It just didn't seem right that there was no Fantasticks in New York for four and a half years. It had become such a staple of the Big Apple - sort of like Shear Madness is in Washington, only more so. When it first opened in 1960 it didn't draw crowds or even much attention. But it built its audience slowly and it didn't take a lot of ticket sales to break into the profit column - reports are that the original budget for the set was less than a thousand dollars and for the costumes just about half that. The original cast album helped spread the fame of the piece and this revival is blessed with its own lovingly crafted cast recording on Ghostlight Records. Schmidt and Jones went on to create such pleasures as 110 In The Shade and I Do! I Do! but their fame is undeniably linked to the one dozen songs they wrote for this piece including "I Can See It," "Soon It's Gonna Rain" and most famously "Try To Remember."

Drawing on the deep talent pool of New York, the producers have already established a high standard for what may well be another long run. It opened last August and, while six of the original cast of eight are still with the show, the replacements have thus far been well picked. Burke Moses is still The Narrator, the role that launched the career of Jerry Orbach. Martin Vidnovic and Leo Burmester still team up as the fathers, and Robert R. Oliver is still a fabulous "the man who dies" teaming up with Thomas Bruce who, lo these forty-seven years later, is back playing the "old man" role he originated in 1960.  Replacements have been impressive as well. When Santino Fontana left the role of the boy, Douglas Ullman, Jr. stepped over from the role of "The Mute" with delightful results. It has now been announced that American Idol contestant Anthony Federov will take on the role. The silver-voiced Sara Jean Ford is a great Luisa, the girl in the boy's life. 

The entire pit orchestra is also still the same as on opening night of this revival. Of course, in a theater this small there is no pit and the orchestra is - as it was in the beginning in 1960 and has been ever since - just a piano and a harp. Dorothy Martin who is also the music director is "at the piano" while Erin Hill is still "at the harp." And, oh, what lovely soft sounds Harvey Schmidt came up with for "just" a piano and a harp!