"The Fantasticks" Returns to the Huntsville Stage! February 12, 2010

Freely adapted from “Les Romanesques,” an 1894 play by Edmond Rostand (best known for “Cyrano de Bergerac”), Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones’ most famous collaboration, “The Fantasticks,” weaves a timeless tale as viewed through the cockeyed lens of Commedia dell’Arte.

But it is not to old-time Italian stagecraft alone that the show pays homage. As with its Gallic source material, the story is a light parody of Romeo and Juliet, with lashings of the Bard evinced through its verse, prose, soliloquies, and dramatic couplets. The ingredients are simple: a boy (Sam Neely), a girl (Cherie Evans), two fathers (Jim Zieliński and Craig Reinhart), and a wall…its stage, a basic platform, its scenery, a tattered cardboard moon.

As a sort of reflection of “Our Town,” a narrator (Darrin Windham) spins the simple tale, aided by an onstage property man (Daniel Yearta) who, giving a nod to the muse of oriental theatre is, for all purposes, “invisible.” An old actor (Ron Harris) and his sidekick (Robbie Shafer) echo the rude mechanicals of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream" - if not "The Dresser" - assisting in a plot to bring the two ostensibly feuding families together via “betrothal by proxy.”

Employing the barest essentials, the writers give wing to a funny, touching saga of innocence…yet an innocence soon to be reeducated by the School of Hard Knocks…for, as we are reminded, “without a hurt, the heart is hollow.”

After years of struggling unsuccessfully with the source material, the writers deep-sixed everything but “Try to Remember” and began again from scratch. They completed the basis of what is now “The Fantasticks” in less than three weeks. Originally staged at Barnard College in summer of 1959 as a one-act musical, the show was a hit and, at the urging of producer Lore Noto, was soon rewritten and expanded.

“The Fantasticks” received its official premiere at Greenwich Village’s 150-seat Sullivan Street Playhouse on 3 May 1960; it was to become the longest-running musical in the world and the longest-running show in American theatre history. As those years rolled by, thousands upon thousands of productions were staged throughout the US and the world, in places as disparate as Kabul, Tehran, Budapest, Beijing, and Mouth of Wilson, VA. After playing 17,162 performances itself, the original run closed on 13 January 2002. To grasp the significance of a play that spanned the era between bobbysoxers and cyberkids, Eisenhower was President when it began, and Bush, Jr. held the reigns when it all ended. A host of illuminati, ranging from Jerry Orbach and Ricardo Montalban to Liza Minelli, John Carradine, Elliott Gould, and Glen Close have appeared in one or more of its various incarnations.

The authors’ accolades are many and deserved. In addition to an Obie Award and the 1992 Special Tony for “The Fantasticks,” Jones and Schmidt received the prestigious ASCAP-Richard Rodgers Award. In February 1999, they were inducted into the Gershwin Theatre’s Broadway Hall of Fame and, in May of that year, their stars were added to the Off-Broadway “Walk of Fame” outside the Lucille Lortel Theatre.

Renaissance Theatre’s production of “The Fantasticks,” directed by Gary Knight (with assistance from Bill Hubscher) will run on the AlphaStage, downstairs at 1212 Meridian Street, NE on the following dates:

Friday – Saturday, 12 – 13 February and Thursday – Saturday, 18 – 20 February at 8:00 p.m.

Saturday – Sunday, 13 – 14 February and Saturday – Sunday, 20 -21 February Matinées at 2:30 p.m.

Tickets are $20 for general admission seating to all shows. Group Rates are available for ten persons or more.

In addition, there is a Valentine’s Dinner Theatre option on the Saturday, 13 February performance, presented by Ashley’s Creative Catering. The meal begins at 6:30 p.m. and tickets for the dinner-show combination are $36.

Call (256) 536-3117 (Tue – Fri, 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.; Sat, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m.) for ticket reservations. For further information, visit Renaissance online at www.renaissancetheatre.net.

You’ll love “The Fantasticks”—in fact, chances are pretty good that you’ve appeared in it, once or twice. So bring the family and friends, settle in, and enjoy. After all...17,162 ticket stubs wouldn’t lie to you!

Official Website: http://www.renaissancetheatre.net