TOM JONES (Book, Lyrics) and HARVEY SCHMIDT (Music) wrote The Fantasticks for a summer theatre at Barnard College. After its Off-Broadway opening in May 1960, it went on to become the longest-running production in the history of the American stage and one of the most frequently produced musicals in the world. Their first Broadway show, 110 in the Shade, was successfully revived a few years ago by the New York City Opera and is scheduled for a new Broadway production next year, produced by the Roundabout Theatre and starring Audra MacDonald. I Do! I Do!, their two-character musical starring Mary Martin and Robert Preston, was a success on Broadway and is frequently done around the country and the world. (One production, in Minneapolis, played for 22 continuous years with the same two actors in the leading roles.) For several years Jones and Schmidt worked privately at their theatre workshop, concentrating on small-scale musicals in new and often untried forms. The most notable of these efforts were Celebration, which moved to Broadway, and Philemon, which won an Outer Critics Circle Award. They contributed incidental music and lyrics to the Off-Broadway play Colette starring Zoe Caldwell, then later did a full-scale musical version under the title Colette Collage. The Show Goes On, a musical revue featuring their theatre songs and starring Jones and Schmidt, was presented at the York Theatre to great acclaim, and Mirette, their musical based on the award-winning children’s book, was premiered at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut. In addition to receiving an Obie Award and a Special Tony Award for The Fantasticks, Jones and Schmidt were inducted into the Broadway Hall of Fame at the Gershwin Theatre, and their “stars” were added to the Off-Broadway Walk of Fame outside the Lucille Lortel Theatre.

Previously seen in Show Theatre Role 110 in the Shade Studio 54 Lyrics and Music

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