting designer
Krystin Pellerin Luisa
John Lott sound designer
Albert Schultz El gallo
Lily Ling associate musical director
Michael Simpson Mortimer
Erica Goodman harpist
William Webster Bellamy
Linda Garneau Assistant Choreographer Kelly McEvenue alexander coach Alison Peddie production stage manager Annie McWinnie assistant Stage manager
background notes It is said that to be an artist requires persistence above all. Librettist and lyricist Tom Jones had the idea to adapt Edmond Rostand’s play Les Romanesques into a musical in 1951. He first worked with composer John Donald Robb, crafting a work they called Joy Comes to Dead Horse. Eight years later, he’d brought new composer Harvey Schmidt on board, found a better title, and had one small out of town tryout at the University of New Mexico that had gone nowhere. In 1959, the creators were offered a chance to be part of a one-act play festival at Barnard College. They were given three weeks to re-write. Schmidt and Jones say that when they sat down for this whizbang transformation, they were sure of only one thing: “the show would never get put on anyway.” So they decided to please themselves. They stripped the story down to its innocent core, throwing out everything except what is now the signature song, “Try to Remember.” They rebuilt from that tender taproot, relying on a simple story, strong melodies and simple theatricality, rather than grand technical effects. They borrowed frankly and shamelessly, and not only from Rostand. There are touches of Shakespeare: a feud between two fathers (Romeo and Juliet) and a wall that inflames two lovers (Midsummer Night’s Dream). The original set design and the use of the omniscient narrator was said to have been inspired by Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. Audiences at Barnard College loved the new version but that could easily have been the end of it. In the time-honoured tradition it wasn’t. A producer in the audience saw something in the piece. A year later, in 1960, Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s modest little musical, now called The Fantasticks, opened Off-Broadway. The budget for the production was – even for the time – laughable. The bare bones set had homely touches like a cardboard sun, that doubled as the moon on the other side. Instead of the usual live orchestra, they had a piano and a harp. There were no big stars. Critics were cool and the creators can vividly recall a conversation with the producer on opening night in which they discussed closing the show after that one performance. Nobody would ever have heard of it again. Perhaps because it was so economical, they decided to let it run a little longer and lo and behold audiences embraced it. The Fantasticks became the longest running musical in the world. Fast forward more than forty years: the still-running show was re-discovered in 2001 after the attacks on the World Trade Centre. The song “Try to Remember” became achingly poignant for grieving New Yorkers. The original production finally closed in January 2002. Jones and Schmidt were asked if they were ready to let it go and Schmidt spoke for them both when he said, “I’d rather it close while I’m still alive.” Four years later there was a revival and it is going strong in its sixth year.
Krista Blackwood assistant stage manager Susanne Lankin apprentice stage manager generously supported by
Since its opening in May, 1960, at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in New York, and its subsequent revival at the Snapple Theatre Center, The Fantasticks has become the longest running production of any kind in the history of American theatre. Continuing its run in New York City, please visit www.FantasticksOnBroadway.com The Fantasticks is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. 421 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019. Phone: 212.541.4684. Fax: 212.397.4684. www.MTIShows.com There will be one 20-minute intermission. Approximate running time 2 hours and 15 minutes.
Prepare to imagine, prepare to dream. Prepare to remember. Playwright Biography Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt met while attending the University of Texas. The pair premiered The Fantasticks Off-Broadway in 1960 starring a young Jerry Orbach. They soon debuted on Broadway with 110 in the Shade (1963), followed by I Do! I Do! (1966) which starred Mary Martin and Robert Preston. The duo collaborated on a musical version of Our Town called Grover’s Corners (1987) before Thorton Wilder’s estate retracted the rights. Jones and Schmidt received an honorary Tony Award in 1992 honouring The Fantasticks’ record breaking run Off-Broadway. The show closed in 2002 after more than 40 years, only to be revived in 2006 where it continues to play at the renamed Jerry Orbach Theatre.
Background Notes by Associate Artist Paula Wing.
soulpepper production Phil Atfield, Susan Dicks & Company
Jacqueline Robertson-Cull
cutter
head of hair & makeup
Barbera Cassidy, Ina Kerklaan
Katarzyna Chopican millinery
sewers
Janet Pym, Natalie Swiercz dressers
Ryan Wilson
Steve Hudak
carpenter
scenic artist
Greg Chambers, Vanessa Janiszewski
Duncan Johnstone painter
props builders
Sarah Armstrong
David Rayfield
costume breakdown artist
head scenic artist
soulpepper thanks: Mar-Lyn Lumber Sales Ltd., Ontario Staging Ltd., Smartrisk.ca, Ben Renzella, PRG Toronto, David Hoekstra, Megan Cummings (wardrobe co-op student). Soulpepper Theatre Company is an active member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (pact), the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (tapa) and Theatre Ontario, and engages, under the terms of the Canadian Theatre Agreement, professional artists who are members of Canadian Actors’Equity Association. The musicians engaged for this production is a member of the Toronto Musicians’Association, Local 149 of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada.
Soulpepper thanks
GRETCHEN AND DONALD ROSS for their generous support of The Fantasticks
YOUNG CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS DISTILLERY HISTORIC DISTRICT