Writer of Classic Musical The Fanasticks To Speak at ESU, February 25, During Week of Performances

Tom Jones, the author of The Fantasticks, will discuss his career in musical theatre on Friday, February 26 at 12 p.m. at the Cecilia S. Cohen Recital Hall of East Stroudsburg University’s Fine and Performing Arts Center, Normal and Marguerite streets, East Stroudsburg.

Jones’s talk is hosted by the university’s theatre department in conjunction with the  production of The Fantasticks, which will be held from February 24-28. The talk is open to the public at no cost.

Jones also will be attending the opening performance of the musical at ESU on Wednesday, February 24 at 7:30 p.m. in the Dale Snow Theatre of ESU’s Fine and Performing Arts Center.

With his composing partner Harvey Schmidt, Jones wrote The Fantasticks for a summer theatre at Barnard College. After its Off-Broadway opening in May 1960, the musical 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. The Fantasticks is currently running in a successful revival in New York.

The first Broadway show by Jones and Schmidt, 110 in the Shade, was successfully revived a few years ago by the New York City Opera and is scheduled for a new Broadway production this April, produced by the Roundabout Theatre, starring Audra MacDonald. I Do! I Do!, their two-character musical starring Mary Martin and Robert Preston, also was a success on Broadway and is frequently produced around the country and the world.

For several years, Jones and Schmidt worked privately at their theatre 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.

The duo contributed incidental music and lyrics to the Off-Broadway play Colette, starring Zoe Caldwell, then later did a full-scale musical version under the title Colette Collage. In 1998, The Show Goes On, a musical revue featuring their theatre songs and starring Jones and Schmidt, was presented at the York Theatre, 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 Special Tony Award for The Fantasticks, in 1999, their “stars” were added to the Off-Broadway Walk of Fame outside the Lucille Lortel Theatre.

Curtain times for the ESU Theatre Department’s production of The Fantasticks are 7:30 p.m. February 24-26; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on February 27; and 2 p.m. on February 28.

All performances are in the Dale Snow Theatre of the university’s Fine and Performing Arts Center. Advance ticket purchase is recommended because of the intimate size of the theatre.

General admission for the production is $12; $10 for senior citizens, faculty and staff with ID; $7 for students with ID; and $5 for youth. This play is recommended for ages 10 and above.

Tickets may be purchased in advance online with a credit card at esu.edu/theatretickets. Remaining seats will be available at the box office beginning one hour before the performance. Only cash and checks are accepted at the box office.

For box office reservations or more information about the talk or the production, please email esuarts@esu.edu or call 570-422-3483, x.4.

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