'Fantasticks' Team Back at Work | Playbill

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News 'Fantasticks' Team Back at Work Fantasticks" Team Is Back in the Saddle

Fantasticks" Team Is Back in the Saddle

Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, the team responsible for Off-Broadway''s durable "The Fantasticks," have written a new musical, "Mirette," which is looking likely for summer 1996 at Goodspeed Opera House''s Norma Terris Theatre in Connecticut.

Jones also is preparing to direct a revival of the team''s 1966 musical "I Do! I Do!" off-Broadway.

"MIRETTE" Based on Emily Arnold McCully''s Caldecott Award-winning 1992 children''s story "Mirette on the High Wire," the new musical tells the story of a young girl living in her mother''s boarding house for actors, who becomes obsessed with one tenant, a former high-wire acrobat who has lost his nerve.

Elizabeth Diggs has written the libretto -- the first time Jones and Schmidt have worked with another librettist. The show was workshopped in 1994 and '95 at the Sundance Festival in Utah. No director has been set. If the Norma Terris production goes ahead as scheduled, it will be performed Aug. 1-22 at the theatre in Chester, CT.

"I DO! I DO!"

Schmidt and Jones''s two-character 1966 musical "I Do! I Do!" is headed for an Off-Broadway revival March 26 at the Lambs'' Theatre off-Broadway. Karen Ziemba and David Garrison will recreate the roles originated by Mary Martin and Robert Preston.

The production also will reunite Jones and Schmidt with set designer Ed Wittstein, who did sets and costumes for the original "Fantasticks."

Producer Arthur Cantor said "it''s being done in a 350-seat theatre -- where it should have been done to begin with."

Previews begin March 15. Stella will be the musical director.

"FANTASTICKS" FILM

The year 1996 could also see release of the film version of "The Fantasticks," directed by Michael Ritchie. It was to have been released this fall, but was delayed while the studio figures out how to market it.

"COLETTE COLLAGE"

Their "Colette," the team's musical based on the life of the French writer ("Gigi," many others), has been produced around the country and even recorded, but has yet to get a full production in New York. The next scheduled professional production will be at Metro Stage in Alexandria, VA, starting Feb. 1.

"GROVERS CORNERS" "Grovers Corners," their adaptation of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town," has been in limbo since a ballyhooed production starring Mary Martin fell through and their option expired, but the team hopes to renew the rights and continue developing the project. Jones and Schmidt also wrote "110 in the Shade" and "Celebration" for Broadway, and "Philemon" off-Broadway.

 
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