The Fantasticks

A major revival of the musical The Fantasticks in London, featuring book, lyrics and music by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt.

The Fantasticks tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the play The Romancers (Les Romanesques) by Edmond Rostand, concerning two neighboring fathers who put up a wall between their houses to ensure that their children fall in love, because they know children always do what their parents forbid. After the children do fall in love, they discover their fathers' plot and each go off and experience the world. Finally they return to each other and the love they had, having learned from the world to recognise their true feelings. The classic score features the songs Much More, I Can See It and Try To Remember.

The cast for The Fantasticks in London features David Burt, Clive Rowe, Hadley Fraser, Edward Petherbridge and Paul Hunter along with Lorna Want, Luke Brady and Carl Au. The production is directed by Amon Miyamoto, with designs by Rumi Matsui and lighting by Rick Fisher who recently won the 2009 Tony Award for 'Best Lighting Design of a Musical' for Billy Elliot.

Apart from Edmond Rostand's The Romancers, elements of The Fantasticks story are drawn from the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream as well as Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore.

The Fantasticks originally opened in 'off-Broadway' in New York on 3 May 1960 and played a total of 17,162 performances before closing on 13 January 2002 to become the longest running show of any kind in the United States and the longest running musical in the world. Since it's premiere in 1960 te musical has played in over 2000 cities and towns in the United States. Internationally there have been more than 700 productions in 67 countries. The production originally transferred to London's West End in 1961 when it opened at the Apollo Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue in September, but it only managed a one month run. More recently a production of The Fantasticks was presented in London's West End at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park as part of the theatre's 1990 Season.

The Fantasticks in London at the Duchess Theatre previews from 24 May 2010, opens on 9 June 2010 and is currently booking up to 5 September 2010.