Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park Ends 50th Anniversary Season With THE FANTASTICKS

The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park will end its 50th Anniversary Season with the longest-running musical in history and the most revived show at The Playhouse -THE FANTASTICKS, presented by the Morse & Betty Johnson Charitable Foundation. This enchanting and funny show begins public previews on May 15 and continues through June 20.

THE FANTASTICKS tells the story of a young man and the girl next door, whose parents have built a wall to keep them apart. Nevertheless, the youngsters conspire to meet and fall in love. Their parents, meanwhile, are congratulating themselves, for they have erected the wall and have succeeded in staging a feud to achieve a marriage between their willfully disobedient children.

Loosely based on French playwright Edmond Rostand's Les Romanesques, The Fantasticks was originally conceived in 1959 by college friends, Tom Jones, who wrote the books and lyrics, and Harvey Schmidt, who composed the music.

THE FANTASTICKS debuTed May 3, 1960 in Greenwich Village's Sullivan Street Playhouse, toward the end of Dwight D. Eisenhower's second presidential term. George W. Bush occupied the Oval Office when the curtain came down on the original production on January 13, 2002. By then, it had racked up 17,162 performances over 42 years to become the world's longest-running musical, and the longest-running show in American theatre history.

"They're (the play, currently in revival in New York) celebrating their 50th anniversary, we're celebrating our 50th anniversary," says Producing Artistic Director Edward Stern, noting that mounting this production as The Playhouse's 50th Anniversary Season finale is a deliberate salute to the mutual anniversaries. It is also a fitting way to honor Word Baker, The Fantasticks original director, who was also artistic director of The Playhouse in the early 1970s.

The Fantasticks has quite a track record at the Cincinnati Playhouse, with six productions preceding this year's presentation as the 50th Anniversary Season finale. Debuting on The Playhouse stage in its third season, 1963, it was staged four more times by the end of the decade and last appeared here in 1974.

The cast of The Fantasticks includes Ron Bohmer as the Narrator (El Gallo), Margaret-Ellen Jeffreys as the Girl (Luisa), Jon-Michael Reese as the Boy (Matt), Bill Kux as the Boy's Father (Hucklebee), Jerome Lucas Harmann as the Girl's Father (Bellomy), Joneal Joplin as the Old Actor (Henry), Dale Hodges as the Man Who Dies (Mortimer) and Lily Blau as the Mute.

Producing Artistic Director Edward Stern will helm the production. According to Stern, "There's something so American about the show's romance and realism, the balance between positivism and pragmatism that surrounds us. It just has a genuine heart."

Other members of the production team include Musical Staging by Janet Watson, Music Director and Pianist Michael Sebastian, Set Designer Paul Shortt, Costume Designer David Kay Mickelsen, Lighting Designer Kirk Bookman and Casting Director Rich Cole. The Production Stage Manager is Jenifer Morrow.

Prices for THE FANTASTICKS range from $49-$70, depending on day and seat location. All tickets are $49 for the preview performances at 8 p.m. on Saturday, May 15; 7 p.m. Sunday, May 16; 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 18; and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 19. The official opening night is Thursday, May 20 at 8 p.m.

Performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 4 and 8 p.m. on Saturdays and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Sundays.

Tickets to THE FANTASTICKS are on sale now. For more information, call The Playhouse box office at 513/421-3888 (toll-free in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana at 800/582-3208) or visit www.cincyplay.com. Call 513/345-2248 for TDD accessibility.

The Playhouse is fully accessible. Audio enhancement receivers, large print programs and complete wheelchair access are available.

The Playhouse is supported, in part, by the generosity of the tens of thousands of individuals and businesses that give to the Fine Arts Fund.

The Ohio Arts Council helps fund The Playhouse with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans. The Playhouse also receives funding from the Shubert Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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