The Cast of The Fantasticks on Bringing a New Kind of 'Happy Ending' to Broadway

The Fantasticks, currently in previews at the Hayes Theater, brings the beloved romantic comedy to Broadway for the first time. In the reimagining, matriarchs Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer and Tony winner Ruthie Ann Miles scheme on behalf of their respective sons, Maxim Chlumecky and Nathan Levy. "It's a perfect musical," director-choreographer Christopher Gattelli says of the original. "The book is perfect. The score is perfect. There is a new coat of paint on the production that I'm hoping lifts it and elevates it, but for the people who know and love it, it's all still there."

For Zane Phillips, who plays the narrator El Gallo, performing in The Fantasticks is a happy homecoming. “It's the show that got me my equity card out in Kansas City Rep exactly 10 years ago. I'm sorry to everyone who is not controlled by destiny, but they have me in a headlock,” he jokes. “When I sing ‘Try to Remember,’ I'm singing that to myself as an actor as well and trying to reach back to that time where you were a little more innocent and you knew a little less and you didn't have some of the pain that you carry with you now. And that’s the thing with these two boys, they get to represent this foolishness that you can't help but smile at and say, 'Yeah, I used to be like that.'"

“I lived right near the original theater. I walked by it all the time [when I was] playing rock and roll on Bleecker Street,” says veteran performer David Patrick Kelly, who plays the kooky Shakespearean actor Henry. “I think hearing the songs on The Ed Sullivan Show interpreted by other people back in the '60s was my first time. So it's really fun to hear them now. It's like a crazy Proustian memory of stuff coming back.” Kelly praises his costars, particularly Miles and Kritzer. “I love listening to Ruthie and Leslie. It’s like they've been singing [together] forever. The story of the mothers is something that is really fresh and deep for me. For some reason, it seems like a Tennessee Williams play.”

Ahmad Simmons plays The Mute, who physically represents the wall between the two central families. “I'm so excited about this character because it is unlike anything I've done. Yes, I've done shows where I'm not speaking, things like Illinoise, but there's such an importance on the delicacy of gesture,” says Simmons, who also serves as the production’s associate choreographer. “You have to communicate the emotional depth of each moment in the show with just a shift of the body. I will say, there are going to be some great surprises that The Mute hasn't been able to do before. With this reinvention of the character, we have the opportunity to expand.”

Reflecting on playing the parent to a gay child, Miles says, “It's just a different kind of care that you have to put out for them because the world will hurt you in a different way than they will hurt other people. So I'm going to love you and protect you and I'm going to hold you this close and I'm going to overwater you to show you how much I love you. It's been interesting to explore how that manifests.”

Adds Kritzer, “We know as moms, as humans, we can't control if people get hurt. Our sons, our daughters, our loved ones, everyone has to have the dignity of choice to make mistakes, to laugh, to love, to get hurt. All of these themes in The Fantasticks are universal. It's a queer love story and we're so excited to be a part of it and we hope that people love it as much as we do.”

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