BROADWAY GETS FANTASTICK

The world’s longest-running musical
takes its first Broadway bow in
a beautifully reconsidered form

Zane Phillips makes his Broadway debut as The Narrator (El Gallo) in the Broadway premiere of Tom Jones’ stunningly re-worked The Fantasticks

It took The Fantasticks 66 years to get to Broadway. Then again, a musical that ran Off-Broadway for 42 years and 17,162 performances has never exactly needed Broadway’s stamp of approval. But this fall, Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s deceptively simple, endlessly enchanting musical finally makes the move uptown—or, more accurately, a few blocks over—when Second Stage Theater presents its Broadway premiere at the Hayes Theater, beginning October 22 and opening November 16 for a limited 15-week engagement.

Nathan Levy

This isn’t simply another revival of The Fantasticks. It is the remarkable reimagining in which the familiar young lovers Luisa and Matt become Lewis and Matt, and their meddling fathers become their equally meddlesome mothers. The idea originated with director Michael Lluberes, who approached Jones about reworking the musical; Jones initially resisted, then embraced the concept and collaborated on a fully realized revision before his death in 2023.

Maxim Chlumecky

I saw that version at Coachella Valley Repertory in 2023, and what might have sounded on paper like a contemporary alteration imposed upon a beloved old musical proved precisely the opposite. The changes seemed to uncover something that had been sitting inside The Fantasticks all along. Here, two mothers conspire to bring their sons together, accepting their same-sex love with such complete matter-of-factness that the musical’s timeless fantasy world becomes, unexpectedly, even more utopian. When El Gallo questions whether the mothers are worried about “two boys,” the answer is gloriously simple: “They love each other. Why should we be worried?”

Ruthie Ann Miles

I was knocked out by it. In fact, I called it “the greatest rendering of The Fantasticks I have ever seen.” The familiar story of young lovers, interfering parents, moonlight, disillusionment and hard-won reconciliation suddenly felt both completely recognizable and newly alive. The genius was that the reimagining didn’t ask The Fantasticks to stop being The Fantasticks. It simply allowed a different pair of young people to discover that “without a hurt, the heart is hollow.”

Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer

Now we know who will be stepping into that world on Broadway. Nathan Levy (& Juliet, Aladdin) will play Lewis opposite Maxim Chlumecky (Appropriate, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) as Matt. Their matchmaking mothers will be Ruthie Ann Miles, the Tony-winning star of The King and I, as Bessie Mae Bellomy, and Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer (Spamalot, Beetlejuice) as Mildred Hucklebee.

David Patrick Kelly

And El Gallo? Zane Phillips, familiar from Fire Island, Glamorous and Mid-Century Modern, will make his Broadway debut as the musical’s enigmatic narrator. He has some history with The Fantasticks, having previously played The Boy in a regional production. The comic duo of Henry and Mortimer will be played by David Patrick Kelly, whose extraordinary career ranges from The Warriors and Twin Peaks to Broadway’s Once, and Tony nominee Kevin del Aguila (Some Like It Hot). Ahmad Simmons, whose Broadway credits include Illinoise, completes the company as The Mute.

Kevin del Aguila

For the Broadway production, Tony Award winner Christopher Gattelli (Schmigadoon!, Death Becomes Her, Newsies) takes over as director and choreographer, working from Jones’s revised book and lyrics. The design team is formidable: Jason Sherwood (scenic design), Linda Cho (costumes), Jen Schriever (lighting) and Nevin Steinberg (sound), with Samuel Davis providing music supervision and orchestrations and Rick Hip-Flores serving as music director.

Ahmad Simmons

What intrigues me most is whether this new company will find the same effortless truth in Jones’s revision that made the CVRep production so affecting. The changes worked there because they never felt imposed on The Fantasticks; Lewis and Matt simply belonged in its peculiar, romantic world. With Jones himself having embraced that possibility, Broadway now gets to discover what I did three years ago: just how naturally his little musical accommodates a different pair of lovers.

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The Fantasticks
Second Stage Theater
Hayes Theater, 240 West 44th Street in New York City
previews begin October 22, 2026
opens November 16, 2026
limited 15-week engagement
for tickets, visit Second Stage Theater

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