Tom Jones To Speak at Long Wharf Theatre's Mainstage 10/25

Tom Jones, the co-creator of the iconic musical theatre classic The Fantasticks, currently playing on Long Wharf Theatre's Mainstage, will be the featured guest at the theatre's Sunday Symposium, to take place Sunday, October 25 after the 2 p.m. matinee.

Long Wharf Theatre Associate Artistic Director Eric Ting will host a discussion with Jones who, along with his longtime collaborator Harvey Schmidt, have created some of the theatre's most enduring musicals, including 110 in the Shade and I Do, I Do!, in addition to The Fantasticks, which ran for 42 years at the Sullivan Street Playhouse and is currently being revived in New York.

When the show was first produced in 1960, Jones was pleased with the piece and hoped that critics would connect with its themes, and that an audience would follow. Indeed, the opposite occurred, with audiences gradually getting behind the show despite middle of the road reviews. "I didn't think it was going to run for 42 years," he said with a laugh.

The other turn of events Jones didn't anticipate was acting in the piece. The role of Henry, the Old Actor, was written with a classical actor in mind. When that particular performer was unavailable, Jones, Schmidt and the rest of the show's production team kept having auditions. Jones, as a matter of expediency, kept reading in the part. "I wound up reading it in the rehearsal process and I was good," he said.

However, worried that critics would consider The Fantasticks a vanity project if he appeared in the shows, Jones only agreed to do if he could perform under an assumed name, Thomas Bruce. "Thomas Bruce got much better notices than Tom Jones. Who knows? Go figure," Jones said.

Every so often he returns to the role, even receiving fine reviews from the New York Times in the recent New York revival at the Jerry Orbach Theatre, a production he described as "fun, sprightly and honest."

He believes it is the musical's mythic and classical underpinnings that give the story a resonant texture, enhancing the story's take on love and growing up. "It is funny and romantic and has some beautiful numbers and some comedic numbers," Jones said. "It is very much a celebration of the theatre itself and the possibilities of what you can do within the theatre."
For more information about the show, or to purchase tickets, visit www.longwharf.org or call 203-787-4282.

ABOUT THE THEATRE

Long Wharf Theatre (Gordon Edelstein, Artistic Director and Ray Cullom, Managing Director), entering its 45th season, is recognized as a leader in American theatre, producing fresh and imaginative revivals of classics and modern plays, rediscoveries of neglected works and a variety of world and American premieres. More than 30 Long Wharf productions have transferred virtually intact to Broadway or Off-Broadway, some of which include Durango by Julia Cho, the Pulitzer Prize-winning plays Wit by Margaret Edson, The Shadow Box by Michael Cristofer and The Gin Game by D.L. Coburn. The theatre is an incubator of new works, including last season's A Civil War Christmas by Paula Vogel and Coming Home by Athol Fugard. Long Wharf Theatre has received New York Drama Critics Awards, Obie Awards, the Margo Jefferson Award for Production of New Works, a Special Citation from the Outer Critics Circle and the Tony® Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.

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