In spring 1960, the cinematic epic Ben-Hur collected a record eleven Academy Awards; the battle for civil rights heated up as four young Black men held a sit-in at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina; and the Dow Jones hit a high of 685 points. Meanwhile, in Greenwich Village, a whimsical little musical bowed at the tiny Sullivan Street Playhouse. Since then, the price of gas has increased 1000%, ten U.S. Presidents have been elected, and we’ve aged by half a century...   And Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones’s eternally young THE FANTASTICKS is still with us.

On May 3, the long-running musical celebrated its golden anniversary with a special show at The Snapple Theatre Center’s Jerry Orbach Theater (named for the show’s original Off-Broadway El Gallo). The anniversary (featuring a champagne toast at intermission) was attended by a slew of the show’s family, friends, and fans who applauded each actor’s entrance, with particularly hearty applause for Thomas Bruce (better known as the show’s librettist/lyricist Tom Jones) back as the Old Actor, a part he originated in 1960 at the tender age of thirty-two – and now he’s actually the right age for the role!

75 past cast members attended the gala performance, including Susan Watson, who played Luisa in a pre-NYC version of the show (and was the original “Kim” in Broadway’s Bye Bye Birdie), and Rita Gardner, who originated the role in the 1960 Off-Broadway production.

Back in 1960, few would have predicted the show’s success. The original reviews were, at best, lukewarm, and the show often played to fewer than a dozen audience members. Producer Lore Note put his entire life savings into the production, and took the unprecedented step of putting the show on hiatus Off-Broadway and playing for a week in the Hamptons. Suddenly, word of mouth kicked in among the hoi polloi and THE FANTASTICKS was a hit. Since then, the show’s investors have made a 24,000% return on their initial investment of $360 per share, and will continue to earn dividends until 2020. The show’s signature song, “Try to Remember,” has been recorded dozens of times, and the musical has been performed in over 3,000 American cities and towns, and in 67 foreign countries, in addition to a 1964 television abridgment and a 1995 film which was released in 2000. A reconceived revival of the musical is scheduled to open in London later this month.

The original Off-Broadway production ran for forty-two years, and finally closed on January 13, 2002 after a staggering, record-breaking 17,162 performances, making it the longest-running production of any kind in the United States. The current revival has racked up about 1,500 performances since it bowed in August 2006 (interrupted briefly in spring 2008), and has also earned a spot as the top twenty longest-running Off-Broadway productions.

Erik Altemus and Kimberly Whalen, the current Matt (The Boy) and Luisa (The Girl) in THE FANTASTICKS

So, how has the show held up after all this time? Extremely well: the current production of THE FANTASTICKS is a two hour-long hug from a dear old friend. The evergreen music and lyrics still enchant, whether you’ve seen the show fifty times or if you’re making your first visit. The simple story, loosely based on the myth of Pyramus and Thisbe (retold in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream) remains delightfully trenchant. Two innocent young people fall in love under a cardboard moon, then bitterly break up and explore the world in their own ways, eventually returning to each other’s arms with the knowledge that “without a hurt the heart is hollow.”

The current cast is pretty much perfect, too. Led for its fiftieth anniversary by the fiftieth man who’s played El Gallo in New York, Edward Watts delivers a ravishing “Try to Remember.” Erik Altemus and Kimberly Whalen give beautiful performances as the young lovers, and Steve Routman and Gene Jones charm as their scheming parents. Matt Leisy is the commedia del arte-inspired Mute who functions as a stone-faced wall separating the lovers. The aforementioned Thomas Bruce/Tom Jones is a giddily hammy delight as The Old Actor, and he is well-supported by Michael Nostrand who breaks hearts and funnybones alike in a hangdog performance as Mortimer, The Old Actor’s theatrical assistant whose specialty is death scenes.

In 1960, Jones penned dialogue for Mortimer noting that he’s “been dying for over fifty years,” a prescient line which drew appreciative applause and chuckles at the recent golden anniversary performance. How amazing that THE FANTASTICKS has run long enough to make that line come true – may it run fifty more!

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.