program detail
detail photo by Styrous®
On May 3, 1960, the musical, The Fantasticks, opened in New York City, NY. The show's original off-Broadway
production ran a total of 42 years and 17,162 performances, making it
the world's longest-running musical.
vinyl LP album front cover
photo by Styrous®
vinyl LP album back cover
photo by Styrous®
I saw a production staged by the
Ghirardelli Theater in the Square at Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco
nine years later in 1969 (link below). I remember thinking the small
production (it had a very sparse set, a solo piano and some percussion, as I recall) gave it
an intimate and personal experience. I had never seen such a small production
for a musical before. The closest were the shows at the Old Spaghetti Factory in San Francisco where they produced the "Macaroni Review". One of the shows I saw there was, San Francisco's Burning, a musical about the 1906 earthquake. The cast did a remarkable job of lurching and jerking across the stage and singing during the title song.
Ghirardelli Theater in the Square
program detail
detail photo by Styrous®
The pressing of the album I bought is a reissue from 1972 and is a gatefold format. It has quite a bit of detailed production information.
vinyl LP, 1972 gatefold issue
photo by Styrous®
The Fantasticks
vinyl LP, 1972 gatefold issue, interior
photo by Styrous®
The musical, music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones, tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the play The Romancers (Les Romanesques) by Edmond Rostand
(link below), concerning two neighboring fathers who trick their children, Luisa and
Matt, into falling in love by pretending to feud (link to plot below).
The Fantasticks premiered at the Sullivan Street Playhouse, a small Off-Broadway theatre in New York City's Greenwich Village, on May 3, 1960, with Jerry Orbach as El Gallo, Rita Gardner as Luisa, Kenneth Nelson as Matt, and librettist Tom Jones
(under a pseudonym) as the Old Actor, among the cast members. The
sparse set and semicircular stage created an intimate and immediate
effect. The play is highly stylized and combines old-fashioned
showmanship, classic musical theatre, commedia dell'arte and Noh
theatrical traditions. The original production was directed by Word
Baker and was produced on a very low budget. The producers spent $900 on the set
and $541 on costumes, at a time when major Broadway shows would cost
$250,000.
The original set designer, costumer, prop master, and lighting designer was Ed Wittstein, who performed all four jobs for a total of only $480 plus $24.48 a week.
The set was similar to that for Our Town; Wittstein designed a raised stationary platform anchored by six poles. It resembled a traveling players' wagon, like a pageant wagon. As for a curtain, he hung various small false curtains across the platform at various times during the play. He also made a sun/moon out of cardboard. One side was painted bright yellow (the sun) and the other was black with a crescent of white (the moon). The sun/moon was hung from a nail in one of the poles and is referred to in the libretto. The orchestra consists of a piano and sometimes also a harp, with the harpist also sometimes playing some percussion instruments.
The original set designer, costumer, prop master, and lighting designer was Ed Wittstein, who performed all four jobs for a total of only $480 plus $24.48 a week.
The set was similar to that for Our Town; Wittstein designed a raised stationary platform anchored by six poles. It resembled a traveling players' wagon, like a pageant wagon. As for a curtain, he hung various small false curtains across the platform at various times during the play. He also made a sun/moon out of cardboard. One side was painted bright yellow (the sun) and the other was black with a crescent of white (the moon). The sun/moon was hung from a nail in one of the poles and is referred to in the libretto. The orchestra consists of a piano and sometimes also a harp, with the harpist also sometimes playing some percussion instruments.
images from the 1960 production
The Original 1960 Cast Of The Fantasticks: Jerry Orbach (El Gallo, the bandit-narrator), top; Center row, from left: Hugh Thomas (the Girl's father), Rita Gardner, (The Girl), William Larsen, (The Boy's Father); Bottom row, from left: Richard Stauffer (The Mute), Kenneth Nelson (The Boy), George Curley (The Cockney Indian).
Jerry Orbach, Rita Gardner & Kenneth Nelson
signature image from the show
The song from the production that became a monumental hit, a truly beautiful melody with nostalgic lyrics (link below), is Try To Remember which was sung by Orbach who created the role of El Gallo in the original off-Broadway run of The Fantasticks (1960) and became the first performer to sing that tune. He was an American actor and singer, described at the time of his
death as "one of the last bona fide leading men of the Broadway musical and global celebrity on television" and a "versatile stage and film actor".
The production closed on January 13, 2002, after 17,162 performances. It is the world's longest-running musical
and the longest-running uninterrupted show of any kind in the United
States. Other notable actors who appeared in the Off-Broadway and
touring production throughout its long run included David Canary, Robert Goulet, Richard Chamberlain, John Carradine, Ed Ames, Liza Minnelli, Elliott Gould, F. Murray Abraham, Glenn Close, Keith Charles, Kristin Chenoweth, Bert Convy, Eileen Fulton, Lore Noto (the show's long-time producer), Dick Latessa, and Martin Vidnovic.
vinyl LP record sleeve, photo by Styrous®
According to The New York Times, "The Fantasticks
is one of the most widely produced [musicals] in the world, with more
than 11,000 productions, by 2010, in 3,000 cities and towns in all 50
states, as well as in 67 countries. The Fantasticks has been performed at The White House, for the Peace Corps in Africa, at the Shawnee Methodist Mission in Kansas, the Menninger Foundation, Yellowstone National Park and the White Sands Missile Range. It was performed in Mandarin by the Peking Opera, and in 1990 under the auspices of the United States State Department it played for the first time in Russia.
