The Fantasticks Finally Comes to Broadway — With a New Couple at Its Center
The Fantasticks, the longest-running musical in American theater history, will make its Broadway premiere this fall — 66 years after it first opened Off Broadway.
Second Stage Theater announced a limited 15-week engagement at the Hayes Theater, with previews beginning October 22 and an official opening on Monday, November 16. The production is directed and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli and produced by Second Stage in association with Broadway & Beyond Theatricals, Daryl Roth, and True North Theatricals. (Deadline)
The original Fantasticks ran for 42 years Off Broadway before closing in 2002. It never played a Broadway house. This updated version features a revised book and lyrics by Tom Jones — the show's original co-creator — with music by Harvey Schmidt. Jones completed the new version before his death in 2023.
What makes this production different: the two central young lovers are both male. Maxim Chlumecky plays The Boy Matt, and Nathan Levy plays The Boy Lewis. Their mothers are played by Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer (Matt's Mother, Mildred Hucklebee) and Ruthie Ann Miles (Lewis' Mother, Bessie Mae Bellomy). The show's famous narrator-cum-villain El Gallo will be played by Zane Phillips, making his Broadway debut.
Rounding out the cast: David Patrick Kelly as The Old Actor (Henry), Kevin del Aguila as The Man Who Dies (Mortimer), and Ahmad Simmons as The Mute.
The creative team includes scenic design by Jason Sherwood, costume design by Linda Cho, lighting design by Jen Schriever, and sound design by Nevin Steinberg. Music supervision and orchestrations are by Sam Davis, with music direction by Rick Hip-Flores.
For context on the room: the Hayes Theater is one of Broadway's smallest houses, with roughly 597 seats. That intimate scale suits The Fantasticks, which was originally conceived for a tiny stage and a cast of eight. A limited engagement — as opposed to an open run — means the show has a set closing date built into the schedule, 15 weeks from the first preview.
Second Stage, a nonprofit theater company that also operates Broadway's Helen Hayes Theater, programs the venue as part of its season. The Fantasticks is part of the company's 2026-2027 Broadway season, listed as Season 48, alongside Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Gloria. (Second Stage Theater)
For a show that spent four decades on a single Off-Broadway block, the move uptown — even for a limited run — is a milestone in the production's long history. Jones's revised book gives the creative team new material to work with, and the recast central couple gives the familiar story a different shape. Whether audiences follow will show up the only way it can on Broadway: in the weekly grosses, starting late October.
