The Fantasticks is the longest-running musical in the world.  It is, in fact, the longest-running show in the history of American Theatre.  It opened on May 3, 1960.  This musical with a seemingly simple theme has managed to survive year after year in New York City and plays continually in citi8es throughout the United States.

The Fantasktics is a show build on many levels.  The story is very simple, but a playful variation of the Romeo and Juliet theme, but the style is complicated.  There is the conscious use of a variety of ancient theatrical techniques, the Narrator "Chorus" from early Greek drams, the platform state and stock types from "Commedia de Arte, and the Elizabethan-inspired use of poetry and "linguistic magic" to set the scenes beneath the comic surface, having to do with the seasonal changes and the continual passing of time.  

Of all the Shakespearian quotes found within the play, there was one quite noticeable absent to me.  And, as I grow closer to the show and what I think it means, I decided the quote was missing for a reason.  It is the underlying and thus unspoken theme of the show:  "All the world's a state and we are but players upon it."

~Peg Sullivan
CPA Production Program 

Paul Breitsprecher, Henry
From Original Production Program

Paul, originally from Chicago, is a reference librarian at UW-Whitewater.  He has been very active in the university's productions including MAJOR BARBARA, DIAL "M" FOR MURDER and OF MICE AND MEN.  His musical background includes the delightful Sancho Panza in the Fort Theatre production of MAN OF LaMANCHA and as the ever lovable King Pellinmore in CAMELOT, a Cambridge Community Theatre show.  

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