Dan Sharkey Joins THE FANTASTICKS, 2/28

Dan Sharkey, whose Broadway credits include The Music Man and Show Boat, will join the cast of The Fantasticks as Hucklebee on February 28, 2011. He replaces Gene Jones, who played his final performance on February 20.

The announcement was made today by Terzetto LLC, Pat Flicker Addiss and MARS Theatricals (Amy Danis and Mark Johanness), producers of the production.

This marks Sharkey's fifth appearance in a production of The Fantasticks. On Broadway he appeared in The Music Man (cast recording) and Show Boat. National touring credits include Keith Carradine's stand-by for the title role in The Will Rogers Follies, The Sound of Music with Marie Osmond, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers with The Fantasticks' current El Gallo Edward Watts, and Grand Hotel. Off Broadway credits include Captains Courageous (MTC), The Prince and the Pauper, Lone Star Love (cast recording), Ilyria and The Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge (cast recording). Regional appearances include the title role in Sweeney Todd at the Guthrie Theater, Walnut Street Theater, Long Wharf, ATL, Paper Mill Playhouse and Lyric Theater OKC.

The Fantasticks (music by Harvey Schmidt, book/lyrics/direction by Tom Jones) is a captivating romantic comedy about a boy and girl who fall in and out of love at the hands of their meddling fathers. The score, which includes the hit songs "Try To Remember," "They Were You" and "Soon It's Gonna Rain," is as timeless as the story itself. Having played a record-breaking 17,162 performances in its original run at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village, The Fantasticks is now playing in the heart of Times Square at The Snapple Theater Center.

Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt wrote The Fantasticks for a summer theater at Barnard College. After its Off Broadway opening in May 1960 it went on to become the longest-running production in the history of the American stage and one of the most frequently-produced musicals in the world. Their first Broadway show, 110 in the Shade, was revived on Broadway in a new production starring Audra McDonald. I Do! I Do!, their two-character musical starring Mary Martin and Robert Preston, was a success on Broadway and is frequently produced around the country and the world. (One production, in Minneapolis, played for 22 continuous years with the same two ac­tors in the leading roles.) For several years Jones and Schmidt worked privately at their theater workshop, concentrating on small-scale musicals in new and often untried forms. The most notable of these efforts were Celebration, which moved to Broadway, and Philemon, which won an Outer Critics Circle Award. They contributed incidental music and lyrics to the Off Broadway play Colette starring Zoë Caldwell, then later did a full-scale musical version under the title Colette Collage. The Show Goes On, a musical revue featuring their theater songs and starring Jones and Schmidt, was presented at the York Theater, and Mirette, their musical based on the award-winning children's book, was premiered at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut. In addition to an Obie Award and the 1992 Tony Award for Excellence in the Theater for The Fantasticks, Jones and Schmidt were inducted into the Broadway Hall of Fame at the Gershwin Theatre, and on May 3, 1999 their stars were added to the Off Broadway Walk of Fame outside the Lucille Lortel Theater.

The Fantasticks company also includes Edward Watts (Broadway's Finian's Rainbow), Bill Bateman (Broadway's Gypsy starring Patti LuPone, Hello, Dolly!), Matt Dengler (Broadway's A Little Night Music), MacIntyre Dixon (Broadway's Beauty and the Beast, Gypsy starring Bernadette Peters, 1776), Tom Flagg (Broadway's Will Rogers Follies, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Oklahoma!), Matt Leisy (St. Louis Rep's The History Boys), Anne Markt (High School Musical at The MUNY), Michael Nostrand (A&E's Emmy Award-winning Peter Pan, national tours of Jelly's Last Jam, The Mystery of Edwin Drood), Juliette Trafton (Christine in Phantom of the Opera national tour) and Charles West (Broadway's The Scarlet Pimpernel, Show Boat).

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 & 7:30PM.

Tickets for The Fantasticks are available by calling the box office at (212) 921-7862 or Ticketmaster.com at (877) 250-2929.

 

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