Various – The Fantasticks - Original Cast Album
Label: MGM Records – SE-3872
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo
Country: US
Released: 1963
Genre: Stage & Screen
Style: Musical
Tracklist:
Side 1:
Act One (In The Moonlight)
1 - Orchestra* Overture - 2:00
2 - Jerry Orbach - Try To Remember - 2:48
3 - Rita Gardner - Much More - 2:31
4 - Kenneth Nelson & Rita Gardner - Metaphor - 4:13
5 - William Larsen & Hugh Thomas (3) - Never Say No - 2:14
6 - Jerry Orbach, William Larsen & Hugh Thomas (3) - It Depends On What You Pay - 4:19
7 - Jerry Orbach - You Wonder How These Things Begin - 1:16
8 - Kenneth Nelson & Rita Gardner - Soon It's Gonna Rain - 4:37
Rape Ballet - Happy Ending
Side 2:
1a - The Company*, Rape Ballet - 2:26
1b - Hugh Thomas (3), William Larsen, Rita Gardner & Kenneth Nelson - Happy Ending - 0:54
Act Two (In The Sunlight)
2 - Rita Gardner, Kenneth Nelson, William Larsen, Hugh Thomas (3) - This Plum Is Too Ripe - 3:33
3 - Kenneth Nelson & Jerry Orbach - I Can See It - 4:04
4 - William Larsen & Hugh Thomas (3) - Plant A Radish - 2:31
5 - Jerry Orbach, Rita Gardner & Co.* - Round And Round - 5:54
6 - Jerry Orbach - There Is A Curious Paradox - 0:30
7 - Kenneth Nelson & Rita Gardner - They Were You - 2:40
8 - Jerry Orbach & Company* - Try To Remember (Reprise) - 2:03
Companies, etc.
Record Company – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc.
Credits:
Bass, Cello – Frank Martenez
Directed By [Musical Direction] – Julian Stein
Harp – Beverly Mann
Lyrics By – Tom Jones (5)
Music By – Harvey Schmidt
Percussion – Bobby Rosengarden
Photography By – Robert Benton
Piano – Julian Stein, Robert Mac Namee
Producer – Lore Noto
Producer [Associate] – Dorothy Olim, Sheldon Baron
Notes:
Black label version, Made in U.S.A.
Release date from Goldmine Standard Catalog
Label: MGM Records – SE-3872
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo
Country: US
Released: 1963
Genre: Stage & Screen
Style: Musical
Tracklist:
Side 1:
Act One (In The Moonlight)
1 - Orchestra* Overture - 2:00
2 - Jerry Orbach - Try To Remember - 2:48
3 - Rita Gardner - Much More - 2:31
4 - Kenneth Nelson & Rita Gardner - Metaphor - 4:13
5 - William Larsen & Hugh Thomas (3) - Never Say No - 2:14
6 - Jerry Orbach, William Larsen & Hugh Thomas (3) - It Depends On What You Pay - 4:19
7 - Jerry Orbach - You Wonder How These Things Begin - 1:16
8 - Kenneth Nelson & Rita Gardner - Soon It's Gonna Rain - 4:37
Rape Ballet - Happy Ending
Side 2:
1a - The Company*, Rape Ballet - 2:26
1b - Hugh Thomas (3), William Larsen, Rita Gardner & Kenneth Nelson - Happy Ending - 0:54
Act Two (In The Sunlight)
2 - Rita Gardner, Kenneth Nelson, William Larsen, Hugh Thomas (3) - This Plum Is Too Ripe - 3:33
3 - Kenneth Nelson & Jerry Orbach - I Can See It - 4:04
4 - William Larsen & Hugh Thomas (3) - Plant A Radish - 2:31
5 - Jerry Orbach, Rita Gardner & Co.* - Round And Round - 5:54
6 - Jerry Orbach - There Is A Curious Paradox - 0:30
7 - Kenneth Nelson & Rita Gardner - They Were You - 2:40
8 - Jerry Orbach & Company* - Try To Remember (Reprise) - 2:03
Companies, etc.
Record Company – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc.
Credits:
Bass, Cello – Frank Martenez
Directed By [Musical Direction] – Julian Stein
Harp – Beverly Mann
Lyrics By – Tom Jones (5)
Music By – Harvey Schmidt
Percussion – Bobby Rosengarden
Photography By – Robert Benton
Piano – Julian Stein, Robert Mac Namee
Producer – Lore Noto
Producer [Associate] – Dorothy Olim, Sheldon Baron
Notes:
Black label version, Made in U.S.A.
Release date from Goldmine Standard Catalog
Net Links:
Try To Remember lyrics
Ghirardelli Theater in the Square program
The Fantasticks website
The Fantasticks plot
Literary Kicks ~ Edmond Rostand and the Fantasticks
No comments:
Post a Comment
PLEASE NOTE: comments are moderated BEFORE they are posted so DO NOT appear immediately.
Thank you.