Tom Jones Joins the 50th Anniversary Cast of THE FANTASTICKS, Tonight

Tom Jones, the lyricist and book writer of The Fantasticks, will reprise the role of Henry (The Old Actor) in The Fantasticks, the world's longest-running musical, in celebration of the show's 50th anniversary. Jones originated the role in 1960 when The Fantasticks premiered at The Sullivan Street Playhouse.

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

Jones, whose first performance will take place tonight at 8 PM, will appear in the production under the stage name Thomas Bruce, the name he used while first playing the role. The Fantasticks will turn 50 on May 3.

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.

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.

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), Evy Ortiz, Steve Routman (The Keen Company's The Conscientious Objector, Awake and Sing! at Arena Stage), Kimberly Whalen (West Side Story, Carousel at Lyric Stage) and Scott Willis (Broadway's Crazy for You, 42nd Street).

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.

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

Photo Credit: Genevieve Rafter-Keddy