A look at the longest-running musical of all time, after the jump …..
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When one thinks of long-running musicals: the general public would think of Cats, Oklahoma!, The King and I, A Chorus Line and other major productions running on Broadway and London’s West End. Yet the longest-running musical was a smaller, off-Broadway play: The Fantasticks, which ran from 1960 to 2002 (for a total of 17,162 performances). In addition, it was the longest-running play that was held at the same theater (the sadly now-defunct Sullivan Street Playhouse, in Greenwich Village). Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap has (and still is) running continuously for a longer period in London, yet at multiple venues.
And given that the production’s most famous tune references the month of September — before this month ends, it seems only appropriate to look at a play that has stood the test of time.
(And, given the horrifics on Capitol Hill today …. perhaps even as a respite).
Loosely based upon the French play The Romancers (by Edmond Rostand), it involves a small cast with two fathers (with a son and daughter between them) attempting reverse psychology, met with reverse-reverse psychology. Other influences were Thornton Wilder’s Our Town (for having a narrator: in this case, a bandit named El Gallo) and also The Winter’s Tale as well as Candide. The total cost for the set design (in 1960) was less than $1,500— compared to a major Broadway show cost of around $250k. Coupled with a simple music scheme that did not require a full orchestra: it made sense to bring it to Off-Broadway (with smaller theaters and less restrictive union staffing) at the dawn of the 1960’s.
The Fantasticks’ four central playersThe play was written by two Texans who met at the University of Texas (UT), and the two worked together on other shows during their careers.
Music composer Harvey Schmidt was born in Dallas and intended to study art … until he met a drama student at UT and accompanied him on piano. He released a 2004 solo recording entitled Harvey Schmidt Plays Jones and Schmidt— recorded on his seventy-fifth birthday — of a cross-section of their songs … and he died just this past February, at the age of eighty-eight.
Harvey Schmidt (1929-2018)That drama student he met was named Tom Jones— born in Littlefield, Texas who would write the plot and lyrics to their works. He is the author of the 2004 book Making Musicals: An Informal Introduction to the World of Musical Theater— and is still alive, at the age of ninety.
Tom Jones (born in 1928)No one-hit-wonders were these two ... who had further success in theater, notably in two works: 110 in the Shade (from 1963) as well as 1966’s I Do! I Do!— which featured stars Mary Martin and Robert Preston — both of which garnered Tony award nominations for the pair. Speaking of Our Town, Schmidt and Jones created a musical version that briefly opened in the late 1980’s — Grover’s Corners— before closing after a dispute over the progress of the production with the Wilder descendants.
Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt were both inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame as well as the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2012.
The two men in more recent yearsOne other aspect of the play should be duly noted. One of the ruses the two fathers use is to arrange a phony kidnapping of the daughter, so that the son can “rescue” her. When they wrote the play in 1959, they used the word “rape” — not the horrific violation we cite today, but instead: the original meaning that existed for the 18th-century English poet Alexander Pope and his Rape of the Lock:
Derived from the Latinrapere (supine stem raptum), "to snatch, to grab, to carry off" — in this case, the theft and carrying away of a lock of hair.
This was a secondary meaning in the dictionary in 1959, and is used in two of the play’s musical numbers “It Depends On What You Pay” and “Rape Ballet”— but due to social awareness, that secondary meaning is not used today. What to do?
The authors have authorized the substitution of the word “abduction” in the spoken dialogue, although altering the song lyrics is more difficult (due to rhyming and tempo). In a regional theater production I saw of the play over a decade ago near my town in New Hampshire: the decision was made to not change the original words, and there was an explanation written into the program for the show. In addition, the director came on-stage before the opening curtain ... and she analyzed thoroughly their rationale for doing so to us. Chances are, different theater companies follow different practices, should you ever see it performed.
Fifty-eight years after its premiere: it has been performed in 67 different countries and — due to its small cast, set and musical demands — is a staple of high school, community and regional theater companies (as I saw, first-hand). Some of the actors who have performed on it — whether at the Sullivan Street Playhouse or during other revivals — include Liza Minnelli, Elliott Gould, F. Murray Abraham, Kristin Chenoweth and Ricardo Montalban.
It has not always succeeded — Tom Jones wrote the screenplay for a 1995 feature film version (starring Joel Grey) that bombed at the box office. Contrast that with the initial 1960 play’s financial backers, who have made back their original investment …. 240 times over (as of 2010).
Jerry Orbach (in 1960 play)The best-loved song of the play was Try to Remember— which Harvey Schmidt said he composed the music to in one afternoon. It has subsequently been recorded by Eddie Fisher, Patti Page, Andy Williams, Liza Minnelli, Harry Belafonte, Josh Groban plus a 1975 medley by Gladys Knight and the Pips that reached the Top 40.
And one of the 1960 opening night’s cast members (portraying El Gallo) who sang the tune was the late Jerry Orbach— who became known to modern audiences as the often sardonic Detective Lennie Briscoe in the original Law & Order series. And below, you can hear it.
Try to remember the kind of September When life was slow and oh ... so mellow Try to remember the kind of September When grass was green and grain was yellow Try to remember the kind of September When you were a tender and callow fellow Try to remember, and if you remember: then follow
Try to remember when life was so tender When no one wept … except the willow Try to remember when life was so tender When dreams were kept beside your pillow Try to remember when life was so tender When love was an ember about to billow Try to remember, and if you remember: then follow
Deep in December, it's nice to remember Although you know … the snow will follow Deep in December it's nice to remember Without a hurt … the heart is hollow Deep in December it's nice to remember The fire of September that made us mellow Deep in December our hearts should remember and follow
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From Zen Trainer:
In today’s Pootie/Woozle diary by Crimson Quillfeather — this comment thread (started by the author) is very witty!Highlighted by rabooj :
In the diary by Leslie Salzillo about the reactions of the women seated next to you-know-who during his outburst— gardnerhill has a timely response.And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the front-page compendium of reactions to the testimony of a brave witness before the Senate today — Brother Bluto says (as a fellow lover of autumn) what many wish we could do, right now.And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:
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