The Fantasticks (The FTC Players, April 11-13 at The ArtsCenter, 300-G East Main St., Carrboro, NC) is the longest-running musical in theater history. Staged for the FTC Players by critically acclaimed Fayetteville director Lee Yopp, this whimsical fantasy of young love opened Off Broadway on May 3, 1960 and closed on January 13, 2002, after 17,162 performances over more than 41 years. Based on French playwright Edmond Rostand’s classic romantic comedy Les Romanesques (1894), and subtitled “A Parable About Love,” this inspired collaboration between Harvey Schmidt (music) and Tom Jones (book and lyrics) introduced “Try to Remember” and “Soon It’s Gonna Rain” to the show-tune repertoire. For more information, visit http://artscenterlive.org/. For tickets, call 919/927-2787.
About The Author
Robert McDowell
Robert W. McDowell is a Raleigh, NC, freelance writer, editor, and theater critic who served as CVNC's theatre editor from September 2002 to May 2010. Since 1973, the Columbia, SC, native and 1970 graduate of East Carolina University in Greenville, NC, has written theater, book, and music previews and reviews for the Raleigh News & Observer, The Raleigh Times, North Carolina Magazine of Raleigh, and Spectator Magazine of Raleigh. In April 2001, Robert McDowell established Robert's Reviews, an e-mail theatrical newsletter, to help fill a growing void in Triangle theater coverage. Triangle Theater Review is an expanded version of the original newsletter, circulated by e-mail. He also co-edited and supervised the production of Jim Valvano's Guide to Great Eating (JTV Enterprises, 1984), a 224-page celebrity cookbook; and he served as a fact checker for Valvano: They Gave Me a Lifetime Contract, and Then They Declared Me Dead (Pocket Books, 1991).