Aaron Carter Joins The Cast Of THE FANTASTICKS

Triple-Platinum Recording Artist Aaron Carter, who burst onto the pop music scene in the late nineties and quickly achieved worldwide superstardom and the adoration of millions of loyal fans, will join the cast of The Fantasticks, the world's longest-running musical, on Monday, November 7, 2011.

Carter will play the role of Matt, a rebellious young romantic who becomes restless, goes out into the world and discovers that with love comes responsibility, with independence comes danger, and with maturity comes happiness. He succeeds Matt Leisy, who will remain with the company in the role of The Mute.

"Never in the 51-year-history of The Fantasticks have we opted to cast someone with Aaron Carter's level of fame, instead quietly enjoying our reputation for giving many future stars their first professional performing gig," said lyricist-book writer Tom Jones, who also directed the production. "But when I saw the level of enthusiasm, professionalism and sheer talent Aaron brought to us, I knew that he would be an incredibly exciting addition to The Fantasticks family."

A modern twist on Romeo and Juliet, The Fantasticks (music by Harvey Schmidt, book/lyrics/direction by Tom Jones) is the quintessential story of a boyfriend and girlfriend who quickly grow apart when they realize they want to experience the world. What follows is a hilarious and heartwarming story appropriate for all ages. The score, which includes the hit songs "Try To Remember", "Soon It's Gonna Rain" and "They Were You", is as timeless as the story itself. Having run for 42 years in its original production at the Sullivan Street Playhouse, The Fantasticks is the world's longest-running musical.

"I am a young person who has already lived a full life," said Aaron Carter. "In many respects my journey has been similar to my character's: like Matt, I'm a young man who has grown up and discovered what's truly important, using my life experience to become the person I always knew I was meant to be. I am so happy to be performing in this incredible show with such a talented group of professionals."

"I love working with Aaron," said Robert Felstein, musical director for The Fantasticks. "It's amazing to watch how he shapes his performance to fulfill the needs of the show. I think people will be very excited to see and hear what Aaron Carter brings to The Fantasticks."

Tickets to The Fantasticks are priced at $76.50 and can be purchased by calling the box office at (212) 921-7862, by logging onto Ticketmaster.com, or by visiting the Snapple Theater Center box office at 210 West 50th Street at Broadway. A limited number of premium front row seats are available for each performance priced at $126.50.

The Fantasticks cast also includes Bradley Dean (Broadway's A Little Night Music, Spamalot, Company, Man of La Mancha, Jane Eyre), Bill Bateman (Broadway's Gypsy starring Patti LuPone, Hello, Dolly!), Matt Dengler (Broadway's A Little Night Music), MacIntyre Dixon (Broadway's Beauty and the Beast, A Funny Things Happened on the Way to the Forum, Gypsy starring Bernadette Peters, 1776, Prelude to a Kiss), Tom Flagg (Broadway's Will Rogers Follies, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Oklahoma!), Matt Leisy (Alan Menken's A Christmas Carol at Alabama Shakespeare Festival, St. Louis Rep's The History Boys), Addi McDaniel (Disney's High School Musical at North Shore, The Guthrie's Little House on the Prairie), Michael Nostrand (A&E's Emmy Award-winning Peter Pan, national tours of Jelly's Last Jam, The Mystery of Edwin Drood), Dan Sharkey (Broadway's The Music Man, Show Boat), Juliette Trafton (Christine in the national tour of Phantom of the Opera) and Charles West (Broadway's The Scarlet Pimpernel, Show Boat, Cyrano the Musical).

The Fantasticks plays at The Jerry Orbach Theater in the Snapple Theater Center, 210 West 50th Street at Broadway. The box office phone number is (212) 921-7862.

The performance schedule is as follows: Mondays at 8PM, Tuesdays at 8PM, Wednesdays at 2PM, Fridays at 8PM, Saturdays at 2PM & 8PM and Sundays at 3PM & 7:30PM.

About Aaron Carter

Aaron Carter began his music career at age seven, singing lead for the band "Dead End". Two years later he made his first solo appearance when he was nine, opening for the Backstreet Boys at their concert in Berlin Germany, March 1997. The performance was followed by a record contract and, in the fall of 1997, Aaron Carter released his first hit single, "Crush On You".

