Talk:The Fantasticks

It Depends on What You Pay
"It Depends on What You Pay" was always part of the show at Sullivan Street. Also, I noted that the book was changed to tone down the use of the "R" word. I saw the show maybe a dozen times over maybe two decades, and I never found the audience having a serious problem once El Gallo quickly explained about "literary rape". I'll take your word for it that there was a more serious problem with high school productions, but I think probably that directors are being unnecessarily concerned. The movie is bad. El Gallo is miscast, and the movie is just badly directed.


 * In a local theater production here, El Gallo once forgot to state the explanation that "i mean the attempted rape" or something along those lines. The audience was stone silent after the rape song, since they now thought he really meant rape. That one line is very vital. --Golbez 22:02, 18 June 2006 (UTC)


 * "very vital" is so very redundant. GoddessAgwe 21:24, 5 October 2007 (UTC)


 * According to Tom Jones in "The Fantasticks: The Thirtieth Anniversary Edition", a new song was written for the tour that began in Spring 1990. Meant to replace "It Depends On What You Pay," "Abductions (And So Forth)" was made available through MTI "so that in the future anyone doing the show will have an alternate choice in case they are offended by the word rape." 69.3.234.194 02:46, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

In 2013, MTI is no longer offering a choice, but is offering a license only to the revised "It Depends on What you Pay." The original version is simply not available for legal performance. Not sure how to document this for the page. Desertpapa (talk) 13:37, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Is it titled "Abductions" or "It Depends on What you Pay"? -- Ssilvers (talk) 00:06, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Impact of 9/11 WTC attacks
I seem to recall hearing a story that the first time they tried to perform this show on Broadway after the 9/11 attacks, the performers couldn't get through the first song, due to the opening lyrics "Try to remember/the kind of September". Does anyone know more about this incident? Might be worthy of a brief mention on the page. --Lurlock 15:25, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Is my math right?
Longest running musical -- opened in 1960 + closed in 2002. Did The Fantasticks really run for forty-two years? That's what's implied, but if it's true can it be stated directly because it's so staggeringly amazing.--In Defense of the Artist 14:44, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Done. Softlavender (talk) 08:21, 26 July 2009 (UTC)

Reason for name?
Why is it called "The Fantasticks"? -- Entwhiz (talk) 05:34, 28 December 2011 (UTC)


 * Well, its a fantastical romantic allegory, where youthful idealism meets prosaic reality, ironically through fantastical sequences. The spelling is whimsical.  Plus, early in the script, the fathers say that their respective children are "fantastic".  See this for example.  -- Ssilvers (talk) 05:48, 28 December 2011 (UTC)


 * More significantly, I think it's a play on the word "sticks" and indicative of the rural setting. Robert K S (talk) 19:33, 25 April 2019 (UTC)

Musical Numbers
Another user (Ssilvers) and I are having a disagreement about the Musical Numbers section. We both have obtained the official "Fantasticks" Score, and while ai believe that we should note reprises of songs (including Much More, I Can See It, and Metaphor), but Ssilvers does not wish to note then. I was hoping to have a discussion with Ssilvers and then we can both come to a reasonable agreement. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gossipguy215 (talk • contribs) 15:35, 10 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Just a note to say that I still do not think that the little snips of music and brief reprises should be listed on the list of musical numbers. -- Ssilvers (talk) 00:53, 31 January 2014 (UTC)

Funniest review ever
The New Yorker got so tired of running a capsule review each week (as if anyone left on the planet didnt know what the play was), that it serialized "ulysses" and among other frivolities ran tax code instructions. prior to this, Robert Benchley wrote of "abies irish rose": "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten". . I wish we could run the cartoon from the new yorker with the caption: "we missed the fantasticks".Mercurywoodrose (talk) 04:45, 11 December 2013 (UTC)

Television
As I recall, the show was also televised by KQED, the San Francisco PBS affiliate, sometime in the Sixties. I'll try and track it down sometime. Lee-Anne (talk) 15:52, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

Fleming's Version
This article is awfully coy about the play the musical is based on, mentioning Rostand right up top but barely mentioning Fleming's adaptation, only as a source of the title. To anyone who has read all three texts it is obvious that Jones's script derives from Ms Fleming's adaptation and not from Rostand's original. Large chunks of poetry are lifted directly from Fleming, including most of the Rape song. Are we obliged to stand by the official "suggested by" subterfuge and not mention this? Iglew (talk) 04:36, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
 * That's why the "It Depends on What You Pay" lyrics are as they are. Even in 1959 no one would have used "rape" in the old-fashioned sense like that. That text was written in 1900 (and by a woman). Iglew (talk) 04:46, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
 * You need to cite a published source that discusses this. See WP:V. This is a key policy of Wikipedia -- that what we write is based on published sources, not our own analysis. -- Ssilvers (talk) 07:11, 14 January 2023 (UTC)