Rita Gardner

From 1960 to 2002, eight times a week, the Sullivan Street Playhouse in New York City’s Greenwich Village played midwife to a musical theater ritual that attracted theatergoers from across the globe. That show was the legendary and beloved Fantasticks, and for 42 years and 17,162 performances, a legion of casts—including such esteemed actors as F. Murray Abraham, Ricardo Montalban, Elliott Gould, Liza Minnelli, Glenn Close, Richard Chamberlain and John Carradine—played out its sweetly timeless boy-meets-girl tale. On the eve of The Fantasticks’ final Off-Broadway performance, documentary filmmaker Eli Kabillio takes a wistful look back at the show’s genesis, its creators and its continued worldwide popularity through regional and school theater. Features interviews with composer Harvey Schmidt, author Tom Jones, original cast member Jerry Orbach, columnist Liz Smith, talk show host Joe Franklin, and many others.