Being in the spotlight was nothing new to Aaron. Born with twin sister Angel in Tampa, Florida he grew up with two other sisters and an older brother. Aaron's older brother isn't just any big brother - he just happens to be Nick Carter of the award-winning Backstreet Boys. By 1997 both Aaron and Nick's music careers put them both on their way to super stardom.

His first full-length album Aaron Carter (December 1997) achieved gold status worldwide including countries Norway, Spain, Denmark, Canada and Germany.

On May 18, 1998, Carter released the EP Let The Music Heal Your Soul, a fund-raising project that featured vocals by Carter, *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys and The Moffatts among others.

Now signed to JIVE Records, Aaron Carter was released in the United States on June 16, 1998. His sophomore album, Aaron's Party (Sep 26, 2000), was also released in the United States under the Jive Label and achieved triple-platinum status/certification. All of this before Aaron was officially a teenager.

At 13, Carter recorded the album Oh, Aaron (Aug 7, 2001) which featured his first duet recording with brother Nick. Oh, Aaron was accompanied by a video/DVD of the same name (March 26, 2002) which included footage of his 2001 Concert Tour in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, music videos and personal interviews from Carter.

Carter's next album, Another Earthquake (September 3, 2002), was released during the Rock, Rap, and Retro Tour. The album featured the patriotic-themed single "America A O" and ballad "Do You Remember". The Collection Album Most Requested Hits, (November 3, 2003) included tracks from his last three albums as well as a new single, "One Better".

Aaron has won multiple awards over his 14 year career including TEEN Choice Awards, Kids Choice Awards, and RTL Young Artist of the Year Award. In addition to music he has also established himself as an Actor in Film, Television and on Broadway.

His Television credits include Figure it Out, Lizzie McGuire, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, 48 Hours Mystery, Liberty's Kids (voice), Family Affair, 7th Heaven, Penn & Teller: Off the Deep End and House of Carters.

His Film credits include Fat Albert, Ella Enchanted (lead male vocals in "Somebody to Love", PopStar, Supercross and I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With.

His Theater credits include Seussical on Broadway (JoJo, The Littlest Who).

On August 17, 2009 the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) announced that Carter would be joining the cast for season 9 of their primetime reality series, Dancing With The Stars. Aaron and his dance partner Karina Smirnoff became an early fan favorite and finished 5th place in the competition.

Aaron is currently entertaining various film and television offers all while in the studio working on new music and his new album.

About The Fantasticks

When The Fantasticks (music by Harvey Schmidt; book/lyrics/direction by Tom Jones) opened in 1960 at a tiny theater on New York City's Sullivan Street, no one ever dreamed it would run for 17,162 performances and become the world's longest-running musical. Since then there have been over 11,000 productions in more than 3,000 U.S. cities and towns and in 67 countries, from Afghanistan to Iran to Zimbabwe, making The Fantasticks the world's most frequently-produced musical. The show has been performed at The White House and has survived eleven U.S. Presidents beginning with President Eisenhower. Japan, New Zealand, Germany, Australia, Saudi Arabia and Israel have all seen multiple productions. The Fantasticks has been translated into numerous languages including Pashto, Dari, Icelandic, Arabic, Hebrew, Magyar and Mandarin.

The Fantasticks has played all fifty states, plus Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia. It has been performed for the Peace Corps in Africa, at the Shawnee Mission in Kansas, the Menninger Foundation, Olympian Fields, Yellowstone National Park and the White Sands Missile Range. It was performed in Mandarin by the Peking Opera, and in 1990 under the auspices of the United States State Department it played for the first time in Russia. There have been two film versions, one in 1964 and one in 2000, and the list of notable individuals who have appeared in the show through the years includes Jerry Orbach, Glenn Close, Kevin Kline, Harrison Ford, Liza Minnelli, F. Murray Abraham, Patti LuPone, Kristin Chenoweth, American Idol finalist Anthony Fedorov and Amazing Race winner Nick Spangler.

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 ac­tors 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 Tony Award for Excellence in the Theater 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.

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