The Fantasticks is the beloved, spare little musical fable that became the longest-running show in American theater history. A narrator-figure named El Gallo guides the audience through the story of Matt and Luisa, two young neighbors who fall in love, egged on by their fathers, who have secretly built a wall between their properties and staged a fake feud, correctly guessing that forbidden romance would only draw their children closer together. When the fathers stage a mock abduction to let Matt play the hero and win Luisa's hand, the scheme succeeds all too well, and the two are married, only for the story to grow darker as the couple discovers real hardship and disillusionment beyond their sheltered garden. With its simple staging, a bare platform and a paper moon, and Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones's tender score including the standard "Try to Remember," the show has enchanted generations with its meditation on innocence, love, and the pain that comes with growing up. Its allegorical simplicity has made it an enduring favorite for small and community theaters.

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