Per Playbill.com: "The Off-Broadway revival of The Fantasticks, still the longest-running musical in world history and the longest-running play of any kind in American history, has announced that it will close in May."
"People have their opinions and that doesn't mean that their opinions are wrong or right. I just take it with a grain of salt because opinions are like as*holes, everyone has one".
-Felicia Finley-
the last time I saw this about a year ago there was roughly only 50-60 people in the audience. And this was on a Friday night. Granted it's very cheap to run, but I just don't think there's an audience for this show any more.
A Chorus Line revival played its final Broadway performance on August 17, 2008. The tour played its final performance on August 21, 2011. A new non-equity tour started in October 2012 played its final performance on March 23, 2013. Another non-equity tour launched on January 20, 2018. The tour ended its US run in Kansas City and then toured throughout Japan August & September 2018.
The Fantasticks is one of my favorites...I grew up on the score and I got to see Sara Jean Ford and Santino Fontana in the original cast of this production way back in 2006. It's a lovely, sweet little show.
I'm sorry I've missed this one. Every time I come to NYC, I say I will catch it if I get a free spot in my show schedule. Now it looks like I can't say, next time!
Eric, they've been cheating with those numbers for years now. They have frequently touted themselves as the longest-running musical in the world or show in NYC, both of which are patently false but they can kinda fudge it and get away with it. They also celebrated some-thousandth performance of the show, a patently impossible number I forget now, by combining the runs of the two productions.
And Patash, that PERFECT CRIME review reminded me of my friends' own: "The only Perfect Crime is that people pay money to see that." Not as pithy as yours, but somehow I doubt your friends and mine are the same. Oh, that show...
Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.
I definitely think they would like us to forget about those 4 years where it was closed. Yes, they've been cheating a bit. But I understand why they do. (a) I don't think the 2 productions are all that different from each other. (b) The gap that separated them is smaller than most gaps between originals and revivals. (c) I think it's fair-game to capitalize on how iconic the show is, which is due largely to the fact that it's been a constant presence in NY for decades (with the slight exception of 4 years in the middle-- but we don't have to talk about that :P )
When they celebrated 20,000 performances, it was the "20,000th Off-Broadway performance," which is technically accurate, and still impressive despite the glaring asterisk.