THE FANTASTICKS Welcome Trafton, Bateman, Dixon, West To 50th Anniversary Cast

The Fantasticks, the world's longest-running musical currently celebrating its 50th anniversary, will welcome Juliette Trafton, Bill Bateman, MacIntyre Dixon and Charles West to the cast, as Kimberly Whalen, Steve Routman and Scott Willis depart.

The announcement was made today by Terzetto LLC, Pat Flicker Addiss and MARS Theatricals (Amy Danis and Mark Johanness), producers of the production.

Juliette Trafton (Luisa) appeared as Christine in the national tour of The Phantom of the Opera and as Ariel in The Little Mermaid for Disney Cruise Lines. Regional credits include Jane in Jane Eyre and Sarah in Guys and Dolls. Her first performance is June 28.

Bill Bateman (Bellomy) has appeared on Broadway in Gypsy starring Patti LuPone, Hello, Dolly!, Peter Pan and Bring Back Birdie. National tours include Annie Get Your Gun, Woman of the Year, Annie, Pippin, Sugar and Irene. His first performance is June 21.

MacIntyre Dixon (who returns to the role of Henry after a brief hiatus) has appeared on Broadway in Sly Fox, Beauty and the Beast, Gypsy starring Bernadette Peters, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, 1776, Prelude to a Kiss, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Crucible, The Tempest and 3Penny Opera. Off Broadway credits include Comic Potential, Arms and the Man, Room Service, Hamlet, Little Murders, Tom Foolery and Second City. His films include School of Rock, In & Out, A River Runs Through It, Funny Farm, batteries not included, Popeye and Reds. His first performance is July 5.

Charles West (standby for El Gallo, Bellomy and Hucklebee) appeared on Broadway in The Scarlet Pimpernel, Showboat and Cyrano The Musical. Touring credits include Chris in the first national tour of Miss Saigon and Tony in the European tour of West Side Story. He joins the cast on June 21.

The Fantasticks (music by Harvey Schmidt, book/lyrics/direction by Tom Jones) is a captivating and simple romantic comedy about a boy and girl who fall in and out of love at the hands of their meddling fathers. The audience uses its imagination to follow the narrator, El Gallo, as he creates a world of moonlight and magic until the boy and girl find their way back to one other. The score, which includes the hit songs "Try To Remember," "They Were You" and "Soon It's Gonna Rain," is as timeless as the story itself. Having played a record-breaking 17,162 performances in its original run at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village, The Fantasticks is now playing in the heart of Times Square at The Snapple Theater Center.

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 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.

The Fantasticks company also includes Edward Watts (Broadway's Finian's Rainbow), Erik Altemus (Musical Theater Guild of Los Angeles's Parade), Tom Flagg (Broadway's Will Rogers Follies, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Oklahoma), Gene Jones (Broadway's Big River, Joe Turner's Come and Gone; No Country for Old Men), Matt Leisy (St. Louis Rep's The History Boys), Michael Nostrand (A&E's Emmy Award-winning Peter Pan, national tours of Jelly's Last Jam, The Mystery of Edwin Drood), and Evy Ortiz.

The Fantasticks plays at The Snapple Theater Center's Jerry Orbach Theater, 210 West 50th Street at Broadway. 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 & 7:15PM. Note: There are no performances on July 4. As of July 5, 2010 the performance schedule will be as follows: Mondays at 8PM, Tuesdays at 8PM, Wednesdays at 2PM & 8PM, Thursdays at 8PM, Saturdays at 8PM, and Sundays at 3PM and 7:15PM.

Tickets for The Fantasticks are available by calling the box office at (212) 921-7862 or Ticketmaster.com at (212) 307-4100.

www.FantasticksOnStage.com

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