The little musical about a Boy, a Girl and the wall that separates them will close May 3, the 55th anniversary of the opening of the show in 1960. At the time of its closing, the production will have played a total of 20,672 performances in NYC: 17,162 at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village, and 3,510 at the Jerry Orbach Theatre at the Snapple Theater Center at the corner of Broadway and 50th Street.
Producer Catherine Russell told Playbill.com, "It has become increasingly challenging to sell lots of tickets consistently--we are either incredibly busy and selling out or selling fewer tickets that we have been in previous years. It's feast or famine. So due to this uncertainty,I have reluctantly decided to close The Fantasticks on the 55th anniversary of its opening on May 3, 1960.
Spokesman Daniel DeMello told Playbill.com that the closing is a simple matter of economics: "Sales have been way down, and they [the producers] just don't have the funding to keep it going anymore. It's really as simple as that."
DeMello said that the complex's two other tenants, Perfect Crime and Sit Down, Shut Up and Eat, will continue indefinitely.
However, Perfect Crime, the longest running play in NYC history - playing its 11,455th performance today - will continue its record breaking run in the Anne L. Bernstein Theater at the Theater Center and will hopefully someday match the 55th year record of The Fantasticks. Harvey Schmidt wrote the music and Tom Jones supplied the lyrics and book, based on Edmund Rostand's Les Romanesques. Their score includes timeless show tune classics “Try To Remember,” “Soon It’s Gonna Rain” and “They Were You."
The current cast features Edward Watts as the Narrator (El Gallo), Daniel Berryman as The Boy (Matt), Samantha Bruce as The Girl (Luisa), Donald Corren as The Boy’s Father (Hucklebee), Joe Dellger as The Girl's Father (Bellomy), MacIntyre Dixon as The Old Actor (Henry), Michael Nostrand as The Man Who Dies (Mortimer) and Drew Siegla as The Mute. The production also features Dave Schoonover, Rita Markova and Tom Flagg. It wasn't clear if this will be the final cast.
Performances of The Fantasticks are on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays at 8 PM, Wednesdays at 2 PM, Saturdays at 2 PM & 8 PM and Sundays at 3 PM & 7:30 PM.
Tickets cost $76.50 and can be purchased by calling the box office at (212) 921-7862, by logging onto www.Ticketmaster.com or by visiting the box office. A limited number of premium front row-seats are available for each performance priced at $126.50.
Click here to read Playbill.com's account of the final performance of the original run.
Here are some recent video clips from the revival production, when it performed at "Broadway in Bryant Park."
