'The Fantasticks' Comes to Chatham Stage

For the end of their 91st season, the Chatham Players will perform the beloved musical "The Fantasticks," the world's longest-running off-Broadway production.

According to Chris Furlong, executive producer of the Chatham Players, "The Fantasticks" is "the story of forbidden love between the son and daughter of feuding neighbors," told in an enchanting "mix of William Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet,' Donizetti's 'L'Elisir d'Amore' and Rostand's 'Les Romanesques.'"

"The Fantasticks" has been performed more than any other off-Broadway musical. The original 1960 production ran for 42 years and 17,162 performances, and numerous other professional and amateur productions have been staged throughot the world ever since.

"The Fantasticks has endured because its observations about life, innocence and disillusionment are universal and timeless," Furlong said.

This production is directed by Patrick Horan of Bloomfield, who said he hopes the characters "will bring back fond memories of your own growing pains as a lover, parent and/or friend; and I hope our talented cast and crew take you back to a place that the narrator so eloquently describes as

‘That secret place where once, just once, in your crowded sunlit lifetime;
You hid away in shadows from the tyranny of time’.” 

The cast includes:

• Salvador Navarro of West New York as El Gallo
• Danielle Pennisi of Cedar Grove as Luisa
• Jason Pumarada of Jersey City as Matt
• Howard Fischer of Berkeley Heights as Bellomy,
• Glen D. Post of Boonton as Hucklebee
• David Cantor of Berkeley Heights as Henry
• Chip Prestera of Stirling as Mortimer
• Michael Healy of Boonton as The Mute.

"The Fantasticks" will be performed May 3, 4, 10, 11, 17 and 18 at 8 p.m. and on May 12 at 3 p.m. All performances will be at the Chatham Playhouse and tickets are $25 for adults and $23 for youths and seniors. Tickets can be purchased online or thorugh the Box Office at (973) 635-7363, and phone reservations will be accepted starting April 23.