THE FANTASTICKS' Nick Spangler Wins THE AMAZING RACE

Nick Spangler, who appears as Matt in the Off Broadway revival of The Fantasticks, has won the 13th season of The Amazing Race.

He and his sister, Starr, will share a prize of one million dollars.

The Spangler siblings were the first to cross the finish line in Portland, Oregon in the final leg of a worldwide race that brought eleven teams of racers to such diverse locales as Cambodia, Bolivia, India and Kazakhstan. The series finale aired on CBS at 8 PM ET Sunday, December 7, 2008.

"This is the moment we've been waiting for," said Catherine Russell, a producer of The Fantasticks. "We knew that the same infectious energy and guileless charm Nick brings to the role of Matt would lead to his win on The Amazing Race. We are beyond thrilled for Nick and Starr."

Spangler, who goes on a personal journey through life, loss, adventure and love eight times a week as the young lover in The Fantasticks, was the seaon front-runner on the reality competition which chronicles teams on a race around the world, having won six of the nine challenges leading up to the finale. Along with Starr, a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, the actor raced through Salvador, Brazil against ten other teams and was the fastest to scale a 240-foot cargo net; hauled fish and unlocked a clue at Angkor Wat that led to victory in Siem Reap, Cambodia; painted a rickshaw and ironed clothes faster than anyone else for a third win in New Delhi, India; braved the Holi Festival and a busy outdoor marketplace in Old Delhi, India; gone head-to-head with rivals in Almaty, Kazakhstan and ate a dish of sheep's buttocks to secure victory number five; used his impressive New York City subway skills to navigate Moscow's subway system; and tackled a variety of physically and mentally challenging tasks in Portland, Oregon.

During regular competition, Spangler won six first place finishes, tying the series record. He established a new record during week eight when he won the fifth of those finishes in a row. In addition to the grand prize, the Spanglers won an amalgam of prizes including his-and-her electric cars, a WaveRunner and trips to Belize, St. John, Hawaii and Anguilla.

The Fantasticks is a captivating and simple romantic comedy about a boy and girl who fall in love at the hands of their meddling fathers. They're then separated and forced to confront the harsh realities and hidden dangers of the real world. 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, located at 210 West 50th Street at Broadway.

The Fantasticks company also includes includes Lewis Cleale (Broadway's Monty Python's Spamalot, Amour, Once Upon A Mattress), No Country for Old Men's Gene Jones, John Thomas Waite (Broadway's Dracula, Amadeus), Tom Flagg (Broadway's Will Rogers Follies, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Oklahoma), Richard Roland (Broadway's Scarlet Pimpernel, Follies, Thoroughly Modern Millie), Margaret Anne Florence (My Super Ex-Girlfriend), Steve Routman (The Keen Company's The Conscientious Objector, Awake and Sing! at Arena Stage), Michael Nostrand, (A&E's Emmy Award-winning Peter Pan, national tours of Jelly's Last Jam, The Mystery of Edwin Drood,) Jordan Nichols (Tulsa in Gypsy at Westchester Broadway) and Evy Ortiz.

The Fantasticks performance schedule is as follows: Mondays at 8PM, Wednesdays at 2PM, Thursdays and Fridays at 8PM, Saturdays at 2PM & 8PM, and Sundays at 3PM & 7:15PM. Tickets are available by calling the box office at (212) 921-7862 or Ticketmaster.com at (212) 307-4100. Specially-priced $31 student rush tickets are also available by calling or visiting the box office.

Photo by Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.

To post a comment, you must register and login.