I miss The Fantasticks

[NativeNewYorker]

Posted: 9/9/03 at 10:17am

I knew it couldn't run forever...but I miss just knowing it was there! I went to grammar school around the corner from the Sullivan Street Playhouse, and both my parents grew up in the neighborhood, so seeing that sign every day was a part of my childhood. So sweet, so simple, so wonderful.

This sounds really weird, but that theatre is across the street from the funeral parlor everyone in my family gets buried out of. (Told you it was weird.) And since I have a huge family with a million old aunts and uncles and old friends, I've spent a lot of time there...and I would always look at the Fantasticks logo and something about it was so reassuring.

I wanted to be Luisa SO badly...and it closed just as I became old enough to play it!

(Goes off to comb the local paper to see if any community productions are playing it right now...)

[sharon1]

Posted: 9/9/03 at 10:45am

I am not a New Yorker, but I too miss the show. To me it was one of things that meant "New York". Silly, I know, but it is part of the city.

[TheBalladeer]

Posted: 9/9/03 at 10:51am

New Yorker,

I know what you mean. I always thought that show was going to be there...and now it's not. Whenever I am in the neighboorhood, and pass by there, I get so depressed. Ah, well. At least I got to see it 5+ times while it WAS there.

Cheers,
The Balladeer

[TheaterBaby]

Posted: 9/10/03 at 12:18pm

I only saw it once, but thank God I did. I would have been so upset if I had not seen it at least once before it closed. That show was so simple and wonderful; the movie version is nothing in comarison.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 9/10/03 at 6:01pm

What is even more sad is that a recent news story reported that the Sullivan Street Playhouse will no longer be a theater because it can't afford the rent.

[sheekala]

Posted: 9/10/03 at 6:10pm

Yes, it's becoming a cafe or sushi place, ugh, Im just glad I got to see it the last week before it closed, my 10th...Bill Weeden who played the Boy's Father, a sweet man, is in a new show titled CHERRY HILL, it's performing at the Theater For The New City, I'm planning on going this weekend.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 9/10/03 at 7:17pm

What a shame that the last show was not taped.

[sheekala]

Posted: 9/10/03 at 7:20pm

I wonder about that, there is a wonderful documentary about the closing of the show, not sure of the title but many numbers were filmed, and footage was shot on the final night.

[NativeNewYorker]

Posted: 9/10/03 at 7:49pm

I seem to have good luck with Law and Order cast members...I rode in an elevator with Sam Waterston and Benjamin Bratt hit me with his stage door when I was dropping off invitations for my internship...I swear, if I ever run into Jerry Orbach, he WILL sing a few lines of "Try to Remember" for me...

Posted: 9/10/03 at 8:41pm

Everyone should own a copy of Terry Trotter's THE FANTASTICKS IN JAZZ. It's a wonderful, wonderful interpretation of the score.

Yours for a jazzy Broadway, and off-off, too!

[NativeNewYorker]

Posted: 9/11/03 at 10:08am

It was funny, in high school, we went to see a production of this in a local theatre...all my friends were asking me, "Is the New York production like this????????" They couldn't believe it could be so simple in the city! :) That's a big part of the show's charm.

Posted: 9/11/03 at 10:11am

It was a wonderful show. I saw it so many years ago. How many seats were in that theater? And why could they not have put it in a small theater. It was like CATS or A Chorus Line in the sense that many many theater actors and actresses got their start with this show.

[NativeNewYorker]

Posted: 9/11/03 at 10:14am

I think 110 seats or something?

Posted: 9/11/03 at 10:17am

oh well that is a small theater. nevermind....

anyone know if any show has been in there since?

[NativeNewYorker]

Posted: 11/3/03 at 3:33pm

Didn't want to start another Fantasticks thread :)

A few weeks ago, I went for an audition for a community production of The Fantasticks and I GOT CALLED BACK! CRAZY, considering I really can't sing that well, but I have sung those songs so many times in my bedroom and my car and guess I sound okay with them. I wasn't cast though, because I'm not vocally trained, and those songs are high, so I wouldn't have had a voice by opening night. But...it was fun...and kinda motivated me to start going on auditions...who knows? :)

I talked to Sebastian Arcelus yesterday (no, I am not one of those people who make it sound like they're buddy-buddy with Broadway performers...I just love that guy and getting a hug and a conversation from him always really makes me smile) and he acted all excited for me and told me that I had the PERFECT look to play Luisa, which was cute.

Jon, I think it's becoming a sushi house now...how sad is that?

But...A Broadway actor thinks I look just like Luisa! hehe.

[rlbgbc]

Posted: 11/3/03 at 3:37pm

I miss THE FANTASTICKS, too. It always got me back to basics, theatrically speaking. Never did I see it where I didn't get a lump with "Leave the wall. Remember, you must always leave the wall.."

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 11/3/03 at 3:37pm

Yes, I saw this show a couple years ago in an outdoor theatre. The sets and other production elements were very simple, but that's what I liked about it. Is this how it was in NYC? Simple sets?

[NativeNewYorker]

Posted: 11/3/03 at 3:43pm

Extremely simple sets...a man plays the wall...everything else can be found in "this box" and a banner saying "THE FANTASTICKS"...sigh...I wanna be Luisa.

[WillParker]

Posted: 11/3/03 at 3:51pm

I saw the show for the first time ever about a month before it closed. They had me from the moment that the lights went down and the overture started. I was thoroughly enchanted for 2 hours--more so than any other show I've ever seen. The simplicity of it was stunning. Where else but in The Fantasticks do we belive that confetti is rain, snow, blood, etc, and that a stick is a sword, a wall.....Purely magical. The best night I've EVER spent in a theater.

Someone mentioned a documentary on the show?? Does anyone else have any more info on this???

[Kitzarina]

Posted: 11/3/03 at 4:42pm

I wish I could've seen the show in NYC before it closed! This is one of my all-time favorite shows, mostly due to the fact that it is so simple. The music is gorgeous and the plot equally well constructed. That really depresses me that they closed it and are turning the theater into a sushi bar. First Les Miz and now The Fantasticks...too sad

[TheaterBaby]

Posted: 11/3/03 at 9:57pm

That's so funny that this thread was brought up again. I was just talking about the Fantasticks with someone on Saturday. I miss that little theatre I wish I could see The Fantasticks there again. I don't understand why it had to end? If it was a matter of rent, I'm sure they could have found another theater.

[sheekala]

Posted: 11/4/03 at 8:40am

If you are fans of the final cast of The Fantastick's I've heard Bill Weeden the Boys Father will be Santa in a Mickey Rooney Christmas this year, should be fun to see a legend like Rooney perform, that's if he can still stand up!