‘Fantasticks’ creator Jones dies at age 95 | CPT PPP Coverage

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NEW YORK (AP) — Tom Jones, the lyricist, director and writer of “The Fantasticks,” the longest-running musical in history, has died. He was 95.

Jones died Friday at his home in Sharon, Connecticut, according to Dan Shaheen, a co-producer of “The Fantasticks,” who worked with Jones since the 1980s. The cause was cancer.

Jones, who teamed up with composer Harvey Schmidt on “The Fantasticks” and the Broadway shows “110 in the Shade” and “I Do! I Do!,” was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1998.

“The Fantasticks,” based on an obscure play by Edmond Rostand, doesn’t necessarily have the makings of a hit. The set is just a platform with poles, a curtain and a wooden box.

The tale, a mock version of “Romeo and Juliet,” concerns a young girl and boy, secretly brought together by their fathers, and an assortment of odd characters.

Scores of actors have appeared in the show, from the opening cast in 1960 that included Jerry Orbach and Rita Gardner, to stars such as Ricardo Montalban and Kristin Chenoweth, to “Frozen” star Santino Fontana. The show was awarded Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre in 1991.

For nearly 42 years the show chugged along at the 153-seat Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village, finally closing in 2002 after 17,162 performances — a victim both of a destroyed downtown after 9/11 and a new post-terrorism, edgy mood.

In 2006, “The Fantasticks” found a new home in The Snapple Theater Center — later The Theater Center — an off-Broadway complex in the heart of Times Square. In 2013, the show celebrated reaching 20,000 performances. It closed in 2017.