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Try to Remember: The Fantasticks, a documentary film recounting the success of the world's longest-running musical, will make its television debut tonight at 9pm on the Ovation network.
The film, directed by Eli Kabillio, features historical footage and interviews with former cast members including Jerry Orbach, Rita Gardner and F. Murray Abraham, composer Harvey Schmidt, lyricist and book writer Tom Jones, producer Lore Noto, as well as noted news reporters, professors of theater and members of the original creative team.The documentary will be broadcast June 7 at 9pm, June 8 at midnight, June 15 at 9pm, June 16 at midnight and June 19 at 3pm. To find the Ovation channel in your area, visit http://www.ovationtv.com/Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt wrote The Fantasticks for a summer theater at Barnard College. After its Off Broadway opening in May 1960 it went on to become the longest-running production in the history of the American stage and one of the most frequently produced musicals in the world. Their first Broadway show, 110 in the Shade, was revived on Broadway in a new production starring Audra McDonald. I Do! I Do!, their two character musical starring Mary Martin and Robert Preston, was a success on Broadway and is frequently produced around the country and the world. (One production, in Minneapolis, played for 22 continuous years with the same two ac tors in the leading roles.) For several years Jones and Schmidt worked privately at their theater workshop, concentrating on small-scale musicals in new and often untried forms. The most notable of these efforts were Celebration, which moved to Broadway, and Philemon, which won an Outer Critics Circle Award. They contributed incidental music and lyrics to the Off Broadway play Colette starring Zoë Caldwell, then later did a full-scale musical version under the title Colette Collage. The Show Goes On, a musical revue featuring their theater songs and starring Jones and Schmidt, was presented at the York Theater, and Mirette, their musical based on the award-winning children's book, was premiered at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut. In addition to an Obie Award and the 1992 Special Tony Award for The Fantasticks, Jones and Schmidt were inducted into the Broadway Hall of Fame at the Gershwin Theatre, and on May 3, 1999 their stars were added to the Off Broadway Walk of Fame outside the Lucille Lortel Theater.Videos